Journal of the Plague Years

March 12, 2021

     Yesterday we marked the grim milestone of one year since the start of the global pandemic.  One year since we were brought low by a virus that was both extremely contagious and frequently lethal.  Those of us fortunate enough to work remotely, retreated to our homes, which became our offices, our gyms, our bars and restaurants.  We struggled to impose boundaries and relieve tedium.  We had friends and family members die without being able to comfort them or properly mourn their deaths.  Our children were robbed of rituals and rites of passage.  It was a year with no proms, no homecomings, no junior year abroad, no graduations.

      Yet when we saw George Floyd murdered on camera for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, something snapped.  Around the country, and around the world, heedless of the risk of contagion, we streamed into the streets together to say that we would not tolerate a society that would tolerate such depravity.  A critical mass of us finally decided that, although this is the country we have always been, this is not the country we want to be.

      In response, the forces of the revanchist right wing in this country, from violent police officers to a white supremacist President, reacted to peaceful protests with violence.  As the election loomed, a corrupt Postmaster General sabotaged the system in an effort to undermine vote by mail.  The “former guy” demagogued the election, whipping his deranged supporters into a frenzy that culminated in a bloody insurrection on January 6th.  Despite all of the obstacles thrown in our way, we came out, not once, but twice — first in November to defeat Trump and elect Joe Biden by a margin of 7 million votes; and then in January in Georgia to elect Jon Ossoff and  Raphael Warnock to deliver a Democratic Senate majority.

     Yesterday, we saw the first fruit of our labor.  President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Act which will deliver $1.9 trillion dollars in relief to our battered country.  In addition to $1400 checks for every person making up to $75,000 (or couple making up to $150,000), the law will provide an additional $1400 for each dependent child and an increase in the child tax credit (Source:  “Here’s What’s In The American Rescue Plan,” by Barbara Sprunt, npr.org, 3/11/21).  The extension of federal unemployment assistance and the billions in assistance to low income Americans is projected to cut child poverty in half and overall poverty by one third (Source:  “Joe Biden just launched the second war on poverty,” by Dylan Matthews, Vox.com, 3/10/21).

    Then last night, President Biden marked our solemn anniversary with an address to the nation.  The first few minutes were a catalogue of loss.  The President detailed the lives and livelihoods lost, the missed milestones, and reassured us that he understood and shared our sorrow. He went on to detail what his administration had done and would do, to get the pandemic under control, so that we could get back to living, instead of just existing. As we listened to a President who exuded competence and compassion, our relief was palpable.  As President Biden tours the country to promote the benefits of the American Rescue Plan, just remember, we put him there.  At the end of the day, we rescued ourselves.

#Electionshaveconsequences

March 3, 2021

      Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, and Arizona Republican Party v. Democratic National Committee, consolidated cases seeking to uphold two controversial Arizona laws designed to suppress the vote.  The measures require that any vote cast in the wrong precinct be discarded and prohibit the collection of absentee ballots by any third party, (Source:  “Majority appears poised to uphold Arizona voting rules,” by Amy Howe, scotusblog.com, 3/2/21). 

     These laws are not designed to address an actual problem, but to throw as many obstacles as possible in the path of Black, Brown, AAPI and Indigenous voters.  In oral arguments before the Court yesterday, Michael Carvin, the lawyer for the Arizona Republican Party admitted that striking down these two laws would “put Republicans at a ‘disadvantage’ because it would help more people to vote and ‘those people would lean Democratic,’” (Source:  “Hardcore GOP Position For Defanging VRA Falls Apart Under SCOTUS Questioning,” by Tierney Sneed, talkingpointsmemo.com, 3/2/21). Continue reading “Save democracy—abolish the filibuster”

February 23, 2021

    The truism that “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people,” never rang more true than in the past week.  In the last week, a brutal storm crippled Texas’ “ruggedly independent”energy grid, exposing the folly of their go-it-alone, unregulated and fitfully maintained infrastructure and leaving millions of Texans to freeze to death in the dark.  In response, Republican elected officials performed for the right wing echo chamber, rather than working for their actual constituents.  By turns they:  1) blamed wind turbines (which only provide 10% of the state’s power and could have functioned had they been winterized); and 2) excoriated Texans for expecting the government to build and maintain a functioning energy and water supply.  The most egregious response was from “Flyin’ Ted Cruz” whose reaction to seeing millions of his constituents in distress was to say, “let me get the hell out of here,” and fly to Cancun, only to blame his 10 and 12 year old daughters when he got busted.

      It didn’t occur to any of these Republican elected officials to take responsibility for the catastrophic failure of the state’s energy grid.  None of them orchestrated wellness checks on nearly one million residents, or raised $2 million dollars for relief efforts like Democrats Beto O’Rourke and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, (Source:  “While Cruz was traveling from Cancun O’Rourke and AOC helped Texans in crisis,” by Daniella Diaz and Annie Grayer, CNN.com, 2/19/21). 

       That’s because none of these people are in power to do the hard, unglamorous work of governing.  Their job is to jockey for appearances on the right wing propaganda outlets in order to deploy sound bites that demonize the “other.”  Their job is to whip up hatred and contempt whether that “other” is a Latino person in El Paso, a Black person in Dallas or a Democrat in Austin.  Republicans believe that politics is performance.  Their only goal is to win the news cycle and anger Democrats, no matter how many of their own constituents get hurt in the process.  Trump is the obvious avatar of the callous, media hungry Republican politician, but he has scores of would-be successors, from Cruz and the truly odious Josh Hawley, to dim bulbs Lauren Boebert and Madison Cawthorn.

      These people are all the spawn of Rush Limbaugh, the toxic radio host who died last week at the age of 70.  Limbaugh spent decades spewing his poisonous mix of racism, misogyny and manufactured white grievance.  He convinced millions of Americans that people of color and feminists were the source of their problems and fomented their misdirected rage.  Limbaugh was the first to equate progressive criticism of America with hatred of the country, so that his followers could cloak their venom in a mantle of righteousness, (Source:  “Rush Limbaugh’s toxic patriotism will be his worst legacy,” by Sophia A. McClennen, Salon.com, 2/20/21).

      We look at Texas and ask ourselves why white Americans vote against their own self interests, but that is the wrong question.  The question is, what have white Americans been taught is in their self interest?  As Heather McGhee details in her new book,The Sum of Us, the evaporation of widespread support for government policies benefiting the general public coincided with the redefinition of “the public” to include Black people after the success of the Civil Rights movement.  States closed public schools and paved over public pools, rather than share those resources with Black people, (Source:  “‘Sum of Us’ Examines the Hidden Cost of Racism—For Everyone,”  Transcript of Fresh Air, NPR.org, 2/17/21).

The withdrawal of government resources was justified by politicians who appealed to naked racism, arguing that Black, Brown and Indigenous Americans were “undeserving.” The end result of decades of demonization, deregulation and disinvestment is a cruel and callous country in which millions of white people suffer alongside those they revile. Maybe Texas will be a turning point. Our only hope is to show white people how much their racism is costing them.

February 15, 2021

     Saturday, in a result that surprised no one, the Senate failed to muster the 67 votes necessary to convict Donald Trump of the high crime of inciting an insurrection against a co-equal branch of government.  Despite having been directly attacked by a marauding mob of racist anti-Semites who defiled the Capitol and endangered their lives, only 7 Republican Senators voted to convict Trump.  Despite spending four days hearing the House Managers’ searing prosecution, which detailed the grievous injuries suffered by the police officers Republicans profess to love, 43 Republicans voted that Trump was not guilty.  Despite watching newly revealed footage showing how close they all came to danger, along with a timeline of Trump tweets showing that he directly endangered the life of his loyal Vice President, dead-eyed Puritan, Mike Pence, and that Trump delayed calling off the mob for hours, only 7 Republican Senators with nothing to lose voted to convict him, (Source:  “Quick end to Trump trial leaves unanswered questions,” by Rosalind S. Helderman, The Washington Post, 2/13/21).

       Republicans refused to convict Trump because they are his unimpeached co-conspirators.  After all, the day of the attack, six Senators and 121 House members  voted against certifying the Electoral College results.  They gladly perpetuated the Big Lie that the election was stolen and that the votes of the Black, Brown and Indigenous people who powered Biden’s victory were illegitimate per se.  The acquittal is a signal from those at the highest echelons of the Republican Party that they don’t believe in democracy. Continue reading “Our only hope”

February 8, 2021

       While we should all feel comforted by the boring competence and steadfast progressive policies on display from the nascent Biden administration, on the eve of Trump’s second impeachment trial, we all have the jitters.  We are wary because it is evident that the Republican Party, with the literal exception of Adam Kinzinger and Mitt Romney, seems as committed to violent fascism as we are committed to democracy. Continue reading “Let’s get to work”

January 30, 2021

    Each of the first ten days of the Biden presidency has brought good news from the capable, competent women and men of the administration.  The President has signed a flurry of executive orders designed to reverse the worst excesses of the Trump administration, including an order to “strengthen anti-discrimination policies in housing,” closing private prisons and “increasing the sovereignty of Native American tribes,” (Source:  “Biden signs actions aimed at dismantling systemic racism,” by Cleve R. Wootson and Tracy Jan, The Washington Post, 1/26/21).

     Chastened by criticism that his plan for 100 million vaccinations in 100 days was not aggressive enough, on Tuesday, Biden announced that his administration was planning to purchase 200 million more doses , (Source:  “Biden Administration Aims To Buy 200 Million More COVID-19 Vaccine Doses,” by Scott Detrow, NPR.org, 1/27/21).

    Armed with a Democratic majority, the Senate confirmed Anthony Blinken, the stepson of a Holocaust survivor as Secretary of State, Lloyd Austin as the first Black Secretary of Defense and Janet Yellen, the former Fed Chair, as the first woman to serve as Secretary of the Treasury.

    In the Senate, the standoff between Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell over the filibuster ended without the Democrats signing an agreement to keep the filibuster, although Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema once again went on the record stating their opposition to eliminating it, (Source:  McConnell and Schumer ended their standoff over the new Senate.  Who won and what happened?” by Sarah Binder, The Washington Post, 1/26/21).  Still, the newly empowered Democratic majority refused to be stymied by their intransigence, putting the  $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package into their  budget reconciliation bill.

      After four years of being conditioned to reflexively recoil at the sound of a Washington Post news alert, we are unaccustomed to alerts announcing executive orders focused on racial equity or climate change.  It will take us some time to adjust to an administration focused on ameliorating, instead of causing, harm.

     Yet our palpable sense of relief is laced with dread, thanks to the continuing fallout from the January 6th insurrection. With each passing day, the murderous intent of the insurrectionists and the level of planning that went into their attack becomes clearer.  The January 6th insurrection was no mere spasm of violence by people whipped into a frenzy by the incitement from Donald Trump and other zealots at his “Stop the Steal” rally, but a meticulously planned military operation.

      Wednesday’s indictment of three members of the Oathkeepers involved in the attack contains allegations that they began planning in November, (Source:  “Three Individuals Affiliated With the Oathkeepers Indicted in Federal Court for Conspiracy to Obstruct Congress,” Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs Release, justice.gov, 1/27/21).  Worse still, there is evidence that several sitting members of Congress have ties to these far right militia groups.  In addition to bottle blond bigot, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and barely literate gun moll, Lauren Boebert, Arizona representatives, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs are alleged to have connections to these domestic terrorists, (Source:  “Republican Ties to Extremist Groups Are Under Scrutiny,” by Luke Broadwater and Matthew Rosenberg, The New York Times,  1/29/21).

     Even those Republicans without direct ties seem broadly hostile to democracy.  After all, nearly 70% of House Republicans endorsed Trump’s big lie and voted against the certification of Biden’s unequivocal victory, (ibid).  All but five Republican Senators voted in favor of Rand Paul’s resolution to declare Trump’s impeachment unconstitutional .  Taken together, that means that an overwhelming majority of Congressional Republicans either actively support or have no issue with violence in the service of authoritarian white supremacy.

     At the state level, Republicans in 28 states have introduced 106 new bills to restrict and limit voting, (Source:  “Republicans are going all-out to limit voting rights.  We know why,” by Jill Filipovic, Theguardian.com, 1/30/21).  In Arizona, the GOP has gone even further.  In addition to censuring Cindy McCain and the sitting governor from their own party, one Republican state legislator has introduced a bill that would permit the legislature to throw out the Secretary of State’s certification of the state’s electoral votes.

Ten days into Biden’s presidency, we must face the fact that one of our two major political parties is in thrall to violent terrorists. Biden should hardly be exempt from critiques of his policy or personnel choices, but stories that criticize him for owning a Peloton or wearing a Rolex make a mockery of the grave challenge we face. Clearly, those who publish them think that they have nothing to lose. As one murdered and 140 seriously injured officers could tell them, they’re tragically, horribly, wrong.

January 21, 2021

      Yesterday, we all felt the way you do when you emerge from a horror movie matinee in the middle of an afternoon.  We found ourselves blinking at the bright sunlight, disoriented by the contrast between where we were and where we are.  The Presidential Inauguration Committee confronted a daunting set of challenges — the threat of white supremacist terrorism and a deadly pandemic — and produced an Inauguration that was, at  appropriate turns somber and joyful.  Yet, from regal young poet Amanda Gorman to a shivering Tom Hanks on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the Inaugural festivities radiated hope. The entire day was a testament to the brilliance that Americans have to offer when our brilliance isn’t blocked based on color or gender.

     Our hearts exploded with joy as we watched the first Black and South Asian woman take the oath of office as Vice President from the first Latina Supreme Court Justice.  We grinned with pride at the fist bump between President Obama and Vice President Harris and gasped with admiration at the forever flawless Michelle Obama, hair laid, stunning in head to toe cranberry. Continue reading “Exhale”

January 16, 2021

    With only 4 days remaining in Trump’s horrific reign, we are all holding our breath, hoping to run out the clock before he precipitates another assault on our democracy that gets people killed.  It has been truly chilling to see the mounting evidence that 30% of our fellow citizens fully support white supremacy and increasingly believe that violence is an acceptable way to achieve their desired political goals,

     The Capitol Hill insurrection that drew a toxic mix of violent white supremacists, Nazis and Trump cultists attracted a cross section of white Americans from an array of professions.  There were lawyers, realtors and CEOs ; and a disturbingly high number of police officers from cities ranging from Houston to Philadelphia.  There was a firefighter and an Olympic medalist.  These were not mythical poor white people reacting out of “economic anxiety,” but rather solidly middle and upper middle class white people who were eager to use violence to maintain their unearned positions at the top of the social hierarchy.  Their demographics, desires and even their costumes harken back to the earliest days of the KKK, (Source:  “What the history of the Ku Klux Klan can teach us about the Capitol riot,” by Anna North, Vox.com, 1/14/21, h/t Patrick Wilcox). Continue reading “Four More Days”

January 8, 2021

       On Wednesday, January 6th, our country arguably reached its nadir.  For the first time since 1814, the U.S. Capitol was attacked.  Unlike the first attack, waged by foreign combatants in a declared war, this assault was led by a mob of white supremacist terrorists incited by a sitting President.  They came with the express purpose of preventing Congress from its Constitutionally mandated certification of the Electoral College vote, paving the way for the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden as President in less than two weeks.  This was no “protest” and it was more than a “riot.”  It was a violent insurrection by a mob of known white supremacists, including members of The Proud Boys, the National Socialist Club, and the Three Percenters, (Source:  “These Are The Rioters Who Stormed The Nation’s Capitol,” by Sabrina Tavernise and Matthew Rosenberg, The New York Times, 1/7/21).  They brandished Confederate flags, ripped art from the walls and vandalized Congressional offices.  Several of those arrested had Molotov cocktails and zip tie handcuffs.  Active pipe bombs were found near the headquarters of the DNC and the RNC. Continue reading “Canaries in the coal mine”

January 1, 2021

     Now that the Biblically disastrous year 2020 is in the rear view mirror, and with it, less than three weeks remaining in the disastrous Trump administration, the temptation for all of us will be to return to “normal” as quickly as possible.  After a year of death, isolation and massive economic disruption, we crave the ability to return to the rituals and pastimes of our recent past, to bury any recollection of this traumatic year.

     As understandable as that urge is, we must resist it.  If we fail to examine the underlying reasons that our country was brought low by a racist, amoral sociopath and the out of control spread of a pathogen, we risk prolonging our current crisis or precipitating another one.  We may want to believe that once Joe Biden is sworn in as President in less than three weeks that we can go back to paying cursory attention to politics, confident in the knowledge that our federal government is once again helmed by competent people who believe in the Rule of Law and who don’t wake up every day looking for ways to use their power to persecute the marginalized.

     Yet, as exhausting as this last year (and the last four years) has been, we cannot succumb to that temptation.  We ignore the 74 million people who voted for a continuation of the chaos and cruelty at our peril.  Not only is Trump fanning the flames of division in defeat, but several sitting Senators are eagerly auditioning for the role of the next Trump. 

      Kelly Loeffler, the appointed Georgia senator locked in a tight election battle with Reverend Raphael Warnock, attracts former Klansmen to her rallies and co-hosted a New Year’s Eve concert featuring country singer, Riley Green whose song “Bury Me in Dixie” features the lyric, “I wish Robert E. Lee could come and take a bow.”  Texas Senator Ted Cruz offered to litigate the baseless Texas challenge to the election results and has been raising money for his own campaign committee off of the Georgia runoffs, (Source:  “Ted Cruz’s Runoff Fundraising Is Actually Going to His Campaign. He’s Not Alone,” by Lachlan Markay, The Daily Beast, 12/30/20).  

     The most dangerous aspirant is Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who began last week by echoing Trump’s populist call for $2000 stimulus checks and ended this one by announcing that he would object to certification of the Electoral College vote.  Unlike Trump, a short-fingered vulgarian who has never read The Constitution, Cruz and Hawley are products of Harvard and Yale Law schools, respectively, who understand precisely what they are doing— making a naked bid to be the leader of an authoritarian, white supremacist movement.

     Around the country, the horrifying persistence of police brutality shows that there are plenty of adherents for such a movement.  On December 22nd, a Columbus, Ohio police officer responding to a call about an idling car (!), shot and killed Andre Hill in cold blood.  Hill was in the midst of delivering Christmas money when he was gunned down in a neighbor’s garage.  Two Columbus police officers watched Hill “struggling for his life for 5 minutes and 11 seconds” without rendering aid, (Source:  “Andre Hill’s friend told police he was just dropping off ‘Christmas money’ when he was shot, new body camera footage shows,” by Kristina Sgueglia, Taylor Romaine, Sonia Moghe, and Amir Vera, CNN.com, 12/31/20).

      In Minneapolis, residents are protesting another police killing of a Black man, Dolal Idd, on December 30th.  Police have deemed it a “probable cause weapons investigation,” and have reacted to peaceful, if hostile, protests by repeatedly asking for authorization to use 40mm launchers and pepper spray against nonviolent protestors,  (Source:  “Fatal shooting by police sets off protest in Minneapolis, the city’s first police-involved death since George Floyd,” by Holly Bailey, The Washington Post, 12/31/20).

Contrast these police responses to the treatment that the Nashville suicide bomber received when his girlfriend reported that he was making bombs in his RV, (Source: “Nashville Police Were Warned Last Year That Suicide Bomber Was Building Explosives in His R.V., But Didn’t Search It,” by Ishena Robinson, TheRoot.com, 12/31/20). By now it should be clear that undue deference to those who consider Black votes fraudulent per se is killing democracy and undue deference to white lives at the expense of Black lives will kill us all. So don’t sleep, because it may be a New Year, but it’s the same country.