Liked this piece a lot. Got a useful framework from "Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue."
I wonder whether the shrugging/sleepwalking outcome of autocratic control is inevitable, or if the chaos and waste might influence enough people finally to come to their senses and vote to keep the country in one piece.
I think under point 3, the GOP openly torpedoed a bill that would have delivered a lot of what they want not just out of loyalty to just one, but also as an attempt to show raw power: you don't care about disguising motives if you believe it displays your might.
I dearly hope Republicans vastly over played this hand, but I think it reflects their self-perception of already having the power to be this authoritarian.
Just a note to say I just read your note re Citizens United and the other opinion. Reading your comments is always worth while. I knew about them but needed the refresher.
It helps that you’re always worth reading , on any topic.
Your election countdown lament takes me back to my 1960s Foreign Service days in Congo. I attended a National Assembly session in which all the members unanimously voted against a bill submitted by Prime Minister Adoula.
All of Adoula’s cabinet were members of the National Assembly. Huh? They voted against themselves?
There was also a question about which of two constitutions was operative. The judiciary never resolved the matter, but this was of slight concern in conducting business a la Congolais.
I could observe and report these absurdities without personal concern, since Congo was not my country.
BUT with the cockamamie gyrations of Speaker Johnson’s House, the Stench Court’s maladroit ‘originalism’ that ignores well-grounded precedents, and Special Prosecutors such as Hur who submit political polemics rather than professional assessments, I am tremendously concerned about what is occurring in my country.
Congress a la Congolais, a Stench Court that is disassembling well-grounded precedents, Special Prosecutors who I find a disgrace to the legal profession, and a former president who seems capable of delaying tactics that could postpone criminal trials until after the November elections: HAS GOVERNMENT A LA CONGOLAIS COME TO MY COUNTRY?
The Congo, 70 years later, is no better than when I left it. I fervently hope that we can do better in the United States of America, but I am far less positive than was Jon Meacham in THE SOUL OF AMERICA, published in 2010.
I had not known the nuance of any of these Congolais comparisons; as always, thank you.
My main "consolation" about US history is my oft-stated view that the US is in trouble... and always has been. But the trouble can be extraordinarily destructive and long lasting. Eg the century that separated the Civil War from the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
As you know, there is no alternative to acting as if everything is on the line, every day.
Embarrassing admission here: I had somehow imagined that it was Yogi Berra with the line I quoted. Roughly same era; both managed the Mets (after fame with the Yankees); Berra remembered for more of these one-liners. Good thing I looked it up!
I sense a definite change of tone in this report, or an intensification of tone. If only the media would wake up. But apparently not. Not yet, at least.
This has been coming for a long time, as you know. The debt-ceiling showdowns were an early indicator. But this week's "crisis at the border" showdown seems to move to a new level of starkness.
Liked this piece a lot. Got a useful framework from "Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue."
I wonder whether the shrugging/sleepwalking outcome of autocratic control is inevitable, or if the chaos and waste might influence enough people finally to come to their senses and vote to keep the country in one piece.
I think under point 3, the GOP openly torpedoed a bill that would have delivered a lot of what they want not just out of loyalty to just one, but also as an attempt to show raw power: you don't care about disguising motives if you believe it displays your might.
I dearly hope Republicans vastly over played this hand, but I think it reflects their self-perception of already having the power to be this authoritarian.
Just a note to say I just read your note re Citizens United and the other opinion. Reading your comments is always worth while. I knew about them but needed the refresher.
It helps that you’re always worth reading , on any topic.
Thanks!
Even Homer nods…
OK. 95%.
Jim
Your election countdown lament takes me back to my 1960s Foreign Service days in Congo. I attended a National Assembly session in which all the members unanimously voted against a bill submitted by Prime Minister Adoula.
All of Adoula’s cabinet were members of the National Assembly. Huh? They voted against themselves?
There was also a question about which of two constitutions was operative. The judiciary never resolved the matter, but this was of slight concern in conducting business a la Congolais.
I could observe and report these absurdities without personal concern, since Congo was not my country.
BUT with the cockamamie gyrations of Speaker Johnson’s House, the Stench Court’s maladroit ‘originalism’ that ignores well-grounded precedents, and Special Prosecutors such as Hur who submit political polemics rather than professional assessments, I am tremendously concerned about what is occurring in my country.
Congress a la Congolais, a Stench Court that is disassembling well-grounded precedents, Special Prosecutors who I find a disgrace to the legal profession, and a former president who seems capable of delaying tactics that could postpone criminal trials until after the November elections: HAS GOVERNMENT A LA CONGOLAIS COME TO MY COUNTRY?
The Congo, 70 years later, is no better than when I left it. I fervently hope that we can do better in the United States of America, but I am far less positive than was Jon Meacham in THE SOUL OF AMERICA, published in 2010.
I had not known the nuance of any of these Congolais comparisons; as always, thank you.
My main "consolation" about US history is my oft-stated view that the US is in trouble... and always has been. But the trouble can be extraordinarily destructive and long lasting. Eg the century that separated the Civil War from the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
As you know, there is no alternative to acting as if everything is on the line, every day.
Looking at the American political scene now, I often think of another saying of the great Casey Stengel: “Include me out!”
Embarrassing admission here: I had somehow imagined that it was Yogi Berra with the line I quoted. Roughly same era; both managed the Mets (after fame with the Yankees); Berra remembered for more of these one-liners. Good thing I looked it up!
"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." - P J O'Rourke, "Parliament of Whores," 1991
I had forgotten that one. He was very talented.
I sense a definite change of tone in this report, or an intensification of tone. If only the media would wake up. But apparently not. Not yet, at least.
The media performance last night, around the time I posted this, was not encouraging. I'll write about that soon.
Freaking scary isn't it? One party , elected to govern, does not want to govern.
This has been coming for a long time, as you know. The debt-ceiling showdowns were an early indicator. But this week's "crisis at the border" showdown seems to move to a new level of starkness.
Yes, thanks, next in the queue