As the Biden administration sets out to restore a government that can regulate business to level the playing field in the United States between workers and employers, address inequality, and combat climate change, Republicans are turning to the courts to stop him.
Anyone who doesn't see the Republicans as the new Confederate Enemy in what they have declared as a civil war probably still believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and that the sun will rise in the west tomorrow morning. Like it or not, they have declared themselves the insurgents and declared war on the country. If they think they can nullify federal rules and laws, this is actionable treason. The party is now irredeemably treasonous.
The GOP is a party for the rich, by the rich, and of the rich. It has absolutely no inclination whatsoever to work for the ordinary American citizen. The citizens who vote them in haven't a clue regarding the rights they have seized in order to become and to produce fascist leadership. President Biden must do unto the GOP what they have done unto us and our democratic procedures during the past four years: e g. increase the number of sitting judges on the Supreme Court and appoint as many federal judges to benches around the country to balance the ratio. Most federal judges will follow the law, as we saw with 45's illegal lawsuits following the 2020 election. This party of mostly rogue seditionists, no longer deserves the respect nor the bipartisan overtures that President Biden is used to applying. This GOP comprises less-than-human ideologies that should play no part in the future of this country if we want to bequeath it as a safe haven for our children and our grandchildren.
Philosopher James P. Carse distinguishes between "finite and infinite games," a dichotomy popularized by Simon Sinek as "finite and infinite mindsets." Carse defines it this way: "A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play."
For Republicans, politics is a finite game with defined winners and losers. In my lifetime, I associate this most strongly with Gingrich's Contract With America. More recently, McConnell used the term "scorched earth." Compromise is unacceptable.
Governing is the quintessential infinite game; but we're living through a painful and discouraging time when one party is playing a finite game.
On a different note: how is everyone doing with our mental health?
Anyone who has experienced early life traumas or abuse is likely experiencing the resurfacing of intense and uncontrollable stressors that had previously been considered healed and done. Both of us are.
How are you staying informed, engaged AND achieving an adequate level of self care of any PTSDs? Me, I am returning to therapy/counseling this week after being able to manage solely with mindfulness meditation, diet and exercise for the last 8 years. It is not longer enough for the old issues that arise every day from the lying, gaslighting and overt manipulations. We greatly admire HCR's apparent ability to stand back and take the objective "witness view" of all of this. Great appreciation to her for this. :-)
As a Baby Boomer I know my life has been privileged. My grandparents struggled through the depression. My parents were good providers — I didn’t realize we were the working poor until I got to high school and encountered kids from outside my neighborhood. We lived on a single income in a row house. My parents were able to provide me and my sister with a comfortable but not extravagant upbringing. They sent both of us to college. The unspoken understanding was that my generation would have a better life than my parents had. Part and parcel with that was that my son would have a better life than I did — you know, the American Dream.
The lawsuits you describe in today’s letter are truly frightening. Not necessarily for myself — I’m pushing 70, retired, and have planned and saved for retirement my entire work life — but for my son and especially for my grandchildren. If successful, Justice Kagan will be proven right and the country we leave to my grandchildren will be a post apocalyptic, dystopian nightmare in which the 99% will be reduced to little more than slave status while the 1% live their fantasy life of zero regulation and obscene wealth.
The Republican Party, in a bizarre reversal of political polarity, seeks to take us back to the plantation and the company town. The abolitionist Republican Party of Lincoln, the trust-busting party of Teddy Roosevelt, the interstate highway-building Eisenhower warning of the dangers of a "military-industrial complex", and even shifty Nixon establishing the EPA, are gone. Barry Goldwater "None Dare Call It Treason" would be appalled at what the current Republican Party has become.
Bury the filibuster and pack the court. I would hope that the threat of those two moves might move enough Republicans to forestall it happening. I hate having to rely on Republican voters disgusted with their party's regression to feudalism to counter the lunacy of the Republican base and elect and inject some sanity into the Republican Party.
In the meantime, everyone else, EVERYONE!, has to get to the polls for every election down to the local dog-catcher.
News unrelated to this letter; Maryland is voting to retire the state song "Maryland My Maryland" that encourages Civil War secession "Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!" (What a phrase, right?)
What's unfathomable is how cold, calculating and unappreciative these ultraconservative politicians and their supporters are in enjoying the benefits of the New Deal as they scorch our nation and earth with this assault. It's clearly the pull up the draw bridge after I've got mine mentality.
My parents, born in the 1920's grew up in the Great Depression, they and their parents enjoyed many benefits. They lived through WWII and supported FDR through this entire period, though they were Republicans. They were the first in their families to go to college, top notch colleges, on the GI Bill. They had jobs, built their house and bought cars during a period of secure middleclass jobs, plentiful affordable loans at very low interest rates. They rejected Senator McCarthy and praised Pete Seeger. Yet at the end of their lives, they forgot what got them some of the best decades of American goodwill and prosperity. They fell into the Rush Limbaugh crowd, and influenced my two youngest brothers into the ideas that Democrats and higher education were elitist and trying to destroy everything that they enjoyed. This inspite of their experience that liberalism and education had brought them through tough times together with so many other Americans to enjoy so many benefits including cleaning up the Hudson River to enjoy it without sewage and industrial waste.
To throw away what Americans have lived and died for, today's ultraconservatives refuse to wear a mask during a pandemic is a symbol of their fall from grace. It's disgraceful how small and tiny minded so many Americans have become.
States are suing? Because the states are corporate owned? Of course the federal government should have regulatory powers over things that affect the nation. Madness.
The “non delegation doctrine” could also be called the “Koch doctrine”. Charles Koch believes the only role for government is protection of property rights and defense. That thinking falls in line with Justice Kagan’s quote that the “nondelegation doctrine would make most of the federal government illegal.” Small government cannot provide for the common defense or promote the general welfare, such as fight a pandemic, research going on at NIH, food inspectors to keep our food supply safe, send rovers to Mars, etc.
Thank you, Professor HCR, for the daily history lessons.
Today’s issue of LfaA underscores the San Andreas fault line separating those who believe government serves the people, and those who believe government serves the oligarchy. I believe it’s simply that stark, and worryingly so.
Wealth and control is all the Republicans care about, no matter the cost to our Constitution, to us voters, to our planet.
HCR writes, "they (Republicans) want to reinstate the rule that requires applicants for citizenship to prove they are financially secure before they are allowed to become citizens." If taken to its logical conclusion, does mean that poor Americans could possibly LOSE their citizenship? I always assumed that immigrants came to our country to participate in the American dream, which is not based on the size of one's bank account.
In terms of possible actions from the Supreme Court, Democrats have only one way out--expansion. McConnell's blatant hypocrisy in pushing through Republican judges and obstructing Democratic candidates to the SC may come back to bite him. Two can play that game.
Anyone who doesn't see the Republicans as the new Confederate Enemy in what they have declared as a civil war probably still believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and that the sun will rise in the west tomorrow morning. Like it or not, they have declared themselves the insurgents and declared war on the country. If they think they can nullify federal rules and laws, this is actionable treason. The party is now irredeemably treasonous.
The GOP is a party for the rich, by the rich, and of the rich. It has absolutely no inclination whatsoever to work for the ordinary American citizen. The citizens who vote them in haven't a clue regarding the rights they have seized in order to become and to produce fascist leadership. President Biden must do unto the GOP what they have done unto us and our democratic procedures during the past four years: e g. increase the number of sitting judges on the Supreme Court and appoint as many federal judges to benches around the country to balance the ratio. Most federal judges will follow the law, as we saw with 45's illegal lawsuits following the 2020 election. This party of mostly rogue seditionists, no longer deserves the respect nor the bipartisan overtures that President Biden is used to applying. This GOP comprises less-than-human ideologies that should play no part in the future of this country if we want to bequeath it as a safe haven for our children and our grandchildren.
Trouble with the SCOTUS going rogue on Americans? Perhaps Biden should consider FDR's solution. Threat to increasing the size of the court
Philosopher James P. Carse distinguishes between "finite and infinite games," a dichotomy popularized by Simon Sinek as "finite and infinite mindsets." Carse defines it this way: "A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play."
For Republicans, politics is a finite game with defined winners and losers. In my lifetime, I associate this most strongly with Gingrich's Contract With America. More recently, McConnell used the term "scorched earth." Compromise is unacceptable.
Governing is the quintessential infinite game; but we're living through a painful and discouraging time when one party is playing a finite game.
On a different note: how is everyone doing with our mental health?
Anyone who has experienced early life traumas or abuse is likely experiencing the resurfacing of intense and uncontrollable stressors that had previously been considered healed and done. Both of us are.
How are you staying informed, engaged AND achieving an adequate level of self care of any PTSDs? Me, I am returning to therapy/counseling this week after being able to manage solely with mindfulness meditation, diet and exercise for the last 8 years. It is not longer enough for the old issues that arise every day from the lying, gaslighting and overt manipulations. We greatly admire HCR's apparent ability to stand back and take the objective "witness view" of all of this. Great appreciation to her for this. :-)
Your column dovetails beautifully with an article in the NYT, reminding everyone that, while wage and salary earners have their income reported via the W-2, there has never been a parallel way for the world of business to be held accountable. The article acknowledges the renewed conversation about wealth taxes, but there is an estimated $1T in taxes out there that just need to be collected. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/opinion/sunday/unpaid-tax-evasion-IRS.html?fbclid=IwAR1Od0p0a3s9LjylxcJ7ppV4eFro2EFM-T5AWW9LQWEo31uuzS4rL3SoboE
‘Just making stuff up and calling it constitutional law’ pretty much describes what modern conservatism has become.
As a Baby Boomer I know my life has been privileged. My grandparents struggled through the depression. My parents were good providers — I didn’t realize we were the working poor until I got to high school and encountered kids from outside my neighborhood. We lived on a single income in a row house. My parents were able to provide me and my sister with a comfortable but not extravagant upbringing. They sent both of us to college. The unspoken understanding was that my generation would have a better life than my parents had. Part and parcel with that was that my son would have a better life than I did — you know, the American Dream.
The lawsuits you describe in today’s letter are truly frightening. Not necessarily for myself — I’m pushing 70, retired, and have planned and saved for retirement my entire work life — but for my son and especially for my grandchildren. If successful, Justice Kagan will be proven right and the country we leave to my grandchildren will be a post apocalyptic, dystopian nightmare in which the 99% will be reduced to little more than slave status while the 1% live their fantasy life of zero regulation and obscene wealth.
The Republican Party, in a bizarre reversal of political polarity, seeks to take us back to the plantation and the company town. The abolitionist Republican Party of Lincoln, the trust-busting party of Teddy Roosevelt, the interstate highway-building Eisenhower warning of the dangers of a "military-industrial complex", and even shifty Nixon establishing the EPA, are gone. Barry Goldwater "None Dare Call It Treason" would be appalled at what the current Republican Party has become.
Bury the filibuster and pack the court. I would hope that the threat of those two moves might move enough Republicans to forestall it happening. I hate having to rely on Republican voters disgusted with their party's regression to feudalism to counter the lunacy of the Republican base and elect and inject some sanity into the Republican Party.
In the meantime, everyone else, EVERYONE!, has to get to the polls for every election down to the local dog-catcher.
Are Biden, Harris and Blinken followers of HCR yet? I am posting her letter on Twitter today. And Facebook.
News unrelated to this letter; Maryland is voting to retire the state song "Maryland My Maryland" that encourages Civil War secession "Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!" (What a phrase, right?)
wtop.com/maryland/2021/03/maryland-lawmakers-vote-to-retire-state-song/
What's unfathomable is how cold, calculating and unappreciative these ultraconservative politicians and their supporters are in enjoying the benefits of the New Deal as they scorch our nation and earth with this assault. It's clearly the pull up the draw bridge after I've got mine mentality.
My parents, born in the 1920's grew up in the Great Depression, they and their parents enjoyed many benefits. They lived through WWII and supported FDR through this entire period, though they were Republicans. They were the first in their families to go to college, top notch colleges, on the GI Bill. They had jobs, built their house and bought cars during a period of secure middleclass jobs, plentiful affordable loans at very low interest rates. They rejected Senator McCarthy and praised Pete Seeger. Yet at the end of their lives, they forgot what got them some of the best decades of American goodwill and prosperity. They fell into the Rush Limbaugh crowd, and influenced my two youngest brothers into the ideas that Democrats and higher education were elitist and trying to destroy everything that they enjoyed. This inspite of their experience that liberalism and education had brought them through tough times together with so many other Americans to enjoy so many benefits including cleaning up the Hudson River to enjoy it without sewage and industrial waste.
To throw away what Americans have lived and died for, today's ultraconservatives refuse to wear a mask during a pandemic is a symbol of their fall from grace. It's disgraceful how small and tiny minded so many Americans have become.
States are suing? Because the states are corporate owned? Of course the federal government should have regulatory powers over things that affect the nation. Madness.
The “non delegation doctrine” could also be called the “Koch doctrine”. Charles Koch believes the only role for government is protection of property rights and defense. That thinking falls in line with Justice Kagan’s quote that the “nondelegation doctrine would make most of the federal government illegal.” Small government cannot provide for the common defense or promote the general welfare, such as fight a pandemic, research going on at NIH, food inspectors to keep our food supply safe, send rovers to Mars, etc.
Thank you, Professor HCR, for the daily history lessons.
Today’s issue of LfaA underscores the San Andreas fault line separating those who believe government serves the people, and those who believe government serves the oligarchy. I believe it’s simply that stark, and worryingly so.
Wealth and control is all the Republicans care about, no matter the cost to our Constitution, to us voters, to our planet.
HCR writes, "they (Republicans) want to reinstate the rule that requires applicants for citizenship to prove they are financially secure before they are allowed to become citizens." If taken to its logical conclusion, does mean that poor Americans could possibly LOSE their citizenship? I always assumed that immigrants came to our country to participate in the American dream, which is not based on the size of one's bank account.
In terms of possible actions from the Supreme Court, Democrats have only one way out--expansion. McConnell's blatant hypocrisy in pushing through Republican judges and obstructing Democratic candidates to the SC may come back to bite him. Two can play that game.