At the risk of sounding like an “old person”, I must say that the good old days really were better. Not because of what political party controlled the White House or Congress, but because of how “we, the people” handled things.
It was less than twenty-five years ago that a closely contested Presidential race was decided by the US Supreme Court in favor of George Bush over Al Gore, and no violent revolution resulted. Though I had friends who threatened to move to Canada, not one of them threatened to blow up the Supreme Court building or kill one of the justices. Those were the days!
Today’s political scene is so dystopian as to be comical, if it weren’t so dangerous. The Speaker of the House can be ousted if one Congressperson feels like it that day. Bipartisan solutions to bipartisan problems are scorned as if one is collaborating with The Enemy. Extremists demand risky, all-or-nothing solutions to complex problems.
Most disturbing of all is the fact that our former President, whose election loss has been validated through many court proceedings, can apparently manipulate the Republican Party and its elected legislators as if they are sitting on his knee while his hand reaches inside them and controls the movement of their mouths.
From his porcelain throne, in the middle of the night, he issues his instructions on the positions to be taken the next day. If he happens to change his mind from the day before, all our “representatives” must tap dance their way around to the new position while pretending it’s what they believed all along. (There’s a reason a ventriloquist’s props are called dummies.)
Meanwhile, the world’s leaders are begging the US not to abandon its pivotal role in the defense of democracy. Last week the Prime Minister of Japan addressed Congress to remind them that Russia continues to be a threat to democracy and that the world looks to our nation for leadership in opposing those threats. All the while, dictators are invited to lunch at Mar-A-Lago.
The Former Guy has decided that he can put an end to the war in Ukraine because he has such rapport with Vladimir Putin that he can suggest Vlad just annex a couple of provinces and leave the rest of Ukraine to go on about their business. Peaceful coexistence will be the new normal. No need for us to send military assistance to Ukraine; no need for us to remain a part of NATO. Our guy and Russia’s guy are good buddies, and everyone will be happy with this solution.
Are we so removed from reality that we don’t think it can happen here? Or that living under an autocratic leader really isn’t that bad? (That’s what Tucker Carlson says, and we know what an upstanding guy he is.) We older folks still believe that the US has a vital role in leading the world in defense of democracy. The battle for Ukraine is not a “foreign war”. Isolationism just doesn’t work well in a world where autocrats and oligarchs will literally call all the shots unless free nations stand united against their aggression. Putin will not stop at controlling one or two provinces, or even the entire country of Ukraine. Ironically, even the oligarchs will not be safe in the long run.
Support for Ukraine, as it fights for its right to exist against a Russia that simply takes what it wants, should be a no-brainer. Our investment is not in dollars but in military equipment and supplies, manufactured in America, and totaling a very small percentage of our military budget. But our real investment, on which our own lives depend, is in letting dictators know that they cannot act with impunity. The bullies only have power if everyone else just stands by and does nothing.
A well-crafted bipartisan bill creating realistic immigration reform, that has not been successfully addressed for decades, sits along with the Ukraine funding bill at the back of the desk of House Speaker Mike Johnson. These are both considered bills that would pass if Johnson released them to be voted on. But the ventriloquist has decided he doesn’t want them to pass, partly because he wouldn’t get credit for them, so he has told the dummies they are bad bills. Speaker Johnson lunched at Mar-A-Lago, as well, to show how well he gets along with his Master/ the ventriloquist. Until he doesn’t do exactly as he’s told.
In the interest of his own personal needs, the ventriloquist is serving poisoned Kool-Aid, and too many in the GOP are slurping it down. Which would be fine if it only hurt them, but it’s going to jeopardize the entire free world, including you and me. Just as in a cult, the members become so devoted to their leader that they cease to realize when he is urging them to act against not only their own interests but the interests of our entire nation.
Our Congress should be passing bills that help our citizens, and the rest of the world, to work and live together in a way that doesn’t deprive anyone of their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s been done before, and we can do it again, we just have to get the Kool-Aid away from the dummies.
Susan Hull is a retired clinical psychologist, an Independent voter, and a non-fiction writer who occasionally allows mixed metaphors to brighten up an otherwise somber column. If you don’t get the Kool-Aid reference, or even if you do, you are welcome to contact her on Facebook.
