Apparent Tea Party Resurgence is Part of Natural Death Trajectory (May 20, 2013)

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obama-lier

The Sunday morning political talk shows are always fraught with varying degrees of danger. Every guest has something to sell, usually themselves, and all proffered arguments and positions ought to be viewed through that lens. So for every fair and balanced appearance of Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker, almost as critical of his Democratic allies as his Republican opponents, we get a trend-of-the-moment bandwagon jump from Arizona Senator John McCain.

My favorite vignette from yesterday’s edition of “Meet the Press” came during a segment featuring Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. McConnell married an acute persecution complex with equal parts righteous indignation to rail against the alleged recent targeting of Tea Party groups by the Internal Revenue Service. Why, why, McConnell wondered, were American corporations and entities being denied their right (sob!) to criticize the administration? Free speech is endangered y’all (I paraphrase).

Leaving aside the creditable philosophical argument that organizations are not people and therefore not entitled to same rights, freedoms and empathy that we reserve for actual humans, “Meet the Press” host David Gregory confronted McConnell with a 25 year-old video clip. In it, the Senator cautioned his fellow Americans against – you guessed it – accepting the growing trend of political action committees seeking and abusing 501c3 status. When pressed by Gregory to explain why this phenomenon is now deemed cuddly and benign in a post-Citizens United political culture, the Senator demurred. Shocking, I know.

Folks, with so much cynicism clogging up the Capitol, it’s tough to resist the urge to grab the nearest chocolate bar before retreating to the fetal position. I want to double down on the calories when I come across headlines like this on a Monday morning: Tea party looks to take advantage of moment. According to writer Thomas Beaumont of the Associated Press, “the IRS acknowledgment that it had targeted their groups for extra scrutiny — a claim that Tea Party activists had made for years — is helping pump new energy into the coalition. And they are trying to use that development, along with the ongoing controversy over the Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attacks and the Justice Department’s secret seizure of journalists’ phone records, to recruit new activists incensed about government overreach.”

It’s natural to feel concern, annoyance, fear and disgust at the possibility of a resurgent Tea Party Movement gaining disingenuous strength from the leverage of non-scandals. But let’s keep the moment in perspective.

Scientists Glaser and Strauss first described the concept of death trajectories in pioneering qualitative research conducted in the 1960’s. In the course of caring for and supporting a terminally ill friend or loved one, many are victimized by a pernicious anomaly that can occur at the end of the death trajectory, or the process by which the body gives up its temporal struggles. Referred to informally as the “glow before you go” phenomenon, a patient can exhibit a brief but intense “recovery” prior to final expiration. What is so nefarious about this is the false hope it can instill in a patient’s support network, just prior to bereavement.

In this freak of the death trajectory, comatose invalids have been known to suddenly sit up and hold a conversation. A variation of this curiosity, I would argue, is at play in the Tea Party evolution.

Beaumont’s article arrives at nearly the same conclusion. He writes, “It’s unclear whether a movement made up of disparate grassroots groups with no central body can take advantage of the moment and leverage it to grow stronger after a subpar showing in last fall’s election had called into question the movement’s lasting impact. Republicans and Democrats alike say the Tea Party runs the risk of going too far in its criticism, which could once again open the door to Democratic efforts to paint it as an extreme arm of the GOP.”

I say let the tinfoil hat wearers (Bachman, Cruz, Rubio and yes, McConnell) enjoy this current chatty moment in the sun. It will be their last. “The President is a foreign Muslim!” “Death panels!” “They want to take our guns!” You can only cry wolf so many times before everyone stops listening. They are in the death throes. Hear the squawking for the mask it is.

Joe Biden Writes Note to 7 Year-Old, Indicts Comatose Congress (May 15, 2013)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

biden-punch

I have always had a soft spot for Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. My last living grandparent died 15 years ago, and since my early 20s, I have maintained a fantasy league roster. The other three slots tend to rotate, according to the trends of the cultural zeitgeist and my own proclivity for falling in love with every cool older person I meet, but Biden’s place on my wish list is permanent.

I don’t know when exactly I grew so smitten with Biden but I know it stems from a combination of the man’s complete lack of filter (a refreshing treat in the cautious, talking point-obsessed Capitol), the silver hair and winning grin that just dare you to dislike him or Biden’s utterly human, relatable biography. All I know is that if I had to hear some bad news, I’d want it from the empathetic, plainspoken and good-natured mouth of Joe Biden. Although I yearned to see Hillary Clinton take her place in the Executive Branch back in 2008, it’s tough to argue with President Obama’s ultimate VP selection: a white male, longtime Senator with charm and foreign policy experience in spades.

As a hyper-partisan, gridlocked, do-nothing Congress continues to bungle every issue important to the American people (the budget, gun control, job creation, etc.), an obstinately flexible and human Joe Biden continues to set the mercenary, disingenuous game playing of the House and Senate in stark relief. Let’s take last month’s shameful defeat of a measure that 90 percent of Americans were united in supporting: on April 18, the U.S. Senate voted against a compromise plan to expand background checks on firearms sales as well as a proposal to ban some semi-automatic weapons. This, my friends, ought to have been the proverbial fish in the barrel. Anyone with eyes and ears can see that gun violence, particularly mass public executions, are out of control, and thus 9 out of 10 voters agreed that something must be done.

Tell that to the Senators, which regrettably included four Democrats, who were so afraid of the gun lobby, particularly the NRA, that they utterly failed to abide by the will of their constituents.

And even those who supported the reforms, such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, did so cautiously, careful at every step to reaffirm their commitment to Second Amendment rights. That these freedoms that seem to increasingly trump the rights of the rest of us to live safely, appears to be of less concern to this group. After all, there are mid-term elections to consider.

But there’s one man who has his eye on a run for the biggest political prize of all in 2016, yet somehow remains immune to the rampant bullshit that swirls when the issue of guns is broached. And that man is the Grandfather-in-Chief, Joe Biden. The Associated Press published a small piece yesterday with the title, “Wisconsin boy gets handwritten response from Biden,” that manges to bury the lead. Of course it’s awesome anytime a world leader takes a break from a crushing schedule to correspond with a voter of the future. But in this case, the content of the note is as worthy as the man who took a few moments to write it.

A seven year-old second grader from Milwaukee came up with an utterly adorable, dreamlike solution to the problem of gun violence: make bullets out of chocolate. In the offices of another lawmaker, this missive would have been given a cursory smile from a junior staffer, if it were noticed at all. But Biden went another route, giving a young boy a treasured memento and presenting fellow lawmakers with a teaching moment. As the AP reports, “In the note, [of response] the vice president says he agrees that chocolate bullets would make the country safer and happier. The note concludes: ‘People love chocolate. You are a good boy, Joe Biden.’”

See what he did there? Who’s the child in this scenario? Is the young man who wishes for a violence-free world in which the risk of diabetes via chocolate gluttony is our biggest enemy, or is it the collective body of elected adults who mistake a disproportionate focus on one entry in the Bill of Rights for leadership?

Making a child smile while commenting on the lack of “good” intentions currently swirling around the Capitol: what could be sweeter? Way to go Joe.

 

Republicans Affirm Commitment to Destroying Environment with E.P.A. Hearing Boycott (May 11, 2013)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

air-pollution

Where I come from, if you don’t do the job you’ve been hired to perform, you lose it. And when I say “do your job,” I do not mean that all functions and responsibilities are executed to perfection. We’re human and we fail, and there’s something admirable about the occasional stumble when one’s very best is given. It’s good for the soul. Mistakes keep us grounded.

There is however nothing to admire in the simple and cowardly refusal to fulfill one’s duties, be the inertia the result of laziness or entitlement. And though the phenomenon is nothing new among the Republican members of Congress, it is a pattern growing more common and profound. There are so many challenges the country faces, so many issues afforded a shrinking window of decision: climate change, immigration reform, gun control, pervasive and extended joblessness, the growing income divide between the top few percent and everyone else, aging infrastructure, the rising costs of food, fuel and especially education.

Candidate Obama asked Americans in 2008, and again in 2012, exactly what kind of nation we want to be. I was under the impression that We the People had answered by voting in favor of the President and his agenda by wide margins – on both occasions. As recently as the 2013 State of the Union Address, our leader reminded the American people of their most important focus after the derailment of the Bush years: “Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills they need to get those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?”

I am tired of pretending that both political parties try to respond to this urgent, commonsense call to action. And even if I wanted to continue indulging the fantasy, I need only turn on the TV or go online to be reminded that the current Republican leadership (not the dwindling minority of old school G.O.P.ers with whom compromise in service of the nation’s future was once possible), just isn’t interested in anything else besides looting the treasury, environment and human condition for personal gain.

Two front page headlines digital version of The New York Times, told the story:

How to Stop Government: An Obstruction Field Guide

The Latest G.O.P. Temper Tantrum: Republicans Boycott E.P.A. Hearing

The first piece, by writer Andrew Rosenthal, is a gallows humor primer for preventing the passage of any and all legislation. It’s inspired by a “recent Pew Poll, [where] 80 percent of respondents said the president and Republican leaders were not working together to address important issues — and, by a two-to-one margin, said the G.O.P. was more to blame for gridlock.”

The second post, from Robert B. Semple Jr. Reports that, “Moments before a scheduled vote on Thursday on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced a boycott. One result was to delay her confirmation…The other result was to make the Republicans look not only vindictive but supremely childish.”

To return to my opening statement: in the real world, a place that our right wing legislators appear to have left permanently, this complete dereliction of duty leads to termination. That, my friends of all political stripes (because I simply refuse to believe that a majority of conservatives condone this approach), is what elections are designed to address. If you really love America, if you’re a true patriot, join me at the ballot box in 2014 to repudiate this torpor. Let the majority finally hog tie the dangerous, extreme, reckless minority that we’ve allowed to take control.

 

Don’t Let the Door Hit You on The Way Out: Goodbye, April 2013 (April 30, 2013)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

april-2013

By any conceivable standard, this has been a grueling month. The term “War on Terror” was given new significance as it became clear that enemy combatants do not exclusively hatch their plots “over there.” In addition to the devastating work of the Brothers Tsarnaev, both longtime U.S. residents (19 year-old Dzhokhar, a citizen) at the Boston Marathon lo these two weeks ago, we have the still-unexplained Texas fertilizer plant explosion and a series of ricin-laced letters mailed to various office holders in Washington.

But the month of April 2013 also presents an argument for the idea that our interpretation of the word “terrorism.” is far too limited. In the wake of Congress’ embarrassing failure to address the growing problem of mass public executions through the passage of a universal background check law for would-be gun owners, eight of our nation’s children continue to be shot and killed everyday. According to a February report from The Washington Post, the U.S. has experienced at least one mass shooting per month since 2009.

Throughout the course of an incredibly violent month, martial law to catch a killer has increasingly become the norm. Boston went on lockdown during the denouement of the hunt for Dzhokar Tsarnaev and today we learned that the business of rural California town, Valley Springs, has come to a halt as law enforcement searches for the killer of an 8 year-old girl. The victim, Leila Fowler, was brutally and randomly stabbed in her home in front of her 12 year-old brother. If such community harassment and intimidation is not the stuff of terrorism, the word has officially lost all meaning.

Compounding the violent challenges facing the nation and the inertia of elected officials in addressing the relative ease of weapon procurement. As well as the mental health and socioeconomic stratification that is surely playing its role, April 2013 has also given the lie to the right wing insistence that climate change is but a liberal conspiracy. Ask citizens of the Midwest bailing themselves out of monsoon-esque flash floods (Chicago) or mid-spring blizzard (Minnesota) if they think global warming is a hoax. Extreme weather has become more frequent, bizarre and devastating (Hurricane Sandy in Manhattan). We don’t need scientific data to confirm this. We can see it for ourselves.

April 2013 has also been marked by the loss of great artists, thinkers and newsmakers.  Adieu Margaret Thatcher, Roger Ebert, Annette Funicello, George Jones, Jonathan Winters and Ritchie Havens, among others. Will inspirational leaders rise up to take their place?

I realize that the simple transition to May has no direct correlation with the shift in toxic anti-mojo I desperately desire for my country. On behalf of myself and the Newtown families, the Boston bombing victims and their loved ones and everyone else facing an exhausting cluster of defiance this month, the movement of a date promises no release. But let’s try it anyway, shall we? Rumors abound that the media and constituent flogging unleashed on members of the House and Senate after the shameful defeat of the gun bill may just cow them into tuning out the NRA and adhering to the will of the 90 percent.

May the plentiful miseries of this month produce some good in the next.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library Takes the Lazy Road to Rewriting History (April 23, 2013)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

george-w-bush

The present is a tough, emotional place to be right now. The pain and reflection upon our increasingly violent, stratified society, can be summarized neatly in the Boston Marathon bombings that happened early last week. If the ongoing investigation into its genesis, has left you drained, maybe it’s time to take a step farther into the past.

In fact the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which will open later this week, invites the former POTUS’s fellow Americans and other visitors to be transported back to the early aughts The goal being of reassessing some of Dubya’s most disastrous policy decisions. In a New York Times piece entitled,Rewinding History, Bush Museum Lets You Decide, Peter Baker writes: “In a new brick-and-limestone museum, visitors to an interactive theater will be presented with the stark choices that confronted the nation’s 43rd president: invade Iraq or leave Saddam Hussein in power? Deploy federal troops after Hurricane Katrina or rely on local forces? Bail out Wall Street or let the banks fail?”

Folks, this news manages to be thoroughly frustrating, exhausting and yet somehow vindicating all at once. Am I alone inferring that there is an admission here, an acknowledgment that perhaps things could have gone better? You don’t say! This is a far cry from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s contention that there is no “Bush baggage” standing between him and a 2016 Presidential run.

At the same time, it’s hard not to reach for the migraine pills at the contemplation of this: in 2013, the choices of the Bush II regime are up for public discussion and an actual vote. If only that option has existed in 2001. How many lives would be saved, how many resources unwasted, jobs protected and how would the economy look today if we’d been informed and included in policy deliberations? Instead, under the cover of “War on Terror” necessity, most of us were forced to stand by idly as our Constitutional rights were suspended (the disingenuous Patriot Act.) While unprecedented tax cuts for the wealthy were doled out alongside the expenses of two armed conflicts. American citizens were left stranded in crisis by an overstrained, disorganized FEMA and its chain of command (Hurricane Katrina).

Interactive museums which afford the opportunity to revisit important historical decisions can be an enjoyable and important educational exercise. However, the prospective entertainment value of this particular museum suffers from the recency effect. The policies of George Bush do not exist in a “long ago in a land far away” vacuum and in many real ways, the country continues to pay for the price for some of the most egregious bungling in recorded antiquity.

And apparently the museum opening does not put a celebratory end to the Bush administration’s attempt to reframe historical events. Right on cue, Baker reports “A six-minute introductory video narrated by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledges disputes over Iraq and interrogation techniques while defending them as efforts to protect the country. ‘If you were in a position of authority on Sept. 11,’ she says, ‘every day after was Sept. 12.’”

Great Condi, except let’s try this once more with feeling: the Iraq war of choice was unrelated in every way to the events of 9/11. Saddam Hussein had nil to do with the devastating terrorist attacks that rocked New York City, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania that fateful day. We had every right to head in Afghanistan to take care of some Al Qaeda business, but your team’s consistent attempts to create justification for the unjustifiable quagmire that Iraq became is a bad rerun very few of us want to watch anymore.

With all this in mind, I am placing the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum very low on my bucket list of travel destinations, perhaps slightly ahead of Antarctica and the Bermuda Triangle. May the Bush legacy be rewarded for another expensive, high tech effort to insist the Emperor is wearing clothes with our collective disregard.