Thoughts on America on an October Morning

The author of this tome is a generation younger than yours truly and his words reflect the angst of many his age.  He is the father of two children.  The title is from a great Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, after the passage of the 1787 USA Constitution. - GNH

"A Republic if you Can Keep It"

by Chris S. Holliman

Lately the news from D.C. has been coming at us like water from a fire hose.  But today seems to stand out to me for a number of reasons.  I thought that I might put down some thoughts before going to bed.

I awoke this morning to the news that the great statesman Elijah Cummings had passed away.  His death reminded me of a time 50 years ago when our nation was tearing itself apart over race.  And so we are again today.  Perhaps much has changed from the 60's, but white fear is still alive in 2019.  

I also noticed in the news that picture from yesterday's meeting at the White House in which House Speaker Pelosi is standing up and pointing across the table at the President.  I love this picture because she is the only woman in a room of white men (some of whom are looking at the table) and she see appears fearless.  

Later in the day, the news broke that Trump had awarded next year's G-7 summit to his resort in Doral, Florida.  I was shaken by this brazen violation of the public trust, of this flagrant self-dealing on the part of the President. This is an escalation in Trump's violation of the emolument’s clause and a test of loyalty on the part of Senate Republicans.  

Finally, Chief of Staff Mulvaney's press conference in which he admitted a quid pro quo with Ukraine was another stunning development.  The last defense of the President and the Senate Republicans ('no quid pro quo!') came crashing down.  Mulvaney's delivery was taunting, "So what?"  he said.  

So what indeed?  "Nice republic, if you can keep it." I thought.

I hold little illusion that the Senate GOP will ever remove this man from office.  A multi-billion-dollar info-tainment industry and white fear will keep Trump in the White House. I can only count on a shaky Democratic Party (Hamlet-like in its rabid doubting and self questioning) and the average voter in November 2020 to set some right to the Executive branch.

I suspect that my feelings of hurt, confusion, abject bewilderment, and cynicism regarding the state of the country are only a small part of what marginalized people throughout history have felt.  I am a cis gendered, middle class, college educated, white male.  I possess a great amount of privilege in society, little of which I have earned.  

It has only been since 2016 that I realized that the perception of myself and my country was naïve and flawed.  Through the United States flows a strong, dark undercurrent of racist and sexist poison.  It took Donald Trump to show me that.   

Hopefully as I move through my middle age, I will be more willing to listen to the voices of people who have been on the periphery.  I want to hear how people of color view the world, what it's like to be an immigrant, etc.  In Donald Trump's America, listening may be the greatest form of resistance. - CSH