The Trump Effect

So now it looks like the down-ballot candidates are suffering, too. Republicans are shaking in their shoes that they will lose control of the House and the Senate, and it even looks like it could happen. As in most things, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think that if there are two reasonable parties, willing to work together, having the President be of one party and the legislative branch of another is not really a bad things, since it adds another flavor note, so to speak, to the system of checks and balances. But in the case of Obama's administration, the check was more like a parking boot, it did absolutely nothing but impede forward progress while being extremely punitive. The failure to approve a Supreme Court justice, on the most flimsy of premises, is a case in point. My respect for John McCain vanished utterly when I read that he condoned approving a justice if (when) Hillary should win. There is no more flimsy pretext there, she will be the duly elected president of the United States (and probably by a popular and electoral landslide) and if you won't confirm her nominee, then you are acting worse than a six-year-old. Every single bit of respect accrued to him for being an American patriot (in a doubtful war, but whatever) and a POW--which was absolutely not his fault and he conducted himself impeccably--and a senator who seems to have ably served the country--that's gone. It only took a few sentences, John. Now, I can't do anything about him since I don't live in Arizona, and despite what Trump thinks, I can't illegally vote there, but I can withdraw my support in spirit. Starting last year, I was reminded over and over again of one morning when I lived in Germany. I stopped in at my best friend's house. She was an Englishwoman with two young sons, and that particular morning, the tone was more tea-party than the usual controlled chaos. I don't think I even said anything, but she said, "We've just had a really big shout. The kind where you're all very polite to each other afterwards." I keep thinking that the US needs a really big shout, from someone in charge. The kind where when Mom or Dad is yelling at one kid and the other one is smirking, well, it's not me, is it, the parent wheels around and says, "And you're no better, either!" and proceeds to dress that one down, too. (And no. That is not verbal abuse, so don't even start). I think Obama has started doing that a little bit, though he is necessarily partisan. It needs to be someone else, like maybe the Pope. Our own, home-grown religious leaders are useless here. The Catholics let far too much be done to young men without helping, they, sadly, have no moral authority to stand on, and the Protestants, at least the evangelical ones, are just weird. So that's out. So, yeah, no one is going to do that, but it's what we need. But it would be lovely if we were all on the same page and of course, I feel as though it would be lovely if we were on the page of acceptance and progressiveness, and not taking the country back 50 or so years. Illegal abortions. More than tacit acceptance of bigotry. Our police forces turning into militias themselves, to be fought by (white) citizens who feel as though they need to be militias, because some men in 1776 wrote a few lines about weapons. YES, black athletes should be able to sit out, or kneel for, the national anthem, if that's what they feel in their hearts. That's what having a truly free country looks like. I suppose, then, it's your right to punish them (a school has suspended its football season to punish the team for doing just that) but think for a minute how that makes you look. I love my country. I love my flag. I love(......d, because I'm being forced to rethink it) our national anthem, but I also love all those things enough to say that the reason I love them is because we don't compel anyone else to love them. As so many times in life--forcing the outward signs of love and respect isn't the same thing as earning love and respect. So, maybe, just like the women coming forward about their assaults, maybe this will make us think? Maybe we will learn to look at our fellow men and just that--fellow men and women, not strange, scary adversaries? Maybe once we get through this horrible, horrible, horrible election season, we can start to--not heal, but just do better. Look below the surface. Maybe look to the Bard, the words he put in Shylock's mouth. They are as applicable to any minority, in any country, at any time. "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" Of course, it goes on to speak of a Jew seeking revenge, because it is the "Christian" thing to do, but this is my blog and I get to cherry pick and I choose to end the quote here. It's what we need to think about when he look at each other. And I can hope that the Trump effect will, in the end, turn out to be that we all took a better look at each other, and even without a Big Shout, got very polite.