Lessons From A Virus

My next newspaper column:

Last week I wrote that Rudy Giuliani invested $2 million in the maker of Trump’s touted malaria drug. Though his credibility disappeared years ago, Rudy denies it, and no proof has been forthcoming. I should have dug further. More important were Trump’s ridding himself of oversight, and the preview Wisconsin’s primary gives us of voting in Trump’s America. For some, my carelessness detracted from that. Lesson learned.

The corona crisis is providing lessons, too. In no particular order:

1)   “Government is the problem” only when it’s mismanaged. More so when it’s been gutted, defunded, and filled with lobbyists and yes-people.

2)   Air is clearer, water is cleaner, animals are thriving. This puts to rest claims that addressing pollution and climate change will make no difference.

3)   The aforementioned have resulted from massive curtailing of human activity; but we know how to create non-polluting energy without shutting down. It can’t happen overnight like this has, but the need and means are clear. Uncaring, Trump and Republicans stand in the way, doing everything they can to promote fossil fuel and inhibit renewables. Choosing contributions from oil producers over the health of humanity and the planet is unconscionable.

4)   Tying health insurance to employment is dumb.

5)   Removing healthcare access from huge numbers of Americans endangers us all.

6)   An economy in which millions face bankruptcy by missing one paycheck wasn’t as robust as Republicans were proclaiming. Not to mention the crushing demand on food banks. Low-wage workers, targeted by Republican policies, are vital to our economy and deserve better.

7)  Trump arranged to get his signature on the "rescue" checks. As if it’s his money, his gift. It’s the only responsibility he’s taken lately, and it’s a self-promoting lie.

8)  Republicans filled the “rescue” with giveaways to their rich donors. Billions; unrestricted, unsupervised.

9)  Patriotism isn’t waving flags. Among other things, it’s caring how one’s actions affect others; willingness to sacrifice in order to help, even people you don’t know. Self-described “patriots” who refuse, because “freedom,” are, in fact, the opposite. The virus has stripped away pretense.

10)  Trump ignored warnings for critical weeks, making things immeasurably worse, costing lives. Recent revelations by determined, dogged journalists are undeniable. His intellectual and psychological unfitness for the job should be obvious to everyone by now. Persisting deniers are as dangerous as he is. 

11)  Republicans calling for “opening” the country prematurely value money more than human life. From the “pro-life” party, this is ironic.

12)  In addition to his experienced pandemic response team, which Trump disbanded, President Barack Obama left a sixty-nine-page document, which foresaw and addressed, in comprehensive detail, every challenge we’re now facing: struggling hospitals, shortages, supply chains, manufacturing, the role of each government department, states vs. federal responsibilities, testing. All of it. Despite Trump’s incessant blaming and repetitive lies, this pandemic WAS foreseen. And there were plans.

13)  Trump’s downplaying of testing, to hide the numbers, is immoral.

14)  So desperate is he to shift blame, Trump is lying about and, in the midst of a global health crisis (and flare-ups, around the world, of polio, measles, Ebola, diphtheria) cutting funds for the WHO. It’s another example of how unfit he is for the presidency: to blame his failings on others, he’s willing to cause death around the world. Mostly in poor countries, of course. It’s beyond shameful: it’s evil. 

15)  Claiming “total authority,” Trump neither understands nor respects the Constitution. Declaring himself a “wartime” president, he nevertheless left procurement to the states. If “war” doesn’t require federal management, what does? Worse, he’s making it harder for governors like ours, hurling insults and hijacking equipment they’ve obtained. 

16) Withholding needed supplies from governors who didn’t praise him enough, and granting them to those who did, is despicable. People are in need. Trump doesn’t care. Everything is about him.

17) Lacking federal leadership, several Republican governors are putting their people, and, therefore, all of us, at risk.

18) Suddenly all for it, Republicans who objected to deficits and stimulus packages during the Obama presidency clearly weren’t standing on principle, but on willingness to damage the country to keep President Barack Obama from succeeding.

19) Wisconsin showed why Trump fears mail-in ballots; and that when enough people understand the seriousness of what’s at stake, Republican voter-suppression can be overcome. For America, this might be the most important lesson of all.

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Memories of Memorial Day

My next newspaper column:

Monday, Memorial Day, a friend shared a Facebook meme: “Only two defining forces have offered to die for you. Jesus Christ, and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom...”  

And I thought, those who served in Vietnam as I did, before and after, killed there, didn’t die for our freedom. They died because they were poor, mostly, couldn’t get student deferments, or have daddies who bought them a pair of invisible bone spurs. They died not knowing or caring why they were there. Quoting another veteran, they died for a mistake. Taking and returning fire, they fought to protect themselves and their squadron, not anyone else. All they wanted was to ride those “freedom birds” back to the world with as many of their limbs as possible. The ones I evacuated mostly didn’t. Their Purple Hearts came at a much higher price than mine. And those who died were still dead three days later.  

I served in Danang, not far below the DMZ. “Rocket City,” we called it. When the rockets rained in and we dove for cover, it wasn’t for anyone’s freedom but our own. The beach there, China Beach, was beautiful, though; white sand, mild surf, and warm waters comparing favorably with the occasional nurse from the 95^th Evac stripping her combat fatigues down to a bikini, as choppers patrolled the shore, gunners sitting halfway out the doors, feet resting on the struts, protecting our freedom to swim.  

Just down the beach was the civilian MACV compound, fenced, guarded, green, quartering contractors making big money servicing the war. Someday, I figured, China Beach would be a destination spot, adorned with expensive hotels, win or lose. And so it is.  

Protecting America’s freedom had nothing to do with it. Especially not to the orchestrators. The Domino Theory was a useful selling point. Now our trading partner, Vietnam did fall. And it has hotels and McDonalds.   If the term makes sense, World War II was a good war. There was a definable cause, and undeniable need. It liberated people held in cages, terminating that practice and Nazism forever for a while. And it ended the Depression. 

Afghanistan was justifiable, might even have made us safer, had Rumsfeld not let Osama off the hook, had Bush not bailed to pursue unrevealed intentions. Iraq’s “Domino Theory” was “Bringing Democracy to the Middle East,” as bogus as the former, and as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. It was never about protecting our freedom, even though more who fought there, and more people back home, believed it was; more than was the case with Vietnam. By then, propaganda had found a louder voice. Dick Cheney’s stock in Halliburton made out. Oil companies and defense contractors, too. Most everyone else paid dearly for the adventurism, and the bill still isn’t settled. 

It’s easier to believe our wars have been to defend freedom than to consider other reasons. No matter what, those who died deserve our veneration. And contrition, for the lives we’ve enjoyed since they lost theirs. And for our complicity in sending them, unquestioning, to fight wars instigated by old men whose kids rarely did, for reasons obscured beneath star-spangled bromides.  

It’s wrong, and lazy, to define patriotism only in terms of war; equate it only with those convinced to fight, for reasons they’re made to believe. It’s not their belief that needs questioning: it’s that of those who slap “Support Our Troops” stickers on their cars and trucks, fly flags that say “Behold my patriotism,” coal-roll, vote for tax cuts that deprive veterans of their rightful benefits, and call themselves patriots. 

After serving in Vietnam, Memorial Day makes me more angry than sad. Once a year the tears are real; the absence of those who died is eternal. Yet we remain at war, even as phony platitudes and intimations of future wars from a “president” who dodged the draft by fakery expose the day of remembrance as the manipulation it has always been. My friend, an honorable man who didn’t serve, believes with all his heart. I respect him for that. My anger may be overly self-righteous, but military members aren’t the only Americans protecting our freedom. So are teachers, nurses, housekeepers, factory workers, researchers, parents, climate protestors, plumbers, Social Democrats, the remaining actual conservatives, community organizers… 

But not those keeping us in a state of perpetual war, selling the myth that freedom is the reason.

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Part Time Lovers

Somebody explain something to me, because I must be misunderstanding.

1. The US is a democracy.
2. Barack Obama is our president.
3. He was elected with a huge electoral margin.
4. He's doing exactly what he said he'd do when he was campaigning.
5. The percentage of people who approve of him now is much higher than the percentage that voted for him.

Based on the above, it's reasonable to say that the President's agenda represents the will of the people, and, as such, it can be considered, politically anyway, "America."

At the same time:

1. Republican screamers like to characterize liberals as the "hate America crowd," who "blame America first."
   
2. Republican screamers claim to be patriots, and to love our country.
3. Republican screamers have often suggested that if liberals don't love our country, they should leave.
4. Republican screamers think Obama is a Nazi, or worse, and that he is ruining America.
5. Republican screamers don't love Obama, or those who support him, which happens to include two-thirds of the citizenry.
6. Republican screamers are railing against America.
   

So isn't it the case that Republican screamers hate America? If it's not, then how would they describe their objections to America's path, as compared to the objections of liberals who criticized Bush, or other aspects of America? Why is one "love" and the other "hate?"

More to the point, based on prior claims and protestations, why aren't they leaving?
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Friends In Need

Here's how I look at it: you do what you have to do.

At the moment my wife and I are spending more helping people in our family than we are on ourselves. Literally. Quite a bit more. I won't say I'm thrilled about it, but it's something I want to do, feel obliged to do, and am willing to cut back in other areas in order to do it. My car is about to roll 200K, and I think it's got a few more in it. Our deck is aging poorly, but we can do without replacing it. I like having patches on my jeans; makes me feel like a kid again. Traveling is on extended hold.

The thing is, as a country, we've been fed for so long the false notion that tax cuts solve everything, that ignoring essential needs is okay as long as you invade a country once in a while, that there's absolutely no sense of willingness to pitch in in a time of need. Not, in any case, from the loudest on the right.

As in many areas, it's easier to believe than to face facts. How nice it would be if we had no obligations except to ourselves. How pleasant it's been to ignore the crumbling of our economy, the failings of our health care system, the falling behind of our educational institutions, our roads and bridges. How sweet to accept -- because we want to, we really want to -- the smoke and mirrors of tax cuts and deregulation, the sexiness of self-interest. What a great country that demands nothing more of so-called patriots than to slap on a bumper magnet and call it sacrifice. Environment? Oil dependence? What silly issues. Tell me I should use less gasoline? Pay for our excesses? In what world??

So we have tea parties. We have a mob mentality, unformed, but angry. At ... what? Taxes returning to 10% less than under Reagan, on the richest among us. Bailouts, formulated by Bush and Paulson, but now, somehow, blamed on Obama. Government spending to restart the economy, not unlike my spending on my relatives. Still laboring under the delusion that we can have what we want without paying for it, that we can forever ignore the needs of others, these people are pissed, all right. Screw those liberal fascists (oxymoron be damned!) for telling me there's more to citizenship than me me me.

Funny thing is, I bet a lot of these teabaggers wouldn't rise up in protest if their families were in need. Would they? Would they call for new parents if they were told they couldn't afford a vacation this year because there was a need to fix the leaking roof and help cousin Jack with his mortgage payments? Would they grab signs and march up and down their street demanding a higher allowance even if it meant their siblings would have to drop out of school? That's exactly what their default leaders are fomenting -- people like Hannity and Beck and O'Reilly and Coulter and Gingrich and Savage and Malkin, etc., ad nauseum: people who have more money than their followers could ever imagine, and always will. People for whom the state of the economy and of the nation are no more personally impactful than was the fate of New Orleans, and never will be.

But it's even weirder even than that. These people have been whipped up and astroturfed into raging against the people and philosophies who are trying to fix the problems, rather than the people and philosophies who caused them all. It's got to be one of the greatest examples of cynical manipulation of public sentiment since... since... well, since Dick Cheney and George Bush used their "war on terror" to justify looting the country and trashing its constitution.

I don't like spending what I am, but I do it. I expect that sometime conditions will be such that I'll not have to keep doing so, and that it will have been worth the investment: if not for me, then for the ones I'm helping.

Helping out in a time of need; coming together for the common good. In those railing against Barack Obama, there's none of that sentiment; it couldn't be further from their minds. And they're the Christians!

Aren't they?
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Weather in Hell: Cold

Ramesh Ponnuru, one of the most idiotic and repulsive "conservatives" out there, who wrote a book referring to Democrats as "The Party of Death," lets slip a bit of reason he'll surely find a way to retract. Could it be that we liberals who've been known to criticize this country do so out of love? Could it be that he, in an inexplicable lapse, agrees?

Stay tuned for the backing and filling.

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Cleaving To The Flag

I find it easy to root for local sports teams, even though most players have no more connection with my city than an inked and easily broken contract. I watch most games, go to a few, follow the stats, I like it when they win. But I could no more paint myself up and hoot and holler than I could walk naked down a parkway.

Similarly, there's something about the USA! USA! USA! sort of nationalism that I find off-putting. Hearing it chanted at Olympic events, for example, embarrasses me; I think it's rude to the other countries, and offensive. More so at the Sarah Palin-like rallies, where it takes on a sort of ominous tone, a menacing subtext. And yet, here I am feeling all proud of my country as I haven't for several years. The whole concept of nationalism/patriotism/love of country is one I find puzzling, and interesting. Does it mean what it says? Why do the manifestations tend to differ along party lines?

Essay question: why was a big deal made of Obama's flag pinnotness when McCain never wore one? Why did he begin wearing one, when McCain never did? Why is symbolism so easily substituted for action? Why do so many equate criticism of our country's actions with lack of patriotism? And what the hell is patriotism?

I find the word to be a cudgel, wielded mostly from the right, aimed to discredit those with whom one disagrees. It's a surly shorthand for "My country right or wrong, and if you don't buy what I'm selling, you must hate America." Or something like that. Because patriotism has, as I see it, no reliable definition. Love of country. Love of ice cream. In what way do they differ? I guess I wouldn't fight and die for ice cream (although triple chocolate fudge brownie is pretty damn good); if clearly threatened, I would for country: I actually came close (the dying part) a couple of times in Vietnam. But I think it'a less about the abstraction of "country" than family, friends, self-preservation; or isn't that what "country" is all about?

I pay my taxes; I've voted for every school bond and levy, every transportation tax increase, and I don't particularly enjoy it. I've never gotten into tax shelters (a couple of my friends did, once, good liberals, they. Nailed for fines and interest, they had to refinance their homes to pay for it, and I had no sympathy.)

While my wife supported me and the rest of the troops by working for the McGovern anti-war campaign, I served in a war with which I disagreed (not that I had a lot of choice, but many of my friends made successful moves to avoid it; and when I got orders to Vietnam I figured if I somehow wheedled out -- I was given suggestions -- someone else would have to go in my place.) I worked eighty-plus hour weeks most of my career, donated to charities; gave more than I took from life, I think. When I traveled in the Soviet Union as a language student in college, during the height of the Cold War and of the civil rights struggles at home, I defended my country strenuously in several street-corner arguments. I've never been arrested, I've gotten one speeding ticket in forty-eight years of driving, if I get too much change from a cashier, I give it back. In every election since I was of age, I voted: more often than not for losing candidates. I admire, and at some level take pride in (even though it wasn't me), the ways in which the US has shown the world the way in so many areas. Do I "love" my country? I don't think I understand the term. Some people say they love their cars.

I'm very glad I live where I do.

Am I a patriot? Or, to put it another way, isn't the above list enough to claim patriotism, even though it's not a word I've ever used about myself? Am I not as much a patriot as Pat Buchanan? When I criticize the travesty that was the Bush presidency, does it negate the claim?

In the denouement of the election, having heard "patriotism" tossed around in ways that made me sick, I hereby vote to banish it from the lexicon. To refer to someone as a patriot is to imply some counterpart is not. It's an imaginary word, a freighted word but one of no substance, stripped of whatever meaning it might once have had. Must you own a musket, do you have to agree with invading Iraq to be a patriot?

What I am is a citizen; one who believes in the Constitution and the rights it implies, including criticizing the government and demanding better of it; one that follows the law and who has no sense of entitlement beyond that of everyone else. And yes, given the constant pressure on the Constitution, I support the ACLU. From where I sit it's less clear that the current government shares my beliefs: if I knew how to use the word "patriot," I'm not sure I could apply it to George Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, because they clearly tried to subvert and ignore the Constitution, and have harmed our country. Nor is it easy to use the word in connection with the campaign run by John McCain and Sarah Palin, for they deliberately tried to tear the country asunder.

Which means we need to redefine the word, or dump it. From political campaigns, at the very least.


[Amusing addendum: during the current and very brief salmon season, Native American gill-netters are plying the waters in the bay over which we look. Reaching their fill, they off-load their catch to a waiting processing boat parked right in front of our house. Its name, I just noted, which can't be discerned from the photo so take my word, is "American Patriot."]

Patriots

I understand the resentment. God knows if John McCain and Sarah Palin had won, I'd've been deeply disappointed and pathologically depressed (as opposed to resentful.) Along with the passage of the gay-hatred bills, it would have said something about our country that I'd have preferred not to know: we are terminally divided. On the other hand, Obama and Biden campaigned on inclusiveness, on the idea that our problems are so great we need everyone on board. Will enough people buy in?

No matter how disappointed or resentful, no matter how much a person dislikes or fears Obama, it seems indisputable that wishing for his failure as President is wishing for the end of America. I believe -- because I felt it myself -- that a great mass of people saw in Barack Obama the possibility of an end to hyperpartisanship, a turning toward governing by problem-solving, where results are what matter, rather than the label attached to them or who takes credit. More than that: I believe that if it doesn't happen now, it'll be too late. I've said it many times before.

The tasks are daunting: shoring up a failing economy, addressing deficits (how, and when), seeking solutions to two wars, finding energy alternatives, fixing education and health care, the environment, illegal immigration, repairing international relations. It's no longer about party power politics. We're on a downward trajectory that threatens our country if not the entire planet. It's not just political rhetoric; it's the end-game. It's hard to doubt it.

I never expected everyone to join hands. I'm not surprised that John Boehner is grousing and that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are screaming. To them, evidently, loss of personal influence is more threatening than the imminent loss of country, and I guess it always will be. But the rest of us, people actually living in the real world, have to hope Barack Obama and his government succeed. Hard as it would have been for me, I'd have hoped the same for John McCain and S.... (I can't say it, but I would have.)

If my house were sliding off the bluff near which it's perched, I'd want rescuers to find a way to shore it up; I wouldn't care what color they were, what brand of machinery they used, what language they spoke, or what they might have said to each other before they showed up. If they pulled it back to safety, I'd be grateful and relieved.

That's the situation in which we find ourselves, except that it's way more complicated: it's not just a war, or just a depression, or just an energy crisis, or just a technology gap. It's all of them and much more, wadded together into a giant pulsating and frightening mass. We simply can't afford the luxury of political posturing, of ill-wishing, of power- and hate-mongering. And that goes for those in and out of power.

So.

At the very least, give the guy a chance. More than that: the times ahead will test, well beyond anything most of us have ever known, the notion of patriotism and sacrifice. The "me, not you" mode of the last eight years (okay, longer than that) will have to go on hold. What we need -- dare I say it -- is "change." Cutting back on energy use, willingness, yes, to share the wealth -- what remains of it -- for as long as it takes to get the economy going again, continually pressuring our politicians to stay on task, to put aside pettiness. A recognition that being in it together is the way it is, not just a slogan.

It will test us all. And it's a simple "pass/fail." No grading on the curve, not any more.

Elite Delight

The scene is Harvard, that sine qua non of liberal elitism, that center of unAmericanism, where patriotism goes to die (and my wife's alma mater.) When the election was called for Obama.

One of the most evil parts of the McPalin campaign was the elevation to unseen heights of the ridiculous idea that liberals hate America. More than anything else, the election results afford a sense of cleansing, of being able again -- AGAIN!! -- to feel pride in our country. That it's been hard to conjure in these last eight years, with irresponsible wars, hate-mongering, torture, false imprisonment, arrogance, incompetence, false economies, and with knowing our former role as an emblem of hope and aspiration for the world had been tarnished and dashed -- that hardly indicates absent love of country. Frustration implies caring.

An election does not end it all. The difficulties facing us are immense; more than anything else, what's needed is shared willingness to recognize how serious is the mess left behind and how hard it will be to correct it. Electing a leader who calls for common purpose is not the same as achieving it. It will need to start in Congress, where Republicans will have to -- if only for a moment of history -- be willing to come on board, and where Democrats will have to -- in spite of themselves -- be able to be prudent and inclusive, mirroring their president. Who will, of course, have to mean what he's been saying.

Taxing Credulity

Joe Biden has said that willingness to pay one's share of taxes is patriotic. Naturally, those paragons of patriotism, those arguers for putting country first, Sarah Palin and John (I-was-a-POW-and-you-weren't) McCain, put it down like a steaming turd, and their audience laughed and roared their approval.

So let's see if I understand.

We are in a war for dubious reasons and with questionable results, mismanaged from the start, for the price-tag of, conservatively, a trillion dollars. After Republicans put into place the diabolical duo of tax cuts and deregulation, resulting in what is generally agreed to be the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression (worse, some say), another trillion dollars of our tax money (give or take a few billion) will be required to clean up the mess. Our national debt has ballooned in the last eight years by about six trillion dollars, before accounting for the aforementioned debacles. Infrastructure is crumbling. The military is depleted and degraded. We need to find and fund a way to disseminate alternatives to fossil fuels. Terrorism, despite our so-called war on it, is increasing around the world. It's no exaggeration to say the survival of our country as we know it is not at all certain.

Willingness to help pay for this, our would-be leaders to the right have told us, is laughable.

It's not hard to understand, I suppose. It's their policies, their most tightly-held beliefs, that have gotten us here. Aided, of course, by the constant declarations that everything is fine, not to worry, no need to pay our way, it's all good. Look the other way while we pick your pockets, scoop up your kids. Nothing to see here, move along, move along. So to admit now that they've screwed us to the point of possible non-viability, is to admit they've been wrong. Seriously wrong. Since Ronald Reagan (may peace be upon him.)

What, I wonder, is on the minds of those laughing and waving lipsticks while Sarah McSame sneer at Biden's suggestion? How would they define patriotism, given the crises we face everywhere we look, and absent the money to address them? Another yellow ribbon on the SUV? Another smear of Obama, another suggestion that he hates America? Would those lovers of family values (and haters of families other than their own) similarly laugh if they'd run their household into staggering debt and were told they need to tighten their belts? Wave lipsticks and run the truth-teller off their lawn?

You can put lipstick on George Bush, but it's still Sarah Palin.

Even one of John McCain's own economic advisors has said the next president will have to raise taxes, and that was BEFORE the bailout of Wall Street. Yet John McPalin laugh it off. The choice, they've said, is between "Country first, or Obama first."

Joe Biden spoke the truth. There's no way to get around raising taxes to pay for the mistakes of George Bush and those, like John McPOW, who've enabled them. Anyone who loves the country enough actually sacrifice for it (and that includes me) would admit it (and, most likely, that any hopes of spending on the other things we need are now out the window). But not John and Sarah. They laugh it off. And their audience, their conserative country-first confabulators, slap each other on the back and the band plays on.