MY SOCIAL AND POLITICAL AWAKENING: A SPECIAL THANKS TO SYDNEY VERBA AND BIRCH BAYH

By Ronald T. Fox

 

My Social and Political Awakening

I read in the March 18 New York Times that two men who were importantly responsible for my political awakening and the development of my thinking about government and politics had passed away. One was political scientist Sydney Verba and the other Indiana Senator Birch Bayh. Their passing moved me to reminisce about their roles in my intellectual and political maturation.

JANUARY 2019 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Fox News. Fox News has been a shameful apologist in its responses to the Trump Administration’s inhumane immigration policies on the Mexican border. With Americans being exposed to images of small children being stripped from their parents and held in caged-in detention centers, Fox has been steadfast in downplaying the cruelty and blaming, of course, Democrats for the inhumanity.

As we approach the new year, here’s a brief round-up of the more callous, hateful, embarrassing and downright jaw-dropping moments the entire Fox line-up has shoved to viewers throughout the year. Buckle up and ride this embarrassing wave until the end.

Fox has been consistent in contending that the children aren’t really being kept in cages. You see, they “are merely chain-link walls” to create rooms.  Small rooms, but hey! Definitely not cages! Back in June, Tucker Carlson summed it up:

"No matter what they tell you, this isn't about helping children. A lot of people yelling at you on TV don't even have kids, so don't for a second let them take moral high ground. Their goal is to change your country forever."

And with no irony detected whatsoever, Carlson’s guest, acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said the comparison to Nazis is unfair because “they are simply enforcing laws enacted by Congress.”

But, nothing, and I mean NOTHING could top The Ingraham Angle with host Laura Ingraham and special guest, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. First up, Laura Ingraham laughed off the suggestion that tearing kids, including babies, from their parents and sticking them in cages inside a former Walmart amounted to child abuse. Ingraham wanted her audience to know, these child prisons are “essentially summer camps!”

What the hell kind of summer camp does Laura Ingraham send her kids to? We have one working as a summer camp counselor right now and you know what they are doing? Zip lining, learning how to care for animals, doing craft projects, creating variety show skits and making s’mores over a campfire.

But, my God, nothing could prepare us for what came next on Ingraham’s show. Attorney General Jeff Sessions joined Ingraham to beat back the growing, legitimate comparisons between the concentration camps of Germany and these border facilities and the indefinite lock-up of migrants. Hitler whipped up nationalism using many of these same techniques, scapegoating Jewish people and immigrants. So, how did Sessions bat down these comparisons? By claiming they are nothing like the Nazis because Hitler wouldn’t let the Jews leave Germany.

In the last week of December, Fox excused ICE’s anti-immigrant actions when it featured New York’s jackass Representative Peter King saying:

“They’ve had hundreds of thousands of people that they had custody of over the years and I think these are the only two children that have died in recent memory.”

That’s right, he thinks it’s ONLY two dead kids. And, they weren’t even white kids. And besides, King points out, it “does happen in housing projects across the country” all the time. Which also sounds like dog whistle for “other kids who aren’t white, so who cares?”

What is wrong with these people? Where were they radicalized to be so cruel and inhumane? Every action they take is more deplorable than the last. It is past time for Congress to start acting as the check and balance they were intended to be. The need to find their spines. If they don’t, let’s hope American voters send them to the unemployment lines. In the meantime, pick up the phone and call your elected representatives today to demand this policy end and these children are reunited with their parents.

TRUMP’S DEBASED PRESIDENCY

By Ronald T. Fox

We’ve” endured” two years of the Donald Trump presidency. I put endured in quotes since the damage he has caused to our democracy, fundamental norms and global standing has not yet fully played out. Things could get far worse.  I can't help wonder whether American democracy, as we've come to know it, will survive the Trump onslaught.  

Trump’s incessant attacks on human rights, freedom of the press and speech, honesty in government, public health and safety and the rule of law, has seriously degraded the quality of democratic life in America. In addition, his attacks on our closest allies, while embracing brutal foreign demagogues, and his abandonment of long-standing international treaties and agreements have severely tarnished America’s international standing as a bastion of democratic rule and leader of the free world. His manipulations of fear and hate has widened political divisions to levels not seen since the Civil War.

Two-thousand eighteen finds him reeling from what he has wrought. Slumbering Americans may finally be waking up to the Trump ship wreck, at least let’s hope so.

One of the best summations of Trump’s 2018 was published in the Opinion Section of the December 24, Sacramento Bee, written by the progressive thinker and activist, Sasha Abramsky. For over three decades, Abramsky has been a tireless advocate for social justice. He pulls few punches in his extensive writings lambasting compromises made with our cherished democratic norms. His latest book, Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream, offers a personal, beautifully written and compelling exploration of the rise, and consequences, of irrational public fear, which he connects to our toxic politics and susceptibility to demagogic messages. It is a primer on the rise of Trumpism and where we may be heading if we don’t confront irrational fear.

I’m posting Abramsky’s opinion piece on Trump’s second year in office. It hits the proverbial nail on the head.

DECEMBER 2018 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Republican Lawmakers in Michigan and Wisconsin. Two years ago, Republicans in North Carolina undertook a brazen power grab after their nominee — the sitting governor — lost re-election by deciding to weaken the governor’s office. The state legislature passed two bills stripping the governor of some powers, and the outgoing governor, Pat McCrory, signed them.

In doing so, McCrory and his allies rejected the peaceful transfer of power that is essential to democracy. They instead chose the peaceful transfer of some power.

In 2018, it became clear that this problem extended beyond North Carolina. Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin are now following a similar script to protect partisan GOP power. Let’s see:

RE-THINKING THE LEGACY OF GEORGE H.W. BUSH

After reading over the first draft of my essay on remembering George H.W. Bush, I paused to reflect on what I’d written. Was I painting too rosy a picture of Bush’s the man? Was I guilty of romanticizing his life like much of the media has done? After all, what kind of a “highest character” would have done the bad deeds I mentioned—like running a racist campaign against Michael Dukakis, opposing landmark civil rights legislation, and unleashing nearly 100,000 bombs on innocent Iraqi civilians and fleeing Iraqi soldiers. Don’t these actions, which I mentioned but didn’t elaborate on, speak volumes more about Bush’s character than his geniality, corny jokes and folksy ways?

REMEMBERING GEORGE H.W. BUSH IN THE TRUMP ERA

By Ronald T. Fox

I have fond memories of George H.W. Bush. This may sound surprising coming from a die-hard progressive who has had few good things to say about Republicans. I say “fond” not because I approved of the decisions he made and policies he advanced in his long career in public service, many of which were anathema to progressives, but because of features of his character and personality, features that I’ve grown to appreciate more in the era of Donald Trump. Our Cretan in the White House has set the character bar so low that all our former presidents look good in comparison. My fondness for 41 has grown in direct proportion to the rise of Trump.

Nearly everyone is singing praise of Bush 41 as a man of honor, integrity, decency and humanity. Canonization of a deceased major public figure is a familiar theme in America. This can be nauseating, especially when you know better, but in the case of George Bush his virtues that are being voiced ring true, endorsed even by many of his rivals and critics. From a personal encounter I had with Bush two decades ago, I can attest to his personality virtues now being extolled.

NOVEMBER 2018 IGNOMINIOUS ABUSRDITY OF THE MONTH: THE “TRIGGY”

I know I’ve said I would refrain from nominating President Trump for any future IGGY awards. He is a certified ignominious person, worthy of a lifetime, not just a monthly, award. With the midterm election focusing so much attention on the Trumpster, the mass media seems to have lost interest in reporting on the usual array of absurdities from others. Trump lies and absurdities on anything from tariffs, to wildfires, to international events, to alleged election fraud, and, of course, on Russia, have dominated November news cycles.  Such a record, horrific to most of us, is fuel for Trump; it plays right into his hands. He thrives on adversaries, loves the fight, and welcomes news that’s about him. In devouring everything Trump, the media has been complicit in boosting his popularity among his base, if not beyond. I’ve tried to avoid this Trump trap but have not been very successful.

I’ve decided to devote the November IGGY exclusively to Trump absurdities. This will mark the last time I will include any of his false, deceitful, racist, xenophobic, insulting pronouncements for IGGY recognition—at least I will strive to make it the last time. I wish journalists with wide followings would do the same. Why continue to make him the story? (I’d love to see CNN and other media outlets boycott the White House in protest of Jim Acosta’s banning.) Nothing would piss off Trump more than losing his megaphone.

November was a big month for Trumpian lies, misrepresentations, insults, recriminations and hair-brainers. But, really, it was no different from other months. I’m including six below, but I could have listed several more, like his comment on climate change that he trusts his non-believing gut more than the brains of scientists, his declaration of a political victory in using force against asylum seekers on the Mexican border, his assertion that he wouldn’t take a pardon for the lying, deceitful Paul Manafort “off the table,” and his insistence that the Saudi crown prince cannot, with certainty, be blamed for the death of the journalist Jamai Khashoggi, despite the contrary conclusion from his own intelligence community. With this acknowledgment, I offer the following November Trumpian ignominious absurdities. For this month, I'm calling it the TRIGGY.

1. President Donald Trump.  The outright lies continue. I’ll pass over all the false statements he made about the midterm election, and claims that he did not know Mathew Whitaker before appointing him as Attorney general, and focus here on his latest whopper on China. At a news conference, the president answered a question about healing national divides by saying that he had forced China to back down from a plan to strengthen its manufacturing industry.

After declaring that because of his tariffs China had suspended its so called “China-25” plan to bestow greater privileges on its own companies over foreign competitors in the Chinese market, and would now not “supersede the U.S. economy in two years as he falsely claimed Beijing boasted, he went on to say:

“But I have to say this: Billions of dollars will soon be pouring into our Treasury from taxes that China is paying for us.”

Of course, this is a blatant falsehood. When the U.S. places tariffs on Chinese imports, China doesn’t pay them. American importers do, and this usually means passing along the extra costs to American consumers. Things will worsen when/if the spiraling trade war leads to even higher tariffs. The only thing that appears to be "pouring" is the exodus of American jobs.  So long GM.