Friday, April 26, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor

Thoughts on Breaking the Stalemate: First Drain the Swamp

January 20, 2019 --

Maybe, if Congress linked immigration to the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, the government stalemate would have long ended --- or would not have happened.

LPR explains: Last month, Congress President Trump signed into law a bill posthumously honoring Egypt's President Sadat, the "'Anwar Sadat Centennial Celebration Act.'" This was truly a bipartisan measure, with co-sponsorship including 29 Republicans and 41 Democrats in the Senate, signing on to the meaure proposal by Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R-Utah) and Ben Cardin (D.-Md.)honoring the Egyptian leader, born December 25, 1918. We didn't get much much news about this measure, though. LPR learned about it from the obscure pages of the "5 Towns Jewish Times, " The following the following search phrase --" Sadat centennial gold medal." revealed no coverage by major U.S. media outlets.

LPR wonders, if Republicans and Democrats could enact legislation honoring the memory of Anwar Sadat, why can't the major parties work together in the public interest?

January 3rd, newly seated Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D.-MIch.) used very foul language in calling for the impeachment of President Trump. The New York Times tried to convey a tone of criticism of the congressswoman's cry declaring in a front page headline two days later, : "Cry to Impeach / Upsets Agenda/For Democrats." What might otherwise have been surprising - nay, shocking, was that the Times, published the 12-letter offensive term in full, beginning with an "m", and ending with an "r". (And so the decline towards incivility is now speeding up.) Democratic chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, was quoted in the Times, January 5, "'I don't really like that kind of language.'" The Times reported that Democrat "elders believe Mr. Trump is threatening the country's democratic institutions." Yeah. Right. Like getting elected iwith a majority he electoral college vote.

Fact checking would reveal, LPR maintains, that we do not have "'democratic'" system; we have a federal system. House speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated she would not publicly criticize Rep. Tlaib, ""I'm not in the censorship business.'" Apparently, neither is The New York Times, any more. One Washington Post columnist, Mollie Roberts, would only write the first half of the offensive term, but supported its use by Rep. Tlaib.

In this Age our Trump, when it comes to denouncing the president, the envelope cannot be pushed too far.

If it is not possible to obtain a consensus that unconditionally rejects "M----------r" we should expect it will be impossible to solve the government stalemate which points to an absence of consensus on, well, civility in the national interest.

Things could of course be worse. We could have a a Democrat majority in the the Senate as well, with the stalemate extending toward judicial nominations, as well.

According to one poll, commissioned by Knight , and reported last September nine in ten Republicans don’t trust the media. It cannot be healthy for the body politicis when there is scant belief the media is playing it straight in reporting the news.

James B. Stewart, in the New York Times, offers President " Trump's highly personal management style" as the reason his m.o. is not working in Washington. But how could Trump's style "work" in Washington when his remains intent on "draining the swamp " of government b y insiders?

Madison in Federalist No. 62 wrote: "A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government , which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained." Madison thought that happiness would be fostered by the Constitution his Federalist Papers commented on. Madison, in Federalist No. 57 thought that the House members would hold "communion of interest and sympathy of sentiments" with the people failing without which government becomes tyrannical. We see, however, that the defeated party in the 2016 presidential election is committed toward loathing the elected president and his supporters, which results in a resistance that becomes uncivil. Mark Twain once wrote that "Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense." The demands from the Trump resisters are phrased in terms that regard Trump as a to a threat on democracy; his only likely threat actually being to those who are committed to government by insiders.

LPR has pointed previously to Machiavelli's observation in chapter 6 of "The Prince" that people will hold back from support for a reformer until they are confident he will prevail over hip opposition. Thus far, the left continues to aspire to removing President Trump from the Oval Office, prior to the end of his first term. Simply consider Rep. Tlaib's cry: "[W]e're going to impeach the m-----------r." This is the cry of an official who does not expect the resistance to Trump will fail. As long as the resisters hold hope for the removal from office of President Trump, work on draining the swamp must take priority over building the wall. It is time for Trump's voters to show even more suppport for their president.