Response to a friend

Dear Friend,

Dinner last night was great as usual. But I was disappointed in my response to your question…”like what?”

When I said that electing opposition candidates was good for our country to keep the majority party (now the Republicans) from having total control of our body politic, I thought that was so obvious that I was blindsided by your question and gave two really stupid responses – taxes and Roe v. Wade.

So let me try briefly to give a more measured response assuming that your question was a serious one.

One of the best classes I ever took in school was at North Texas in the summer of 1964. American Government. I wish I could remember the prof‘s name. He was terrific – did a great Sam Rayburn imitation. But one thing he said that has stuck with me all these years is this.

American democracy works best when three near equal forces are in dynamic tension with each other – business, labor, and government. Big Business, Big Labor, and Big Government if you will. If that tension is diminished or absent autocracy, injustice, even fascism can be the result.

Fast forward to now – big Labor no longer exists. While people rail against big government, it has been largely co-opted by BIG Business.

The three greatest threats to our democracy are unlimited money in politics (Think Citizens United – corporations are people, money is speech), gerrymandering by whichever party is in the state house, and voter suppression. Business rules government and labor.

And the more power granted to a single force the more self-serving that force becomes and the less well our democracy serves its ideals of freedom, equality and justice.

Democracy is messy. It is supposed to be messy. You bemoaned the Kavanaugh nomination process as being deplorable, especially the Democrats. No argument here. BUT at least there was a process where opposing positions made their case and slugged it out. For an example of the autocracy I fear, look no further than Merritt Garland – no process, no debate, no hearings. Which is worse? I know which I prefer.

I heard John Fea, an admitted evangelical and history professor at SMU recently. In his book Believe Me he develops 3 choices that Evangelicals made that really are not true to the faith but have had wide appeal.
They chose

FEAR over HOPE
POWER over HUMILITY
NOSTALGIA over HISTORY
Evangelicals have chosen Trump over their faith. Trump raises the specter of fear at every opportunity and it works. I think fear of the OTHER is in our DNA.
Christians are taught to be humble but they have embraced Trump’s drive for Power (Woodward’s book is named Fear because Trump thinks that Power is delivered through fear).
Power is almost always antithetical to freedom, equality, and justice (Power corrupts blah, blah, blah).
Finally Make America Great Again. Fea says Trump supporters hear “Great!” (Nostalgia) The historian hears “Again” (History) and asks when are you talking about? There has never been a time when America was great for all its citizens. Maybe great for you but how about ______? (Fill in the blank)

So my point last night, poorly made, was that by electing more Republicans we allow them to
1) cut Medicare and Social Security
2) emphasize school vouchers over public education
3) ignore climate change and continue to abuse our environment (I agree it’s too late – that battle has been lost)
4) offend our allies jeopardizing relationships that have kept Western peace for over 70 years.
5) praise dictators like Putin, Kim Jun Um, and MSB of Saudi Arabia. (I doubt if Mueller will find Trump colluded with Russia – probably because of lack of opportunity. But doesn’t his denying any election interference strike you as odd?)

So I’ll stop there by giving you the last line of Woodward’s book Fear.

John Dowd, Trump’s lawyer, on resigning gave his real reason for doing so

“Because He’s a Fucking Liar!”

No response is necessary.