Now or Never
Only 1,347 days to go...
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” ~ Plato
Given how often I write this newsletter, you might be surprised to know that I’ve never considered myself very political or even all that interested in politics.
Politics was my mother’s great passion. Her love of it began when she was in high school and her father was asked to serve as Adjutant General for Gov. Lloyd Stark in Missouri. To be honest, I never knew what this job entailed. I just looked it up and it all makes sense given the roles my grandfather took on in his lifetime:
The Adjutant General is a high-ranking military officer who serves as the chief administrative officer and military advisor to the governor of a state. They are responsible for managing and overseeing the state's National Guard, ensuring its readiness, and providing support to the governor in matters related to military affairs. In essence, they are the state's link to the U.S. Army and Air Force, both when the National Guard is under state control and when it is federalized.
In any event, Mother’s family moved from a small rural town in Missouri to Jefferson City, where Mom went to high school. In some ways, it shaped and changed the trajectory of her life. She was engrossed in the actions taken by the state government, went to events, rode on political train rides, etc. and developed her love of the political scene.
When I was in high school, my mother even became a campaign manager for someone running for Congress. My folks had to put in a second phone line because my mother’s political activities took up all the calls coming into the house and no one else could get through.
Well into her 80’s she often went door-to-door with brochures to pass out information about various candidates. She would show up as a judge on election day at 5:00am and come home late in the evenings. On her deathbed, she was already planning her next political coffee to introduce a potential candidate for Congress.
I think if my mom had been born in a later decade, she might even have been the first female president… she was that smart, pretty strategic and a charismatic people person. My mother was so engrossed in politics, that sometimes as a child, I felt like my wants, needs and desires came in second. Out of some jealously, I grew to dislike politics as a result.
Obviously growing up in my home, I understood and appreciated basic civic responsibilities. I voted — not voting was a non-starter in our home. I kept abreast about what was happening and certainly held political views, but in general, I never really got engaged or even much involved until #FOTUS appeared on the stage.
When Trump won in 2016, I was dumbstruck. People had questioned whether Obama or Bush 43 had the chops, but Trump? He was just an entitled, tacky incompetent businessman and TV personality. I couldn’t believe the American people would actually elect someone so ill-qualified to lead our nation.
The change in the US political climate has become mind-boggling during this last decade. Rather than discussing and determining policy, it’s about how much demonizing one can do of our fellow citizens, how many likes one gets for ridiculous meme’s on social media and which podcasts the candidates appear on. Rather than understanding issues and making informed decisions, people are voting based on celebrity standing and how entertaining the candidate is. It all played out last year with the least productive, craziest and most chaotic 118th Congress. This year Congress seems like it might even less effective than last year.
I began my personal journey as a never-Trumper by becoming a subscriber of The Bulwark. I heard interesting, literate and well-informed conversations and read some great articles by various columnists. I also became a subscriber The Dispatch. I dumped my subscription to the Washington Post and began subscribing to The Atlantic. I only read publications and follow columnists that have courageously held firm against Trumpism. I never watch cable news/opinion shows, because I can’t stand watching talking heads — I find it mind-numbing.
Like me, my sister got really engaged in politics in 2017, and became involved with a local Indivisible group.
Indivisible offers strategic leadership, movement coordination, and support to Indivisible activists, and also directly lobbies congress, builds partnerships, runs media campaigns, and develops advocacy strategies.
I just listened to a podcast with executive directors and founders of Indivisible, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin which I thought was quite interesting.
What struck me about their conversation was how different it has become to mobilize against the current administration because there is no single issue like the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation, etc. The destruction of our democratic norms are so widespread in so many areas, that it’s hard to get your mind wrapped around everything that is happening today.
I know my friends are probably bored and/or annoyed, when I bring up politics. They might even say, I’ve become obsessed. But I, in turn, am equally frustrated when someone tells me, “I can’t stand politics… I don’t even watch the news.”
As distasteful as politics may be, politics will never ignore you. It will influence the amount you take home in your paycheck; the quality of your children’s education; the condition of the roads you travel on; the safety of your food, drugs, neighborhoods and airline travel; the timeliness of your social security payment; whether your employees are rounded up in an illegal ICE raid, and on and on. Politics infuses every aspect of our lives.
It’s comfortable to distract oneself and believe that this too will pass. But in the last 100+ days, there have been so many egregious and horrifying actions by this administration in their attempt to destroy our democracy and consolidate power. Any American citizen, who isn’t alarmed — frankly, isn’t terrified — is simply not paying attention.
Believe it or not, the reality is, that a vicious and unhinged minority within this country is trying to highjack our democracy and replace it with an authoritarian regime by:
defying the rule of law
crippling our government functions and destroying any accountability guardrails
politicizing our intelligence community, our military and our justice departments
demonizing and trying to control the free press and other critics of the administration
destroying our relationships with long standing allies in favor of authoritarian regimes
starting an economic war with our trading partners
inserting a preferred religion into our secular governmental institutions
deifying an individual who has zero interest in anything other than his personal wealth, ego, golf games, revenge of perceived enemies, and extorting money or accepting bribes from corporations and foreign governments
I believe that the majority of people in this country don’t want an authoritarian government. Trump’s approval rating in the polls is as low as 41%.
On June 14th, to celebrate his birthday, Donald Trump has ordered a military parade in Washington DC. Early estimates for the parade suggest it could cost between $25 million and $45 million. It will involve over 6,000 soldiers, 50 military aircraft, and 150 military vehicles.
Yes, this administration has no problem firing thousands of veterans and cutting their benefits, but Mad King Donald, needs his military parade. It’s a power statement similar to Putin’s May Day parades in Moscow. It’s appalling.
“Because nothing buoys the spirits of Americans contemplating a lean Christmas like armored vehicles rolling through the streets around the White House?” ~Frank Bruni
If NOW is not the time to pay attention, then WHEN?
If you are as alarmed as I am, NOW is the time to stand up and take a stand.
Write your congressmen. Show up at town hall meetings. Write opinions to your local papers. Consider contributing to pro-democracy organizations. Get disengaged friends engaged and aware of what’s happening. Begin researching and figuring out candidates to support in the next primary election (and for God sake, vote in the primaries). Talk to Trump supporters respectfully and share your concerns. Make your voices heard.
Also consider participating in a pro-democracy event on June 14th.
Fear is always a consideration with these MAGA cultists, but courage is contagious and there is power in numbers. It’s NOW or (it could be) never.
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
“Any fool knows that bravado is always a cover-up for insecurity.”
~Bobby Darin
Must Read Article:
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times.”
This pithy aphorism has captured a popular view of history for as long as we’ve had the concept of history… Modern right-wing populists are enamored with this idea. They’ll bemoan the state of the world, seizing on cultural flashpoints to point out that we live in extraordinarily hard times caused by the weakness of our leaders and our cultural elites.
But in reality, they’ve got it backward. We’ve been living in the good times. And they are weak men leading us back into the hard times…
The guy who does this (and it’s almost always a guy) is not someone who is succeeding in his own life. He’s not someone with considerable accomplishments, someone active in making their local community a better place, or someone with a loving family and a rich social life. The people who do this, to state things plainly, are almost always losers.
It may seem like a stretch to link the rise of extremist MAGA trolls to the gender politics of a TikTok dance. But the two are spiritually linked. MAGA is a movement that valorizes strength and toughness precisely because so many of its most fervent adherents are such weak men.
Quotes of the day:
“Trump’s return to the presidency has been the apotheosis of his trademark ethos: all gilt and no guilt.”
~Frank Bruni
“Nothing says 'America First' like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar. It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.”
~ Chuck Schumer
What I’m reading today…
Five Pencils for You. Infinite Luxuries for the Trumps.
Five pencils may be adequate for an American pupil — that was the allotment that President Trump advised, given the wages of his trade wars — but no number of billions is enough for him and his avaricious brood. The presidency, to their thinking, isn’t a privilege. It’s a profit center, one that involves cryptocurrency ventures abetted by crypto-friendly policies, foreign real estate deals augmented by foreigners’ desires to be on President Trump’s good side and extensive merchandising that’s not so much coincident with his perch atop the U.S. government but contingent on it…
But as unseemly as the Trumps’ avarice is on its own, it’s doubly so in terms of the president’s contradictory message to voters. They’re supposed to tighten their belts while he gorges on all he can. They’re forced to parcel out classroom basics while he wallows in opulence. Let them use Sharpies…
For the president, at least, the times are flush and the digs are plush. He has redecorated the Oval Office by hanging new portraits with gold frames, arraying golden urns across the mantel and adding other golden accents elsewhere.
Civil rights agency moves to fire judge fighting Trump directives
EEOC Administrative Judge Karen Ortiz, who in February criticized the agency’s Trump-appointed head, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, in an email copied to more than 1,000 colleagues, on Wednesday was placed on administrative leave. She also received notice that the EEOC leadership sought to fire her, accusing her of “profoundly unprofessional” conduct.
Even MAGA Is Up in Arms Over Trump’s ‘Flying Grift’ From Qatar
Even President Donald Trump’s most loyal MAGA cheerleaders are taken aback by reports that he’s planning to accept a jet as a gift from Qatar. The royal family of the Middle Eastern nation is gifting President Trump a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to serve as his new Air Force One, ABC News reported Sunday. But the gift is raising eyebrows among some of the president’s fiercest supporters. What is the Emoluments Clause? And how might it apply to Qatar giving Trump a plane? Simply, an emolument is compensation for services, from employment or holding office, that can take the form of a salary, fee or profit. There are separate emoluments delineations in the U.S. Constitution. Both are aimed at preserving the independence of the president from influence from outside entities, including Congress, states and foreign governments. Trump’s free plane is not so free. President Donald Trump insists he’s getting a “free, very expensive airplane” from Qatar’s royal family. But it’s not much of a gift for the American taxpayer… a private contractor would have to rip it apart to turn the jet into a flying White House for the president with secure communications and classified upgrades, according to former Air Force officials and lawmakers, an expensive and complicated prospect that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump's Luxury Jet From Qatar Is "a Very Dangerous Situation,” Says Former Bush Ethics Czar
“Think of what would’ve happened in World War II if the [German and Italian governments] were able to give lavish gifts to American politicians.” ~Richard Painter
In short, if you’re a lifelong conservative, you might be struggling with the question of whether “the right” is where you belong. If being a principled defender of the constitutional order, limited government, free markets, traditional values, and an America-led world still makes you a conservative, are you still on “the right” when the loudest voices on the right reject most or all of those positions?
Trump, Raking In Cash, Expands His Power in the G.O.P. Money World
Both super PACs, the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund, have new leaders this year, and they are working closer than ever with the White House, overhauling their boards of directors and installing veteran Trump strategists in senior positions.
Trump team mulls suspending the constitutional right of habeas corpus to speed deportations.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller says President Donald Trump is looking for ways to expand its legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally. To achieve that, he says the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government. Such a move would be aimed at migrants as part of the Republican president’s broader crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump is making his first term grifting seem quaint
“When he talked on the campaign trail about making the US the crypto capital of the world, was it just about Trump trying to make money for himself and his family? It’s definitely fair to say the latter has been his priority so far.”
Venerable New York Firm That Struck a Deal With Trump Is Losing Lawyers
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft struck a deal with President Trump last month intended to secure the future of New York’s oldest law firm. Instead the pact is backfiring, adding to an exodus of lawyers that has placed the firm on uncertain footing.
Inside MAGA's fight for "Western civilization"
For MAGA loyalists taking this long view, "Preserving Western Civilization" is the new "Make America Great Again."
They proclaim America as a Judeo-Christian country that's the successor to the great European civilizations of Greece, Rome and the United Kingdom. They see a modern "Western civilization" as one that prizes freedom, the rule of law as they interpret it, meritocracy and the nuclear family.
It's a movement wrapped in nostalgia. That's why Trump's Make America Great Again slogan resonated: To many in the modern right, society was at its zenith in the 1950s — and the liberalism of the 1960s and '70s drove the decline of their ideal society.
The movement sees today's DEI initiatives, expanded LGBTQ rights, fluid gender roles and illegal immigration as signs of a society run amok.
Trump Seeks to Strip Away Legal Tool Key to Civil Rights Enforcement
President Trump has ordered federal agencies to abandon the use of a longstanding legal tool used to root out discrimination against minorities, a move that could defang the nation’s bedrock civil rights law.
In an expansive executive order, Mr. Trump directed the federal government to curtail the use of “disparate-impact liability,” a core tenet used for decades to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by determining whether policies disproportionately disadvantage certain groups.
2 Democratic candidates eyeing Chuck Edwards’ House seat for NC-11
Chris Harjes, a Buncombe County real estate investor and nurse practitioner, and Moe Davis, a retired Air Force colonel-turned author and podcaster, are both vying to unseat the two-term Republican congressman representing North Carolina’s 11th District.
What I’m watching…
What I’m listening to….
Book I’m reading…
Fools on the Hill by Dana Milbank
When Republicans took control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections with a historically slim majority, mayhem began immediately. "Failed completely." "Can't govern." "Broken." "Lunatics." "Embarrassing." "Bunch of idiots." And that's how House Republicans described themselves. Take it from Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said in May 2024 that "many Americans in general are sick and tired and fed up with a feckless, useless Republican Party, a conference that does nothing." This is the House of George Santos and Jim Jordan, of Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz. They investigated space aliens and Hunter Biden's art dealer. They punched and they groped. They championed Confederates and insurrectionists--while disparaging the military and sabotaging the economy. They tied up the House so often with far-right fantasies that they produced what was arguably the least effective session of Congress in history.
What I read every day…
Yea but the Dem’s are riding a dead mule , and they shot it again, still not moving