Bill Clinton

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Where Have All the Decent Republicans Gone?


I just watched a salute to Bob Dole, former senator from Kansas, who is now 98 and dying from cancer. I never voted for Bob Dole, but I recongnized him as a very decent person, a veteran who was a hero, as a good man. In 1997, President Bill Clinton bestowed upon him the highest honor a civilian can get from the government. In those moments, there was no Republican-Democrat divide. It was the simple acknowledgement of a member of one party to another that his sevice must be recognized.

I have never voted strictly party line, Democrat, simply because I recognized the huge failings of certain Democrats and would vote for their Republican opponent. In Massachusetts, where I spent most of my life, I am now living in North Carolina, I can remember as a teenager when Ted Kennedy first won a seat in the senate, there was something about him which I did not like, even though I could not put my finger on it. The, in 1967, when he caused the death of MaryJoe Kopeckne, my mistrust of him and his ability to escape prosecution he so richly deserved, was solidified. Not once did I ever vote for him.

I spent 11 years on active duty in the Army and was stationed in states such as Louisiana, Texas and Georgia, all of which had seen the old Dixie-crats (Democrats) switch parties in 1968. And even though I do not remember who I voted for in those states, they were solidly Republican. That never bothered me. Most of the senators and representatives for both parties were largely centrists.

Then in 1996, the Senator Newt Gingrich decided it was time to become devisive with his “Contract to America.” That piece of legislation, with the Republican controlled house, was passed into law and pushed the Republican party a little further to the right. Also at the time there were people like Pat Robertson, a man from the far right, who were trying to pull the party further to the right. It was Gingrich who first introduced the “us against them” sentament. And then when they decided to get rid of the most hated Democrat, Bill Clinton, they spent millions of dollars, with Ken Starr in the lead, to convict Clinton of an abuse of power charge. It failed by a single vote, as most have, but it set into motion a move that continues to this day.

But even in those days, the majority of Republicans were decent people. In the 2000 election, which the Republican party started using dirty tricks to win, George Bush won when Republicans usurped the power of the Florida State Supreme Court, and got a decision they desired to give George Bush the win. I never voted for George Bush, but even so, I found myself defending him against Democrats who liked to call him a draft dodger and druggie. I reminded them that Bush was a member of the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam and was subject to activation to Vietnam just like so many National Guard units had been. He is a veteran and I almost always defend veterans against those who choose to demean them by spurious lies. That exact thing happened to John Kerry, a silver star awardee for his service in Vietnam, when a group called the “Swift Boaters” mounted a series of lies about Kerry to insure Bush’s win. I thing George Bush would have won anyway, but this was Karl Rover, the Republican architect of the early 2000s, working his dirt.

And now Republicans are giving homage to a man who is probably the worst president we have ever had, even worse than John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson, both of whom scholars show them as complete failures as president. But in the case of Adams, he returned to the U.S. House and became an extremely successful leader there. And so it is not unheard of for an former president to continue public service. William Howard Taft became a member of the U.S. Supreme Court after his defeat for re-election, and eventually became the chief justice and an admired member. I only wish the George Bush would consider doing the same in Texas.

The term “Moderate Republican” is fast becoming a name difficult to assigned to any Republican in either the house or senate. Why is that? Donald Trump managed to so polarize the American republic, they fear that to speak out against him will cause their defeat for re-election. Why are they cowtowing to the will of a single man over the greater good of their contituents? Why do they find it so difficult to speak the truth over perpetuating the great lie of 2020 that the election was somehow stolen from Trump even though Republican jurists around the nation have declared Joe Biden to be the legitamite winner?

To those few Republican who still stand for something, the truth, Liz Cheney, Chuck Grassely, Mitt Romney, Susan Collans and a few others, I truly hope they will rescue the Republican party from its death wish.

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The U.S. Senate’s Abdication of Responsibility


It is Sunday, January 26, 2020 and President Trump’s legal counsel has finished its opening remarks. I cannot help but wonder why they even bothered? Ah! The old magician’s trick of sleight of hand. They know full well that their client is guilty as charged but they are thinking in terms of his winning the next election and not of discrediting the House Managers’ case as put forth. They are simply deflecting and trying to confuse the American public by offering facts that have virtually nothing to do with the case at hand. And you should expect more of the same come Monday and Tuesday.

To their shame, Republican Senators have announced, in so many words, that they are part of the President’s defense team. They are going to vote to acquit regardless of how compelling a case for removal is put forth. And the House Managers knew this before the Senate hearings even began. So why do they persist?

In 1999 the case against President Bill Clinton was on a single charge, lying to Congress. And the Senate, then as now, rather evenly split between parties, came within one vote of removing him! What was the lie? He told Congress that he did not have sex with Monica Lewinsky. The right move at that moment in history was to censure Clinton but not to remove him. They probably would have gotten enough votes for censure! Clinton took advantage of an all too willing Lewinsky and the Republicans that it unseeming but a “high crimes and misdemeanors?” Not even close.

The most damning charge against President Trump is his obstruction of Congress charge which the Federal Circuit Court in D.C. has already ruled to be true. Republicans do not like that decision and have appealed the ruling which will probably be affirmed and they then will push it into a very conservative U.S. Supreme Court counting on the justices to overturn the lower court’s ruling. Should that come to pass, and it will likely take two years time for that court’s ruling, then our democratic republic is compromised. The Constitution’s checks and balances between the three branches of government will no longer exist. With the Constitution compromised, our republic could fail.

The world has a lot of democratic governments but ours stands alone with each branch keeping the other two in check. The President can, for example, veto a bill that he does not believe is in the best interest of the country. That bill must then be passed by a 2/3rds majority of Congress to become law. The U.S. Supreme Court can hear cases where the constitutionality of a law is challenged. That happened in the 1990s when Congress approved the President’s right to do a “line item veto” in the nation’s annual budget. The U.S. S.J.C. overruled Congress saying that it was indeed unconstitutional. The Congress has the right to subpoena persons and records from any agency in the executive branch it deems it needs when it finds an executive decision to be questionable. But the President refused flatly to allow for either and was therefor put in “contempt of Congress,” a felony under both statute law and the Constitution.

Republicans know full well that Trump is barred from ignoring a subpoena as ruled by the U.S. S.J.C. in previous filings and as born out by the Nixon and Reagan investigations.

If senate Republicans allow Trump to be victorious, then all future presidents can simply point to this point in time and claim it is within their right to do as they wish. That of course creates an imbalance of power, an anathema to what those who wrote the constitution had in mind.

There are always those who, regardless of the strength of facts presented, will vote to acquit. But to know at this juncture that a 53-47 final vote of removal will occur is about as disgusting a turn of events as can happen. Can you imagine a serial killer who demands a bench trial (a trial where there is only the judge to decide an accused’s fate), who happens to be a beautiful woman, is found innocent because the judge liked how she looked? That is exactly what is happening now because, even though this does not look like a courthouse, there are 100 judges in attendance and 53 of them simply like how President Trump looks.

This will certainly be a travesty of justice and we will be the worse for it.

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The Deplorable State of American Politics


enemy

The cartoon above, from the strip “Pogo,” first appeared in 1952.  Walt Kelly produced this comic strip from 1948 to 1975.  Pogo Possum was a humble, personable and philosophical character who spoke on many subjects.  This particular one, I believe, speaks most tellingly about the state of our present politics.

In 1994 a Republican think tank came up with the idea of the “Contract with America” which all its members in both the senate and house signed.  In its most basic form it was a wonderful and powerful idea.  But those behind it had other ideas, sinister ideas.  Certain non-elected people had a very deep hatred for President Bill Clinton and this was supposed to be their open foray into removing him from power in 1996.  It failed simply because Clinton co-opted them by endorsing certain portions of the contract, most especially balancing the budget.  But those power brokers knew quite well how to win wars while losing a battle or two.  Clinton gave them that opportunity by having an affair with Monica Lewinsky and then denying it ever happened.  For the first time since Andrew Johnson a president was impeached.  Clinton’s crime?  Not that he had the affair but that he lied to Congress.  With attack dog Kenneth Starr at the forefront running a broad and unrestricted investigation, it was game on.

Who was behind this?  It was not the members of Congress but those moneyed interests behind the Congressional powers.  To be certain, David and Charles Koch were two of them.  Other powers behind the scenes were Republican strategists such as Karl Rove and talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly.  What each of these men knew, and relied upon, was the average American’s disinterest in discovering the truth about any particular subject.  They knew their target audience would take them at their word despite the use of hyperbole, exaggeration and out right lies.

The Democrats have been equally as bad though usually not in the same way.  While Democrats love to use hyperbole, exaggeration and out right lies too, they are not nearly so well organized as Republicans and other conservatives.  And while the Democrats certainly have their share of moneyed interests, the do not have a strategist who approaches the ability of Karl Rove and have virtually no presence, let alone following, on the air waves in the form of an O’Reilly or Limbaugh.

Although I am a life-long registered Democrat, of late I have made a habit of voting Republican in Massachusetts elections.  This has been because of my disgust by state-wide politics as a whole, and those who are running for office in particular.  The brilliance of Senator Elizabeth Warren is unimpeachable but she is an uninspiring academic who had previously no civil experience.  She won, not on her merits, but because she was the Democrat who opposed Republican Scott Brown.  This sort of politics exists in every state which holds a large majority in one party, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming for Republicans, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Michigan for Democrats.

I find it troubling that the Republican Party has found itself split between their long standing moderates and those who have given their allegiance to the Tea Party.  But if you look at it closely, you will find the Tea Party is simply a reincarnation of the old Libertarian Party with a new platform.  The Democrats have their own group on the far left who, although without name, are equally as polarizing.  It is this polarization that causes intransience over issues which desperately need resolution.

The only resolution to these issues is for all Americans to hold their elected officials, those who the voted for, to back up their stands with absolute truth, to work in the best interests of their constituents and not the PACs, and to always work towards a common ground with members of the other party.  I would say that any member of Congress who votes in excess of 75% along party lines should deemed as of suspicious designs.  Each senator and representative should be able to report back to his constituents on a regular basis how each of his votes worked to the favor of the majority of those he represents.

Americans seem to be of a mind that politics as a whole are disgusting, but until each American decides to hold those he has voted into office to a higher standard, then nothing will change.