Let Me Explain

History in the Making

We were watching the 5:30 p.m. local news when they interrupted the program with breaking news from CBS News.

The former guy had been officially indicted by a grand jury in New York. The charges apparently stem from hush money payments to a porn star, but the indictment has been sealed and that's really all the public knows.

I strongly suspect there is more to it than that, or the indictment would not have been handed down.  CNN is reporting this morning that there are more than 30 counts of business fraud against the former guy. There will be more information as the thing moves forward.

That said, I do believe the man needs to be in jail, not for paying off a porn star, but for trying to undermine the functionality of the government and the U.S. Constitution. He should be behind bars for attempting a coup.

I do not believe that any indictments or trials against the former guy are politically motivated simply because he was/is a politician (and running for the office of president again). I believe in the rule of law, and I also believe that no one is above the law - and the Department of Justice's current stance that sitting presidents can't be touched is simply wrong. We do not have kings in this country. Presidents are not demi-gods here. They're just men.

And men who break the law should go to jail.

This is the first time a former president has been indicted, so it's history-making. Were there presidents who should have been indicted after they left office? Probably. I always thought George W. Bush committed war crimes and should have been held responsible for that. All of that torture and Guantanamo Bay stuff could not have been legal.

Here in Virginia, our own governor, Bob McDonnell, was indicted and convicted of federal corruption charges. He was the first Virginia governor to be convicted of a felony. It ruined his career. The conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States and the Justice Department decided not to re-try the case.

Let's not forget Oliver North, who was convicted for the Iran-Contra affair (charges vacated in exchange for Congressional testimony). He was on the National Security Council at the time. Not a high-ranking official, but not a nobody, either.

There is a long list of indictments and prosecutions against federal politicians here. None of these people were immune simply because they were in politics.

So, there's precedent for this, at least at the state level. The former guy is not going to go to jail; there will be a trial, and if he's found guilty, he will appeal. He will continue to walk among us, unless federal charges come through.

Whether or not this is enough to convince many of his followers that the guy doesn't walk on hallowed ground with every step he takes, is another matter. I'm afraid the former guy is merely representative of a large minority of Americans, who are racist and hateful people. I don't understand what they're angry about, but they are angry.

Here's the Explanation

I am angry, too, because this is not the United States I felt I was promised when I was growing up. I watched my father rise from literally nothing to being a wealthy businessman. He had opportunities that my brother and I did not, because in 1980 Ronald Reagan was elected. From that moment on, the America that I recognized began to change, and the rolling boulder of societal collapse began building.

Like many my age, I did not see it creeping up on us. I was busy trying to establish a career, trying to keep a husband happy, and trying to have children. I didn't like it when the regulations over media were changed - I could see that was going to be a problem. I didn't like it when it became obvious there had been shenanigans with the Middle East that had ended Jimmy Carter's presidency. I didn't like the changes to the welfare system instituted under Bill Clinton (I also didn't care who he slept with, just like I don't care who the former guy slept with.). I'm pretty sure Al Gore should have been president in 2000, and would have been, except for Supreme Court intervention. I was completely against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, two years after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. I was horrified by the PATRIOT ACT. I think that is when I began paying more attention.

In a Thursday Thirteen post yesterday, I noted 14 points of fascism and said I blamed both sides. Partly that was because I knew if I placed the blame solely upon Republicans, the Republicans that I wanted to read the piece would not. But it was also because I do blame the Democrats, too. 

I blame the Democrats for not paying attention, for letting things get to this point, and for not acting sooner to stop gun violence, to create a fairer tax system, for not working to stem racism, sexism, and all the other "isms" that upset people. The Democrats at times (admittedly small windows, but still) had the numbers to push through a federal law on abortion and they did not. They could have fought to keep the assault weapon ban in place when it expired in 2004. I don't know why they let that one get by them. Do I think the assault weapon ban would have hindered some of the domestic terrorism we're experiencing today? You bet.

Maybe Democrats play too nice. I know from the right-wing stuff I read that they think the Democrats are forcing diversity and equality down their throats and taking away their version of religion, and that the Democrats are the fascists (a word which seems to have replaced "socialist" in their lexicon), but I don't see that. Maybe I'm on the wrong side of the fence to see that so I can't see it, because I don't believe in meddling in other people's lives and just want to be left alone. 

What I do see is that some Democrats were more concerned with maintaining their seats and positions than they were with ensuring that the dreams of their constituents had validity. So they did next to nothing to counteract the authoritarian bent of their peers on the right.

Truly, it is not the Democrats whom I consider to be fascists and authoritarians. That lies solely at the feet of Republicans. The Democrats may have rolled over, but it's the Republicans who have actively worked to undermine the things - including the singular thing, the United States Constitution - that made this country great, and instead have made this country less than it could be. 

Republicans have cut taxes, fought against infrastructure improvements, turned things that government should run over to the private sector, created culture wars and upset people over stupid things like books, Disney, and the statue of David in Italy, for heaven's sake. The Democrats are not the ones undermining the very foundation of the New Deal (which gave my father the advantages he had), they're not the ones threatening Social Security and Medicare, they are not the ones kowtowing to a man who is not worthy of the dirt on the bottom of their own shoes. Republicans are doing that.

Not all Democrats are good people, just like not all good people are Democrats. I know some very nice folks who vote Republican, for whatever reason. When I talk with a reasonable Republican (yes, there are many, the far right calls them RINOs), generally it boils down to wanting the same thing; the difference is merely in the way we go about obtaining it. And frequently, at least to my face, they'll agree with me that yes, some corporations need to pay more, that the infrastructure needs indicate that more government, not less, is justified. (But they still don't want their money going to some non-white person with babies.)

So yes, both parties have contributed to the decline of this country and to the chaos I now see around me. But one party has contributed by being active. The other has simply been too passive.

I'll end this now with what I really believe in, deep in my soul:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

And I'll note that Justice is first, followed by domestic Tranquility.

It's Justice that is working on the former guy right now. Domestic Tranquility is now just a dream, and the source, I feel, of current cultural unrest.