September 3, 2019
We have fallen down a rabbit hole of such epic stupidity, violence and greed that it is tough to see how we find our way out. While we all paused to mark the end of summer with last minute beach getaways and barbecues, the world around us was literally either drowning or burning. Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas, packing 185 mile per hour winds and decimating everything in its path. The storm features a lethal combination of extremely high winds and extremely slow movement, such that it is poised to wreak maximum damage wherever it lands. Dorian’s unpredictability and continued force has four U.S. states (Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina) on edge, preparing for the worst.
In response, Trump continues to raid FEMA’s budget to fund his racist border wall. Late last week, we learned that he had instructed aides to break the law, if necessary, in order to expedite construction, promising to pardon them if they are prosecuted for being heedless of environmental impact or private property rights, (Source: “Trump’s pardon offer may have violated federal bribery laws,” by Randall Eliason, The Washington Post, 8/30/19). Trump’s action is both a violation of federal law (18 U.S.C. 201) and an explicitly impeachable offense (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 4), yet the Congressional response has been …crickets.
At the same time that much of the country was bracing for a catastrophic storm and wondering whether our federal government would be able to meet the emergency, in Texas, another white male shooter went on a homicidal rampage in Midland and Odessa, killing seven people and wounding 21. Although unlike other recent mass shooters, this murderer left no alt-right manifesto, further investigation revealed that he had an extensive collection of “disturbing” pornographic material and had a “long history of trouble with the law [and] racist comments,” (Source: “From Small-Time Troublemaker to a Mass Killer,” by Sarah Mervosh, Lucinda Holt and Manny Fernandez, The New York Times, 9/3/19).
We should take zero comfort in the possibility that the murders are the fruit of indiscriminate rage that was not targeting a particular racial, religious or ethnic group. We know that the United States does not have a monopoly on disgruntled men filled with inchoate rage. We are simply the only nation stupid enough to arm them with weapons of war. In fact, Texas, where the mass shooting era was inaugurated in 1966, just passed a package of laws loosening restrictions on guns. The new laws prohibit landlords from banning guns on their property, permit guns to be brought into places of worship and allow people to keep guns and ammunition in their cars, as long as they are locked up, (Source: “Deadly Texas Shootings Happen on the Eve of New Relaxed Texas Gun Laws,” by Scott McDonald, Newsweek, 8/31/19).
While we are long past the point of expecting Republicans in Congress to take any action to might mitigate the grave threats that gun violence and climate change pose to us all, or to take any steps to check the lawless imbecile in the Oval Office, it is the “learned helplessness” of the Congressional Democrats that is most confounding (h/t Jon Lovett, “Pod Save America”). They seem incapable of issuing the full throated condemnation that Trump’s corruption in the service of cruelty demands. They have yet to frame his actions as new impeachable offenses that warrant his removal from office. Instead they timorously promise only to investigate each new outrage.
As they dither, Trump’s outrageousness escalates. He tweeted out sensitive surveillance photos of Iran. Trump canceled his trip to Poland on the pretext of monitoring Hurricane Dorian and golfed instead. He picked Twitter fights with “Will and Grace” stars, Debra Messing and Eric McCormack. As we watch these patterns repeat themselves with alarming frequency, it is tempting to believe that there is nothing that we can do; that we are doomed to be ruled by a confederacy of dunces, intemperate and incurious men incapable of empathy, untroubled by conscience. We must resist succumbing to cynicism and despair, thinking that our only option is to distract ourselves from the awfulness of our “new normal.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. Playtime is over. Time to get to work.
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