President Donald Trump and Republicans in the Senate have stated there is no need, at this point in time, for additional stimulus dollars to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. They are wrong. There is a desperate need. States and local government need financial support to maintain the essential health, education and public services they provide for their citizens. Those small businesses that will survive the cataclysmic crash that has occurred will need financial support to manage … [Read more...]
Preserving Our American Democracy in an Era of Repression and Regression
Part Three: Plans for Preserving Our Democracy [This is the third and final blog of a three-part series focused on what is happening in our democratic republic in terms of repression and regression and what should be done in response to these conditions. In the first blog, we examined the areas of repression. In the second, we examined the areas of regression. In this blog, we present and discuss plans for protecting and preserving our democracy.] Make no little plans, … [Read more...]
Preserving Our American Democracy in an Era of Repression and Regression
Part Two: The Areas of Regression [This is the second blog of a three-part series focused on what is happening in our democratic republic in terms of repression and regression and what should be done in response to these conditions. In the first, we examined the areas of repression. In this blog, we examine the areas of regression. In the third, we will present and discuss plans for protecting and preserving our democracy.] For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy … [Read more...]
Preserving Our American Democracy in an Era of Repression and Regression: Part One: The Areas of Repression
Part One: The Areas of Repression [This is the first blog of a three-part series focused on what is happening in our democratic republic today in terms of repression and regression and what should be done in response to these conditions. In this blog, we examine the areas of repression. In the second, we will examine the areas of regression. And, in the third we will present and discuss plans for protecting and preserving our democracy.] No man is an island…. any man’s death … [Read more...]
The Answer for Renewing the American Dream and America
Not Socialism. Not Capitalism. A More Inclusive and Equitable Democracy. In this 20th year of the 21st century, the United States of America has become a land of inequality and a sanctuary for the rich and powerful. The top 1% of earners have more wealth than the bottom 80% and the top 20% have more wealth than all those in the middle class. America today is an economically divided nation. And, as we noted in our previous blog, those on the underside of that … [Read more...]
The Trump Administration: The Plot Sickens for Our Democracy
This past decade was a one of loss for the United States. We’ve hoped that this decade would be one of recovery. As we noted in our last blog, however, we are not off to a good start in this regard. There were five disquieting events in the first week of February indicating that the loss in the 2010s might continue and even accelerate in 2020s. They were: President Trump’s State of the Union address The Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump on the impeachment … [Read more...]
2010–2019: A Decade Of Loss. 2020–2029: A Decade For Recovery.
The decade 2010–2019 for the United States, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, was one that “ended not with a bang but with a whimper.” Some of that whimper was President Donald Trump bemoaning the unjustness of his impeachment by the U.S. House. Some of it was writers looking back retrospectively and commenting on those ten years. In their assessment, this past decade was not one of joy and American progress but one of sadness and retreat. The cover page of the Sunday Review … [Read more...]
2019 Word of the Year: Trust
As 2019 drew to a close, various organizations announced their word of the year. Oxford Dictionaries named “climate emergency.” Dictionaries.com named “existential.” Merriam Webster named “they.” As this new year begins, our choice for word of the year just past is Trust. We select trust not because of its presence in 2019 but because of its absence. Indeed, this absence of trust could be seen as one of the underlying reasons or a root cause of the climate emergency, which is precipitating an … [Read more...]
The USA : A Republic If You Can Keep It
A republic, if you can keep it. This is reported to be Benjamin Franklin’s answer to a lady who asked him as he departed from Independence Hall at the end of the Constitutional Convention, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin’s response has been used occasionally during Donald Trump’s tenure as President. It is being invoked more frequently now, as Trump’s recent monarchial-type mutterings and meanderings surrounding his invitation to Ukraine to … [Read more...]
The Enemy of the U.S. Democracy is Us
In a famous 1970 Earth Day poster, cartoonist Walt Kelly had his title character Pogo, a possum, who lived in the Okefenokee swamp, say to his friend Porky Pine, a porcupine, after they have walked through a contaminated area, “Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us.” Approaching five decades later, the United States democracy is becoming a swamp. The enemy creating that swamp in the U.S. is the enemy within. In 2019, we have met the enemy and he is us. Donald Trump … [Read more...]