by Judith Gayle
Astrology bit me today. I had a finely-tuned think-piece coming along when I inadvertently wiped it away, along with all my notes. Saturn in Sagittarius is exactly opposing my natal Uranus at the moment, so I should have expected something more than a resurgence of an old health challenge that buzzes and snarls when that Uranus gets tickled, but I was flying by the seat of my pants, lost in the fumes of wordsmithing and point-shaping. So it goes, here on the cusp of change.
We are on the cusp of change in so many ways. Some of it is obvious, some of it too far away — still unclear, dallying in the light peeking in under the door — to determine, but it’s here and it’s due to bite us unless we deal with it now. Because tracking the specifics of change is a chore, rather than put further strain on my immune system or pounding head, I’m going to mention a few of the things easily noted on the radar and let that be enough today.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement was signed in New Zealand this week. It must now go through the process for a vote — an up/down vote, as won by Obama awhile back — that will take many months. Most of us know this is a disaster of a trade deal and needs to be stopped. There are many organizations attempting that now. Go here to find activist ops and community leadership.
John Kerry, along with his Russian counterpart, has proposed a temporary cease fire in Syria to allow the UN to deliver aid to millions of suffering civilians; and although the international community is encouraged by the opportunity to provide humanitarian assistance, Assad complained that interference by foreigners would just make the war longer. The Sunni/Shia schism that lies in the belly of this beast continues to stalk the Middle East and muddle any option for peace.
Our five conservative activist judges in the Supreme Court have thrown the e-brake on Obama’s Clean Power Plan, leaving it unimplemented through summer of next year when it will be heard by the appellate court. This is not just a catastrophic decision and one aimed at curtailing EPA power; it is an attempt to limit the power of the presidency and return pollution decisions to individual states. This suit, filed against the EPA by some 28 states and various industries led by the Chamber of Commerce, has resulted in an unprecedented, shortsighted and extremely dangerous decision.
Another of those unexpected firsts includes new House Speaker Ryan turning a blind eye to Obama’s last budget, making no provision to hold a congressional hearing on the matter. The level of hostility on record is quite remarkable, including this quote by House Budget Chairman Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga:
“Rather than spend time on a proposal that, if anything like this administration’s previous budgets, will double down on the same failed policies that have led to the worst economic recovery in modern times, Congress should continue our work on building a budget that balances and that will foster a healthy economy.”
With cooperation like this in Congress, it’s no wonder Trump and Sanders have broad public appeal. Seems worth noting we should probably prepare ourselves for another of those fabulous government shut-downs later in the year, as the nation prepares to hand off to new leadership.
With a kind of strange clarity, there are many firsts to speak to now. Last night, two seasoned female reporters from PBS — one black, one white — hosted a Democratic presidential debate between a Protestant woman candidate and her Jewish male contender. Despite portents of inevitability, the woman had won an initial state primary by far less than a percentage point, while the man had won the next by over twenty, laying waste to the talking point that Democratic Socialism was anathema in America and that establishment politics cannot be challenged.
Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff not only aced the debate questions, but dug deeply into the issues at hand — the first time women had been tasked with the whole of the responsibility. Hillary Clinton congratulated all of them for breaking a precedent, and Bernie mentioned later that his own candidacy, along with his win in New Hampshire, was ground-breaking as well.
When we juxtapose this with the debates of the Republican candidates, Donald Trump running with his — ummm — hair on fire from the sharp questions of a savvy Megyn Kelly, it does seem as though intelligent discourse will find a way through the mosh pit of misogyny and retreat from reality that pretends at conservatism these days. When Ifill asked Sanders about social and racial issues that are compounding mental health problems for white (predominantly male) citizens in financially hard hit areas, it felt as through progressivism was still alive and well in the good old US of A and we had not given up on community.
Mrs. Clinton is depending on establishment connections to bring her to victory — ties to the black community, large funders like George Soros and Citibank and lots of Super-delegates who threw their hands in with hers long before they were sure who’d run against her. All share one thing: they don’t believe government can change, and many don’t want it to.
Mr. Sanders is depending on the older Democrats and Independents who remember that government is a social democracy, pulling from the collective pot to serve the needs of society. The Republican principle of privatized services, unwieldy and unresponsive to the order and protection of the larger unit, will not serve the common good. Without government, for instance, we have no public libraries or schools, no fire protection or police force, no postal service or garbage collection. We have no infrastructure, no roadwork or hazard protection, no parks, no museums or courts. Without a social contract with one another we have no checks and balances, no safety net, and no duty to one another. Essentially, we have no civilization.
The elders who remember when these things were not at risk honor Bernie’s vision, and for different reasons so do the youth. These are the youngsters who, to give them their due, probably don’t know that Henry Kissinger is the guy who said, ominously, “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.” While they are not unaffected by history and all it teaches, like those who have yet to fully embrace their mortality, their concern is primarily the immediate moment.
They are more worried about a government that had been declared inept by the right of the political spectrum (who then spent decades proving it so) and challenged by an old lefty with the instincts of an FDR Democrat who wants to return “public” to public policy, to put their well-being in the middle of the equation. They might not remember when the brilliant California educational system was the star in the crown of the nation, serving a growing middle class; but they believe it can happen again, and help relieve them of some of the crushing school debt that has left them hopeless and helpless. They have fewer concerns about the culture war than the class war, having become multicultural themselves.
The minority youth, by the way, aren’t on board with the Clinton elders so much as the elders had thought, nor the early feminists either; and that is by the very design of change itself. The millennial generation has its own concerns, and a fast-track into the future. They are easier with technology than previous generations and quicker to think outside the box. They aren’t weighed down by the past.
If they think Bernie can change the way government works, it will be because they are willing to apply themselves to those changes rather than have them provided. Should they turn out to be the ones who would push the progressive agenda forward, worries about Sanders’ ability to flex might prove moot. This isn’t a generation whose heart is set on war or conquest and they will be less interested in greasing the skids of the military-industrial complex than prior generations.
The people and events that seem to be shaking the American tree are the very first warning signs of the events to come. I was mouth-breathing at a conversation about how this seems very odd considering the ‘pitchfork’ response after the Wall Street debacle died away without too much muss and fuss, only to be replaced by serious anger from the left. Why the delay, the talking heads wonder? If people were so upset, what took them so long? Things are so much better now, they argue — but better for whom?
Then I wonder about them, their lives of privilege and insider connection, that allow them NOT to understand how inevitable it would be that those same white folks we spoke of, depressed and discouraged, turn to drugs and alcohol and suicide because the very foundation of their nation has given way beneath them. They certainly don’t understand that those loud and angry young people in Black Lives Matter are no longer willing to live with the current rash of murderous savagery for little reason other than authoritarian fear of losing white privilege.
Does no one remember the grassroots rise of pride and power demonstrated by the Black Panthers except the armed goons on the right? Are fear and loathing, contempt and violence all we can muster as the larger organism of our culture implodes? While armed civilian Peace Keepers protect the property of Ferguson, Missouri, from being vandalized by rioting youth, the city fathers of Ferguson reject proposals for a reordered police department by the Department of Justice as unworkable in their area. The DoJ is suing to bring them into line.
Yet we still fail to see how everything is changing. Quite remarkable, I think, that the establishment remains so totally tone deaf to what will be explosive at some point in the near future unless it is addressed. Open this link for a little illustration, an example of how this is being missed by those in authority, it’s stunning how clueless they remain.
My favorite story this week was by a woman who ran a political race against Bernie in Vermont years ago and won. She was a mother, and at some point that came up, with Bernie being somewhat stern on the matter. It was, he decided, sexist to deal with that issue on the campaign trail. Think about that awhile. It wasn’t that Bernie didn’t have kids himself or was unsympathetic to that condition. It was simply a part of the quotient that did not apply itself to the situation.
That explains a lot to me. It illustrates some of that curmudgeonry we’ve assigned to old Bernie. It isn’t that Bernie doesn’t see it or feel these differences — not to mention that he’s mellowed in his prickly opinions over the years. But for Sanders, this equality thing is the real deal.
I guess the question is: is it the real deal for us, as well?
