A Letter From Middle America

Dear Moderate Republicans in Congress:

It should be clear by now that we have reached a troubling turning point as a nation.  We have elected a man who, through his mercurial and petulant personality, willful ignorance, and lack of integrity, threatens the very existence of the republic.  I write this, because you have taken an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  We stand now in grave danger of the Constitution being utterly subverted by the Executive Branch, and we cannot risk delaying bold action.

A certain faction of the Republican Party has decided that tolerating Mr. Trump as President will allow them to follow their agenda unmolested.  They have miscalculated.  President Trump does not share their ideology, nor does he make decisions based on a set of values or guided by a moral compass.  His actions are capricious, and generally reflect the perspective of whatever advisor had his ear last.  This has fomented an unseemly jockeying for position among his underlings, and it has created a muddled and confusing face of the administration which our allies find disconcerting in the extreme - and they have reason to worry.  Mr. Trump seems not to fully grasp the tremendous power and concurrent responsibility of the presidency.  He does not seem to realize that lives are literally in his hands.  Worse, there is no indication that if he does understand this that he cares.  His war with the media, largely in the ongoing pursuit of self-aggrandizement, is a national embarrassment, and it is injurious to the First Amendment.  I know that you perceive this, and that you share my deep concern.

Now is the time to act boldly.  Since it is clear that the Republican Party increasingly wishes to squeeze out moderate voices, it is only logical that you should formally withdraw from the party.  As Independents, you would have the freedom to move forward sensible legislation, partnering with your colleagues of either major party, working in the interest of the American people - the middle and working class people that desperately need relief from financial stress, escalating healthcare costs, eroding educational standards, and the ongoing degradation of real purchasing power and their voice in the public square.  You are no longer in the GOP of Eisenhower.  You are no longer in the party of Reagan.  The present Republican Party has become something else, and it appears increasingly to be of sinister intent.

Consider that in the Senate, should only two moderate Republicans become Independents and caucus with the Democrats (for this limited purpose), the Senate leadership would change hands, and the chairs of every committee would change.  The rubber-stamping of unqualified or compromised cabinet nominees would be arrested, and there would be real and significant examination of judicial nominees, including those to the Supreme Court.  There would be a chance for the Senate to actually fulfill its role in providing "advice and consent," rather than simply rushing nominees through without proper vetting.  Pointed questions could be asked and real answers could be expected.  Objections would be substantive rather than symbolic.

The American people desperately need you to lead.  We require your courage.  In spite of the portrait the media presents, more Americans are moderate than the coverage of political polarization would have us believe.  Problems are not solved on the extremes of the political spectrum.  They are solved nearest the center.  They are solved by building consensus, not by imposing a political doctrine.  We are, at our core, a pragmatic people.  We need you to compromise.  We need you to get the job done.

At some future date - not long from now, I suspect - the harm that the Trump Administration will do to our nation will be very clear to all but a few who remain in denial.  By that time, many people will be injured by poorly crafted policy, disastrous foreign misadventures, and hostility to the openness of markets worldwide.  Indeed, people well beyond our borders will suffer the negative affects of these errors too.  I pray that you do not wait until the house is on fire to at least acquire the means to douse the flames.  Withdrawal from the Republican Party will at least give you options that you do not now have.  You will at least be facing the conflagration with a fire hose in your hands.

We moderates are out here in significant numbers.  We are watching events unfold with a tightness in our stomachs, a fear for the future our children will face, and the worry that America's beacon of freedom will be dimmed, or, God help us, extinguished.  We look to you to remain true to the oath you have taken.  We need you to lead.  Now is the time.

Most sincerely,

Middle America

The Zero-Sum President

There have been numerous opinion pieces telling us why Donald Trump would make a terrible president.  He is bellicose.  He is profane.  He is almost impossibly needy in his narcissism.  These egregious personality flaws should disqualify him outright, and yet he manages to secure 30-40% support in Republican primary contests week after week, moving inexorably, it seems, toward the GOP nomination, or at least toward arriving at the Republican National Convention with far more delegates in hand than his closest challenger, Ted Cruz (who has his own rather profound issues, but we will save that for another time).

Trump's appeal seems to be his constant repetition of the litany of "winning."  People like winning, and the term is sufficiently vague so that would-be supporters can apply their own understanding to it as they please.  This sort of blank slate terminology is not unusual in politics, but Trump applies "winning" to virtually everything.  We will be "winning" in foreign policy, in trade, in job creation, in essentially every aspect of American life.  Of course, "winning" will be reserved for only "proper" Americans, who seem to be disproportionately white, Christian, and less educated.  (Remember, Trump asserts: "I love the poorly educated.")

Still, Trump's appeal does cross out of this core demographic, and pundits have expressed a great deal of confusion as to why.  Trump has tapped into anger and frustration that is very real.  He has done so, because by emphasizing "winning," he has promoted the fallacy that everything in American policy, both foreign and domestic, is a zero-sum game.  In other words, there are winners and there are losers, and you are either one or the other.  His indictment is that the Obama Administration (and, frankly, anybody who is not Donald Trump) has made Americans "losers," and that he will reverse American fortunes and make us all "winners" again.

Of course, this is nonsense.  The bipolar reductio ad absurdam of zero-sum thinking is appealing to the average American, because they can easily comprehend this paradigm of winning and losing.  Either your football team wins the Superbowl, or they lose.  Either you win the Powerball or you lose.  There is no middle ground.  There is no mutual "winning."  But real life is not like that at all.  There are degrees of wining and losing, and it is entirely possible for all or most to "win," even though some may "win more" than others.  While mutual success should be the goal of American policies - both in the domestic sphere and in our relations with foreign countries - Trump prefers to feed this zero-sum oversimplification to the angry and the gullible.  And they are devouring it with relish.

So much for Trump's recipe for electoral success, but how does such a wildly simplistic and inaccurate picture play out if Trump were actually elected president?  As we have seen, his actions toward those who oppose him are rash and punitive.  He is fickle in the extreme, switching from praise to ridicule almost overnight.  He believes that those who disagree with him are "horrible" and "damaging to America," and he wants them silenced.  As is emblematic of narcissists, he believes any disagreement is a personal attack, and he responds with a vendetta.  He holds grudges, and he seems eager to make people suffer if they have had the temerity or misfortune to be in his way.  This is not merely his political persona.  His business practices provide a long history of such behavior.

So how does a Zero-Sum President govern?  Consider that until Trump, regardless of the bitterness of political battles, our Presidents have considered themselves presidents of all Americans, whether they were supporters or not.  Trump's record strongly suggests that he will see himself as the President of his supporters first and foremost, and will have an almost irresistible tendency to punish those who opposed him.  This will, of course, translate immediately to political animosity toward all Democrats and the many Republicans who have spoken out against his obscenities, incitement to violence, and racist and misogynist remarks.  If you believe that Congress is gridlocked now, it will be in a legislative coma under Trump.

More disturbingly, consider Trump's control of agencies like FEMA, and his stranglehold on disaster funding.  Imagine a hurricane or earthquake or tornado outbreak in a state that did not vote for Trump.  What do you think Trump's reaction will be when that state's governor requests a disaster declaration to free up federal disaster aid?  I suspect they will all be "losers" then.  Trump will seek to punish them, and he will try to hang this around the neck of the "offending" governor or the people themselves.  They, in their foolishness, did not support Trump the Great, and now they should suffer accordingly.

In spite of all the vitriol spewed at him, President Obama has never refused to fund disaster requests - even from governors who have called him truly despicable things.  As Cicero said, "Salus populi lex suprema esto" ("Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.").  Regardless of political disagreements or opposition to fundamental policies, this has remained the guiding principle of our presidency, and for our political representatives generally (with a few notorious exceptions).  I know of no case in which George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, or any other modern President denied disaster aid as an act of political revenge.  It is simply beneath the office of President to exacerbate the suffering of Americans in a desperate situation for political gain, and regardless of any policy disagreements, I am proud that we have had Presidents who have understood this fundamental obligation to the American people.

But Donald Trump is different.  A narcissist cannot see a disagreement as anything other than a personal attack, a betrayal, requiring a disproportionate response.  If he gains real political power, those who oppose him will be "carried out on a stretcher."  There can be no disagreement and no resistance, even to policies that are so wrongheaded that they silence critics with sheer incredulity, reducing them to simply shaking their heads, mouths agape.  And yet, the masses follow him, yearning for the illusory reward of "winning," whatever that means from their own myopic perspective.

The outlook for foreign policy is, unfortunately, far more grim.  A man bent on disproportionately punishing those who resist his initiatives, regardless of how unworkable or inequitable, should absolutely not be Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States - full stop.  We have been terrified for years of some amoral dictator of an authoritarian state getting hold of a nuclear weapon.  It is the nightmare scenario that is so overwhelming that it has overruled reason in a series of truly terrible foreign policy decisions in recent decades.  Now imagine for a moment turning over control of the entire US nuclear arsenal to a man with essentially the same personality traits and almost cartoonish world view that we attribute to petty despots we have opposed.  How long will it be until President Trump uses nuclear weapons as an overt threat against Russia (once he discovers that Putin doesn't actually like him, but considers him an easily manipulated clown), or North Korea, or even Mexico when they tell him where he can stick his wall?

I find Donald Trump repugnant in a way that makes me wish for the return of literally any other president we have had in modern history - including those with whom I have vehemently disagreed and those I believe have damaged this country very badly indeed.  Trump is an order of magnitude worse, because he will not see himself as the American President.  He will see himself as the President of the Winners, who are defined as those who support him without question.  He will lavish praise and political favors on these "winners," in a way fulfilling his prophecy.  Conversely, he will see those who disagree with his policies as "losers" who are seeking to harm America.  They are the enemy, and as such, they are to be punished, marginalized, harmed whenever possible.  They should be made to leave, just as if they have had an outburst at a Trump campaign rally, and if possible, they should be punched in the face on the way out.

Following the election of Trump, there would be no "coming together" behind the new President.  There would only be the first of an ongoing series of reprisals.  There would only be more division.  There would be Winners and Losers.  There would no longer be Americans.  And, ironically, as multiple wives have found, one cannot remain in the good graces of a consummate narcissist indefinitely.  Eventually, either through simply being an individual, or as a result of narcissistic paranoia, everybody ultimately becomes an enemy.  Everybody ultimately betrays the Great Man.  Everybody ultimately becomes a "loser," for with a true Zero-Sum President, it matters only that he himself is "winning."  Everyone and everything else is insignificant.

A Crusade of Mercy

In the days following the terrorist attacks in Paris, I am seeing many images and references invoking the Crusades.  There seems to be an attempt to equate the recent attack on Paris as an assault on Christianity in the West by radical Islam.  However, this simplistic view ignores other activity sponsored or encouraged by the so-called "Islamic State" where the victims are predominantly or exclusively Muslims, such as the bombing only a day before in Beirut.  It is a completely human and in many ways inevitable response to want to "fight back," and in particular, to mount a devastating, disproportionate military action that will "destroy the enemy."  It is also a response that will ultimately fail, both because it is too simplistic to address the root causes of this violence, and because it is precisely what the Islamic State expects, indeed desires.

Terrorism, by its nature, is intended to provoke response.  I do not suggest inaction, but before acting reflexively, it is preferable to consider what response was expected and intended.  To fail in this ensures that we will be acting in accord with the plans of the terrorists.  IS cannot be simply dismissed as madmen.  They act in a carefully planned manner that supports their world view.  Of course, that view is repugnant in its medieval brutality and bankrupt as a matter of any sensible measure of morality, but it is clearly codified and entirely consistent.  And it holds that the forces of "Rome" will engage in an apocalyptic battle with the true believers, nearly destroying them before they achieve final victory.  They require a disproportionate military response from the West as a matter of doctrine, and it will strengthen their theological argument.

And yet, we are falling into this trap.  Not only is there talk of wholesale invasion in some circles, but we are now also seeing the predictable xenophobic response to the plight of Syrian refugees who are fleeing from a civil war that has brought IS to fruition in the vacuum left by the unconscionable mismanagement of the occupation following the Iraq War and  the disastrous policy of De-Baathification.   That miasma is worthy of a separate post in and of itself, but regardless of this, we seem intent blaming the victims on a truly massive scale.

Pope Francis has designated the liturgical year beginning this Advent as a Year of Mercy, and we certainly need it.  If we are willing to spend billions of dollars on military action with dubious probability of success and high probability of injuring innocents, why are we not willing to also spend billions of dollars for food, shelter, and medical assistance for the millions displaced by IS?  The vast majority of these people are in the Middle East.  Truly, they do not want to leave and go to Europe or the United States.   They would have preferred to stay in their homes.  Would it not make sense to assist them where they are now?   Why are we not sending substantial aid to Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq to cope with the refugee crisis?  Honestly, and not to validate the xenophobes, if you want to reduce the flow of refugees to countries outside the region, you must remove the inexorable forces causing the exodus.

I call for a Crusade of Mercy - a massive effort to assist the people being harmed by IS.  Part of this effort requires protecting them, and there is obviously a military role, in conjunction with those already fighting against IS.  Degrading the ability of IS to do harm is entirely sensible, and frustrating their efforts at projecting terror beyond the areas they control must be a priority.  But even more, we must engage in an unprecedented harnessing of resources to address the suffering of those displaced.

If we ever hope to illustrate the intellectual and moral poverty of the Islamic State, we cannot play into their hands by fulfilling their prophecies about the hostility of the West.  We should protect ourselves and others, but we must understand that we can never completely destroy IS with military might.  Like an infection, we could eradicate much of it with force - military antibiotics, if you will, but ultimately the body must complete its own healing.  In this case, the body is the population of the Middle East itself, and the final defeat of IS only comes when they no longer command respect, and their rhetoric and Dark Age perspective is exposed to open ridicule by the people they hope to control.

So, help those militarily who resist the Islamic State, yes.  But remember that if you want a true and lasting ally willing to lay down his life, you can do nothing more effective than saving the life of his children.  Food, medical aid, shelter...mercy.  These are the most potent weapons in our arsenal, and we should deploy them without delay, and in quantities that result in a new and lasting shock and awe.

#crusadeofmercy

Respect our Armed Forces at Holloween

Everybody loves Holloween. Well, at least most people do. I'm especially excited now that I have a 10-month-old daughter that my wife Lindsy and I have resolved to dress up like a giant pumpkin (it's far too cute for words). Provided that you have a safe and friendly neighborhood, going from door to door and collecting treats is a time-honored tradition for kids and parents alike, and many of the parents get into it with costumes of their own.

However, last year, both around town and at Holloween parties, I ran into a few folks who were dressed in military uniforms as a Holloween costume. I understand that putting on some BDUs or an old Class A uniform that you found at an army surplus store is an easy way of dressing up as something you're not, but I hope that people will think twice about this. Really, it is in very poor taste, and it is insulting to those men and women who wear the uniform of our country (or any country) and are willing to risk their lives to protect us. Now, of course, there are exceptions. I think if you are dressing up as an historic military figure, an historic uniform would be reasonable (General Robert E. Lee, General George Washington, etc.). Similarly, there are fictional characters that require a military or pseudo-military uniform (the Nutcracker, George Philip Sousa). This is all well and good.

The problem I'm addressing is the wearing of uniforms that are in use by current, active-duty military personnel. Service members are quite rightly taught to have a very high level of respect for their uniforms, as they are symbols of their dedication to their branch of service and to the country. They are taught to wear them properly, to exacting specifications, as a mark of that respect. Believe me when I tell you that any current or former member of any military branch or unit would never, never (am I being clear enough?), NEVER wear the uniform as a "costume." It would be like using the flag of the United States as a tablecloth or slip cover for your couch.

I'm not talking about kids here. There is a time-honored tradition for kids to dress up on Holloween as all manner of things, including the uniforms of professions they especially respect or might want to pursue when they grow up (fireman, policeman, doctor, sports star, etc.). A kid who dresses as a soldier is indicating his or her approval and admiration for military service, and very likely has a close relative who is or was in the military. This is fine, and even to be encouraged.

Adults, on the other hand, presumably have a job. As I said before, if they are members of the military, they most certainly would not consider the uniform a costume. If they are not members of the military, they don't have any business wearing an active-duty form of the military uniform. Period.

So, before you grab that green Class A coat and trousers off the rack at the Army Surplus Superstore and tack on a rank you don't have and a random assortment of ribbons you did not earn before going off to the Holloween party, stop and give due consideration to the men and women who wear that same uniform (and especially those who have died in that same uniform), and whose sweat and blood earned them the ribbons and the rank insignia they wear. They deserve to be honored and thanked. They do not deserve to be parodied.

Heartland for Change Tour

On Sept. 7, I attended the Barack Obama campaign stop in Winona as part of their “Heartland for Change Tour.” The focus of the discussion was the economy and jobs, but the very interested and engaged group that gathered at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse was equally interested in many issues that connect to these, such as health care, taxes and education.

Of course, in a roundtable discussion lasting a little more than an hour, the fine details of Sen. Obama’s proposals couldn’t be discussed, but I was very encouraged by the accessibility of campaign representatives and their desire to take the discussion to communities around Minnesota (they had been in Red Wing earlier that morning).
The all-important first step to good leadership is the willingness and ability to really listen to people and to seek out their opinions and hear their concerns.

These days, working families worry quite rightly about the weak economy, the risk to their job security and falling real estate values. They are concerned when they see jobs being sent overseas and the companies that outsource them being rewarded by tax breaks. The United States has a tremendously flexible and well-educated work force, and we truly need government policies that keep jobs here, create new jobs, and invest in new and emerging industries (such as renewable energy) that will ensure America’s future economic growth.

As a college professor, I worry about the job market that my students will enter upon graduation. In recent years, this has become increasingly challenging, both because fewer jobs exist and because the burden of student loans that graduates carry is growing steadily as student aid is cut. And now, thanks to the tightening of credit, even the loans are harder to obtain. These young people are eager to work hard, but they are increasingly squeezed out of the market.

We really do need change on several fronts. Sen. Obama and his representatives don’t pretend that these things will be easy, but they are, in my opinion, focusing on the right problems and working to formulate real solutions. I am very encouraged that similar conversations are happening at the local level across our state and country. This is exactly how real people address real concerns and find lasting solutions.