Meanwhile, Back In The Real World…

The picture above totally sums up the state of affairs currently evolving in the U.S. Congress on the Republican side. Whoever took this picture captured the moment perfectly as Gym Jordan loses the first round of votes to become Speaker of the House while his predecessor Qevin McCarthy (nicknames and spelling deliberately included) busts out laughing at the latest developments.

Following Gym Jordan’s tenure in Congress has not been a concern beyond observing what a pain in the ass he’s been to getting the business of America moving forward for the people’s interests. After learning he’s accomplished absolutely nothing of consequence during all that time beyond being a legislative terrorist, one has to question why the voters of his Congressional District keep returning him to office as he clearly hasn’t given a damn about them.

When I was growing up, even though Democrats were generally in the overwhelming majority, it was a given they weren’t going to accomplish anything of import without Republican buy-in. Back in the early 1970’s, as an example, in order to secure a majority of support from the voters, Nixon proposed what we know now as Obamacare, which is actually a version of Romneycare, which the people of the state of Massachusetts currently enjoy, which was still a version of what Nixon proposed. It would’ve become law were it not for the opposition of Senator Ted Kennedy, who was holding out for Universal Health Care. The results ended up being the perfect was the enemy of the good, and so health care in the USA suffered a major setback for decades until Speaker Pelosi and President Obama were able to pass the Affordable Health Care Act AKA Obamacare.

That is far from the only example, but the point is this: America has been able to make progress because of compromise. Not everyone gets everything they want, but the ball is able to be moved forward.

Voters had essentially handed the keys to Democrats for 40 years, essentially resulting in one of most prosperous times the country as a whole experienced, which resulted in the building and strengthening of the middle class.

Little noticed during that time were the results of President Johnson’s signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, in which he predicted the South would shift away from Democrats. Up until Richard Nixon’s run for the Presidency in 1968, Republicans were generally regarded as the party of and for rich white guys, but Nixon was more than happy to welcome Democrats unhappy with granting equal rights to minorities into the fold. It also didn’t hurt that Alabama Governor George Wallace’s open appeal to racists everywhere with the platform of sending Black Americans back to Africa made Nixon seem all the more like a reasonable alternative to vote for.

Wallace was essentially Trump before there was a Trump with his open racism, and would go on to win the electoral votes of 5 southern states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi – and thus cleave the Democratic Party in half. Nixon was only too happy to exploit this division while appearing to be a moderate in his presentation. Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee, never really stood a chance, having been so closely aligned with President Johnson’s prosecution of the Vietnam War.

Since that time, Republicans have only been more than willing to exploit those divisions, building upon the foundation already laid down, taking advantage through the appointment of Supreme Court Justices to forward a “conservative” agenda, which also resulted in a selection of the Supreme Court’s preferred candidate George W. Bush as opposed to allowing the counting of actual ballots in the state of Florida to determine the actual electoral victor.

As I write this, Gym Jordan has suffered a second humiliating defeat in his quest for the speaker, and throwing his support to making Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry the Acting Speaker until January. Whether this happens is anyone’s guess.

I myself have always held interest in America’s history and how it’s run ever since I can remember. I was aware of JFK’s assassination and witnessed Lee Harvey Oswald gunned down on live television. The Vietnam War played out in our home on the nightly news. As I and my friends morphed into teenagers, we began discussing what we would do if handed our draft notices. The thought of moving to Canada didn’t seem so out of the realm of possibility among us.

After I graduated High School, there was no more draft, but as I or my parents couldn’t afford my college tuition, the military suddenly became a viable option to achieving further education.

During that time, while serving in the US Air Force, I became aware of just how diverse our country was in a way it wasn’t possible to experience while living in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY back then. I worked alongside members of the Iranian military assigned to our base on temporary duty while following the 1976 Presidential Election, voting for the first time for Jimmy Carter to be my Commander-In-Chief over Gerald Ford. (No one I worked with was voting for Gerald Ford as he was the one who pardoned Richard Nixon. Besides, I was stationed at Hanscom AFB located in Massachusetts, which was noted as being the only state which hadn’t voted for Nixon in the 1972 election.)

I’ve self-identified as a progressive Democratic voter, preferring the term Liberal these days, not that I consider myself partisan. It’s just that Republicans don’t give me much of a choice. I resent the inclusion of religion in our politics as I firmly believe that’s a private matter between an individual and the deity of their choice. I also believe a woman’s decision regarding abortion is between her and her doctor and that politics should play no role other than insuring the procedure is completely legal. And I also believe everyone has a right to love who they want as long as it’s consensual.

While I would ban guns completely, I recognize that’s not possible, so I can live with gun ownership provided the process is handled the same as if applying for a driver’s license. The only guns I would outright ban for civilian use is the automatic weapons more suitable for the military.

Unlike today’s politicians, especially those who can be bought and sold wholesale, my beliefs are the result of my Catholic school upbringing, my parents, my Great Aunt Francis and my Grandmother Florence, who taught me fairness and doing what’s right. It’s not easy but I do my best.

The best sign of hope I’ve found for our world is the recent election conducted in the land of my ancestors, Poland, which voted in favor of Democracy over Authoritarianism. That vindicated my belief in the people living there with whom I’ve shared experiences and communication with. There are good people out there.