Only Love

I find the current Trump-empowered political nightmare frustrating beyond measure and I’m long past responding to Trump’s daily stupidity by thinking that this time he’s truly crossed the line.  He has crossed the line; he does so on a daily basis.  But I have no idea where that boundary is for Mitch McConnell and the Republican party.  And until we get there, we must survive the daily horror that is Donald Trump.

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Barack Obama’s first inauguration and as I looked at pictures from that day and remembered my own memory of that splendid moment for our nation, I felt a wave of despair.  It feels so far away.  And here I am in 2019 groping in the darkness for a step in the right direction.

Today, Martin Luther King Jr. can once more lead the way for us.  I am frustrated; I am angry; I am mad.  But those emotions will not help our nation to move forward.  As Reverend King reminds us, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” 

Only Light.

Only Love.

Holding firm to Light and Love and the powerful hope that the arc will once again bend toward justice.

For Hope, History, and Hillary

I’ve repeated this story so many times before, that you’d think I could let it go, but I have waited a long time for this day and I am so excited about the history unfolding  before us on this day.  I was 16 years old in 1984 when Geraldine Ferraro was nominated as a vice presidential candidate.  That year, my mother told me, “You’ll see a women in the White House by the time you are 40.”

I turned 49 just a few days ago.

This morning I stood in line with my ballot and then I voted for a woman presidential candidate.  I am excited to send her to the White House.  

I took my 16 year old son into the voting booth with me and we cast that ballot together.  I’ve waited a long time to make this vote and the moment was so powerful and so full.  It’s made better by the fact that we made history in 2008 when we selected Barack Obama as president.  I was proud of my nation in 2008; I am just as proud now.  To think that we will have a swath of American presidents who broke barriers, who created an inclusive kind of hope……well that is some heady business.

This is America when it has the potential to be both good and great.  We are showing our children what it looks like when a diverse and tolerant nation rises to the challenges of the modern world.  When I was 16, I imagined that this vote would feel especially rich if I had a daughter.  But today I am reminded that it is our daughters and our sons who benefit from this historic change.  My son was 8 years old when Barack Obama was elected president; at 16 he will see the first woman enter the White House as president.  His world has been shaped by the notion that we are better and stronger because of our diversity.    That is the kind of greatness in which I believe.

We are with her.  I won’t go to bed tonight until I know that the rest of the nation is with us.

Martin Luther King Day 2016

The other day, I was looking at the the central calendar in my home, checking on the wrestling schedule.  Looking at February, I remembered the time when we had Lincoln and Washington’s birthdays as separate holidays.  In 1983, Martin Luther King Junior’s birthday replaced the separate presidential birthdays on the list of federal holidays and we swapped two 3-day weekends in February for one to celebrate MLK in January and another to mark Lincoln and Washington in February.  I remember the controversy and complaining that followed.  You can learn some of those details here. 

Looking back, the progression of states agreeing to eventually honor the federal holiday seems rather churlish.  There was Arizona, where the state’s governors when back and forth about honoring the holiday.  Or take Arkansas, which honored the holiday by permitting state employees to take either a January three-day week and Martin Luther King day or Robert E. Lee’s birthday instead.  That’s the sort of decision that would be bitterly funny if it weren’t for our nation’s horrifying history of slavery and racial animosity.

In 2009, the year Barack Obama took office as our nation’s first African American president, a friend and I took our sons to a church service for Martin Luther King Day.  The next day, I kept JT home from school to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office.  That momentous day seemed so important —— a real step forward in the struggle for racial equality in a nation that has sometimes gone kicking and screaming toward the promise of liberty and equality laid out in our founding documents.

Fast forward to 2016, and it seems to me that the promise I felt in 2009 has stalled.  Yes, we have an African-American president in the White House and yes, he has taken the time to speak articulately about race.  But enduring inequality is all around us in 2016.  The racism evident in some critics of President Obama is disappointing in a nation that should be better than this.  It’s a victory of sorts that we are more aware than ever before of the racial and economic inequalities that persist in our nation.  For this, I expect Martin Luther King would be glad.  But in so many other ways, we’ve yet to live up to the dream.   There is hard work ahead and we must all do our part.  Today is a good day to acknowledge that reality.

Making History, Round II

In 2009, I kept JT home from school to watch Barack Obama's inauguration.  It was a making history sort of day, and I wanted my boy to be a part of it.   That it was the first presidential inauguration he would remember was distinct in my mind.  I know that children develop a sense of government and political identity from the first president they remember and I wanted my son's memory and sense of the presidency to be of the nation's first African-American president.

That day felt exciting and full of promise.  In the four years of President Obama's first term, the progress made toward fulfilling the promise was palpable and real.  The Obama Administration has delivered on a range of issues that really matter to me.  From the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (the first bill President Obama signed into law) to his recent willingness to take on gun control, I am pleased with this president.  That's not to say that the work is done, or that things are perfect.  It's just that I feel we are making progress in the right direction.

On election day, as President Obama secured a well-deserved second term, I felt like I could actually breathe a sigh of relief.  I am not under the impression that the next four years will be easy.  There is plenty of unfinished business and dealing with the Tea Party tyrants in the House would challenge the most patient of leaders.  But that's what I value about President Obama: his willingness to express ideas, draft solutions, and get in the weeds.  The ways in which he patiently works to untie the knot that is the contemporary American political system demonstrates an enduring leadership that I greatly value.   He is a grown up and a man of ideas.  He is my son's vision of a president.  In that, I find great hope. 

Real Life Conversations with JT: Political Context edition

The backstory:  It's Friday morning and NPR has yet another story on the so-called fiscal cliff.  This one features Speaker of the House John Boehner announcing that talks are going nowhere; he's headed home to Ohio for the weekend.  But, Boehner says, President Obama can fly to Ohio or give Boehner a call if he wants to talk.  I am annoyed.

Me: Look, Boehner, the president won re-election last month.  He isn't going to fly to Ohio to talk to you.  You aren't in the driver's seat here, pal.  You're a fucking idiot.

JT:  Whoa, there, Mama.  All love, no hate.

Me:  I wasn't hating on Boehner.

JT:  You called him a "fucking idiot."  That's not love.

He may have a point.

An Electrifying Night

At Sassafras House, my election day birthday dawned cold and a little bleak.  It was our 8th morning without electricity.  Though I had great confidence that Obama would secure re-election, I  expected a day of nervous waiting.  The polls looked good, Nate Silver was giving me terrific odds, and yet I wasn't in a mood to count on much.  I've been disappointed on election day birthdays in the past, most notably in 1984, when Ronald Reagan swept the nation and defeated Walter Mondale.  When you care about politics as much as I do, you hate to make assumptions.

JT and I headed off to a local diner for breakfast and then I voted in a FEMA-powered temporary polling station.  For the afternoon, we joined the T-N family for companionship, heat, and electricity.  I began to troll the web for exit-poll data.  I was anxiously hopeful.  After supper, we had some birthday cake and as I blew out the candles I opted for my nation and wished for an Obama victory instead of power for my home.  

We turned on the telly at 8 pm to watch poll returns.  As polls in the east closed, the southern states provided numbers for Romney's column, but that was hardly surprising.  New York and New Jersey were predictably blue.  Pennsylvania was good.  Then, more surprisingly, New Hampshire went for Obama.  Soon the numbers began to shift in Obama's direction.  As I began to relax in the surety of an Obama victory, my friend M, who also lives in my town, texted that she had power.  I called my home and heard the re-assuring voice of my answering machine and I knew that I too was back on the grid.

Within the hour, JT and I drove home, confident that the day had brought us a whole lot of blessings.  We switched on the furnace and settled in to watch more swing states line up on the blue side of the equation.  Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico…the news was good and getting better.  We stayed up late, determined to watch Romney's concession and see November 6 out on a much happier note than it had begun.  Electricity and an Obama victory?  In one day?  Our cup overfloweth.

Later this week, I'll have some thoughts about what Obama's re-election means.  Hint: the numbers in Congress may be virtually the same, but the game has changed, a fact Republicans must understand and acknowledge.  But today is for celebrating the blessings of democracy, citizenship, electricity, and four more years of an Obama White House.  We are blessed.

Empowered Democracy or Why I Support President Obama

Today is election day.  It's also the 8th day that my New Jersey town is without power.  In the midst of some pretty bleak conditions, we were able to vote, thanks to a FEMA-provided generator used to power our fire station and our electronic voting booths.

In another universe, I intended to write a post today about why I am hoping for a Barack Obama victory in this election.  I had a long list of Obama successes to highlight.  But in light of the current state of life in New Jersey, I think just one example will do.  That example is the work of FEMA in our state, including the generator it provided to power democracy for my small town today.  Mitt Romney has called for privatization of disaster relief, an idea that is so hopelessly ignorant and out of touch that I can hardly fathom what he must be thinking.  

President Obama understands that we all flourish when we support one another.   He knows that ours is a government by and for the people; that it is the institution that can make all of our lives better.  He has done right by this nation for the past four years and we need him for the next four.  I voted for a little more hope and change today.  I hope that you will consider doing the same.

11:11 pm
Networks are starting to call this race for President Obama and we came home to a house with electricity.  Amazing election day and one hell of a birthday. This is a November 6 I will never forget.

Live Blogging the Debate

Okay, with the caveat that I don't think Obama blew the last debate so much as Romney wasn't a complete incompetent, I'm up for another round of live-blogging this nonsense.  And, yes, it is nonsense because a room filled with undecided voters is a room awash in nonsense.  For the love of God, who could possibly be undecided at this late date?

The misery fun starts in 5 minutes.

The worst part of any debate is that time when I must select which of the mainstream media to watch.  I'm going with MSNBC, but I will be pounding the mute button when Chris Matthews opens his gaping, unpleasant yaw.

In other news, this is funny.  Well played, DNC.  Well played.

10:00 pm
Obama is articulate, factual, engaging, competent.  Romney was defensive and deceptive on his tax plan, his view of birth control; demeaning about women in the workforce.  I'm satisfied.  What will the media think?

9:55 pm
Both men did well on the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately question.

9:45 pm
Romney has to identify his biggest difference from George W. Bush and say how he is different.  Energy independence.  Trade crack down on China.  Trade with Latin America.  Balanced budget. Champion small business.  Romney is rambling.

This is all malarkey.......Obama should explain that the recession meant government spending and that is why the debt is high.

9:43 pm
Obama says that birth control is a health issue and an economic issue for women.  Mittens?  He gets to dodge birth control completely then comes back to it and claims that he supports birth control access for women.  To which I say what Candy won't: you're a fucking liar.

9:38 pm
Finally a question about workplace income inequality for women.  And Obama mentions Lillie Ledbetter; first bill he signed into law. Bingo.

Governor?  Says he had some qualified women in his Cabinet in Massachusetts (he got 'em from a "binder full of women"...that's an unfortunate choice of words).  He favors flexible hours for mom.  Employers in the new economy will do this, he says.  When we have a strong economy, women will get good work.

Really, Candy, you'd better kick some ass on this one.

9:32 pm
Romney on the split-screen blinking furiously while Obama schools him on taxes.  Satisfying.

9:27 pm
Obama talks about the specific cuts he's made for small businesses and middle class folks.   Says 98% of Americans get no tax increase to deal with debt, but taxes go up for the top 2%, folks who make above 250K....he wants Clinton-era tax rates for those folks.

9:25 pm
A specific question about middle class tax credits......will Romney talk specifics about his plan? Not so far.

Romney: I will bring rates down for everyone.  I will eliminate credits and deductions for folks at the high end.  Says he may limit deductions to a total of $25,000 for big income.  He won't tax investments for people who make less than $200,000/ year.  Ahem, that ain't the middle class, Governor.

9:18 pm
The two are facing off and calling one another's liars.  This is a bit rocky; very combative.  Romney is implying he can lower the price of gas and that is a risky claim, as he must certainly well know.  Gas prices are determined by world markets and pumping oil here is a private business venture in the US; government can't tell them where to sell it.

Romney just said that Long Island had gas at less than $2 a gallon when Obama took office.  I live in this area, NJ has the lowest prices in the region, and I haven't paid under $3 for gas in the past 4 years.

9:11 pm
Stupid question about gas princes.  But Obama is explaining about how to create energy independence and lowering oil imports.  Romney is meandering though he says will get us energy independent.....more drilling, more permits and licenses, pipeline from Canada.

Candy asks if gas prices are at the new normal.  It's a good question.

9:06 pm
Obama wants to create good-paying jobs; build on the 5 million already created.  And he's got specifics: build manufacturing, tax incentives for those who create jobs here, help small businesses to export, build the best education system in the world, student loans, community colleges for re-training, control our own energy (solar, wind, bio-fuels), balanced reduction of deficits.

Obama home run.  Candy pushes back and asks for specifics.  Romney answers with, "I'll create 12 million jobs."  And then wonders all over the place talking about Detroit bankruptcy.   Obama hammers Romney for everything he's said thus far.  Does it in a folksy style but is still basically calling out, "liar, liar, pants on fire."

9:05 pm
Romney is going to make it easier for students to afford college.  He likes loans and Pell Grants.  And he wants kids to be able to get jobs.  But how, Governor?  HOW?

9:01 pm
What the fuck happened to Candy Crowley's hair?  I like Candy as much as I like any TV reporter.  But, seriously,  WTF?