I chose this visual of Ms. Liberty in a moment of doubt, because she is not a superficial gossamer dream of liberty without any complexity. Her survival has long depended on a fight. Not always the fight we find ourselves in today, but always a fight. Today, it’s a virtual war, and like in any war, things are not going to be pure. And perhaps the worst is in an internal war, when we take up arms against each other, whether metaphorically or literally (and this nation has done both) it ain’t going to be pretty, or the product of our “better angels.” War of any kind, is on its face, not about our better angels.
To be more specific, I am writing this tonight with visions of rotting sugar plums dancing in my head, based on, but not exclusively about, what’s gone on here, at the DK, with the latest news bomb regarding Hur’s statement on his investigation of Joe Biden in the documents case. (Oh, and BTW, it was supposed to be about Joe being cleared, not some unqualified person’s assessment of Joe’s mental acuity. And if you don’t get that this was an outrageous hit job, nothing I say from here on will be of much value to you.)
OK, now I’m going to get down to the brass tacks of what my headline is about. And it’s going to include Merrick Garland as an example of what I’m talking about, so yeah, I already feel the slings and arrows here headed for me. And I know I’m chancing that this will just engender another useless re-litigation of stuff I give most of us credit for knowing and still disagreeing about. Which Is why I haven’t written it before, even though sometimes I’ve longed to. But you know, straw/camel. And today was that straw for me.
For the record, I think Garland is a decent enough man, but I think he’s been FAR from the best man for these times and our needs. And it really does mystify me at this point why so many here will defend him no matter what.
Still, my point here is not to hammer on Merrick Garland--- because so much of what he’s done is water over the damn---but rather to use him as an example of where I think Democrats go wrong, which isn’t just about messaging---that endless meme here. It’s about why the heck Democrats think tying their hands behind their back equals a fair fight.
I’m using Garland here, as an example of Democrats too often needing to go high, to fly with the angels, or win the bi-partisan participation award, even if they lose the forest for the trees. Some remember halcyon days I don’t remember in politics---when things were so much better, and politics wasn’t war. But this once upon a time history teacher and once upon a time poli-sci minor, is pretty clear that politics has always been a bloody fisticuffs business. Like since the beginning of time.
How many examples of republicans hiring democratic investigators can you think of? I could only think of one, and he wasn’t even an investigator. He was the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who presided over the Watergate trial, until Nixon fired him. Maybe there is another example somewhere between then and now, but I couldn’t find it on a google search. Seems Republicans learned that lesson well.
And not only did Garland hire Hur, orignially a Trump appointee, he also hired this guy: David Weiss, another Trump appointee, as special council to investigate Hunter Biden. And, who in the end, wasn’t good enough for republicans either. Please read link and find that all that effort at trying to earn a non partisan brownie badge was for naught. Once again.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
We all think we know what the power of the bully pulpit is, but too many think it’s just about the presidency. But, when you win both the presidency and the senate, and leave behind only the house with a razor thin republican majority, the “bully pulpit” goes beyond the presidency. And imo, Democrats need to learn that there is nothing wrong with using the power that comes with that kind of win. The republicans surely get that. Hell, they’re barely hanging on in the house, but crowing as if they rule the world.
And no, I’m not saying we have to be “like them” to win---a simplistic push back to any suggestion that we use the power we have legitimately won--- that I’ve heard here over and over when it comes to fighting in the arena we are presented with. But I do think it’s a form of arrogance to believe we can somehow teach the opposition how it’s done, by disregarding the nature of politics---and at the very worst I’ve seen it in my lifetime in this country, although world history shows even worse. Or that voters appreciate us for it.
I think Garland represents this unfortunate Democratic conundrum in his refusal to even open an investigation till over a year after Jan. 6. Yes, I do. After all, opening an investigation is not an instant grand jury. It just says, hey, we’re going through something we haven’t witnessed in this country since the civil war, and it certainly deserves an investigation. Sure didn’t take the republicans more than 2 minutes to try to impeach Biden over nothing, to try to drag his son through the bowels of hell to get to him, to try to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas on a dime and for no good reason, other than that they CAN. And who knows what’s to come from them.
And again and again, no, we don’t have to be like them. But what we DO have to do, IMO, is respect the arena we are fighting in, and stop this business of tying our hands behind our backs when our opposition has no scruples about pulling out semi-automatics. Not to mention a media conglomerate that has let us down over and over again, when it comes to recognizing what’s at stake, besides the horse race that is their daily bread and butter.
Hell, today the press looked more like hungry jackals going after Biden and his press secretary, and a spokesperson for the White House legal council’s office, than frankly, I can ever remember them going after Trump. It’s almost like screw those “better angels” we’ll show them!
In these last 24 hours I have read some of the most ridiculous bed wetting things I’ve yet to hear on this site, and I’ve been here a long time. Too many people scared of republicans and offering up all sorts of false gods---such as “Biden must submit to a mandatory cognitive test, (of whose choosing wasn’t mentioned) and if he doesn’t pass it (and who will decide that?) he must step aside! I mean, are you kidding me?
And yeah that was not the majority, but those posters and others like them, got a fair amount of recs, and there were plenty more interested in talking about Biden’s gaffs and mistakes and lecturing the rest of us that we certainly can’t excuse Biden, just because he’s our guy. Never mind that some of those commenters were involved in outrageous false equivalencies.
So, no, I don’t want Merrick Garland as my standard of what’s fair and right in the arena we find ourselves in, don’t appreciate him as one of our better captains in this fight. But he is just one very convenient example of a larger problem. In war, you do what you need to do. And you certainly don’t throw away your advantages, such as throwing away the powers of the full “bully pulpit” that is at your fingertips, by trying to be the non partisan good brownie. We live in highly divisive and partisan times, again, a virtual civil war. And I just think we make an enormous mistake trying to act as if that’s not true, as if there is not a freaking new normal.
I know many of those who I respect and admire here will not be in agreement with me, and that’s OK w/me. But I just couldn’t take it anymore---this business of we go high when they go low and with no disrespect for Michelle Obama, who I greatly admire. But I wonder how much even she believes this at this point.
And it doesn’t have to be about matching them in their lows, but it DOES HAVE TO BE about fighting with the tools and power we earned in the last election. IMO, Lady liberty is not crying because she doubts our better angels. But imo, because she is wondering if we are up to the fight, as unpleasant, un-pure and nasty as it might be. Because folks, it’s only February. Going to be a very long year.
