It is nauseating on a daily basis to be an American these days. On the whole, I'd agree we need a complete do-over, with wholesale community collaboration to address the very real problems of societal breakdown that we face because almost everyone is blind to the dangers. I'd agree that it's not just Republicans, that we all have failed to do the hard work of building a community that works for everyone. That said, as I said at least once before:
Here we all are, and what are we going to do about it? The power system is what it is, and yelling from outside won't work either. One can either keep one's hands clean by washing them of the whole business, thereby remaining ineffective, or one can try to work from within, which requires the kind of stamina and hard work that many of our top Democrats have put in. There is no such thing as staying clean, as our new elected representatives are learning, because there are other people out there. I agree that it is arguable that it is not possible to clean it up, but that's not an excuse to wash one's hands and walk away. Getting money out of elections would be amazing, but blaming victims doesn't begin to fix it. It's only life itself that is at stake.
I do not accept that flat statement that "of course Schumer is a rat". He's a good man who has worked tirelessly from within the system (which is a mess, agreed).
Here, as witness for the defense (somewhat isolated in this community, I know, but none the less honest for that), I present a more balanced view of Schumer. Please note that the author is Elizabeth Kolbert, who won the Pulitzer Prize for
The Sixth Extinction.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/can-chuck-schumer-check-donald-trump. My choice of extracts is arbitrary. Nobody gets to be emperor of the world, and the kind of corruption my colleagues here are so eager to attack is part of the dirty business of actually trying to get things done.
The power of the Senate minority is purely negative: it can’t pass legislation; it can only block it. But even exercising negative power requires a great deal of discipline—potentially more than the Democrats can muster.
Next year, ten Democratic senators will be up for reëlection in states that Trump carried. The President has been wooing these senators, and even considered naming two of them, Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota, to his Cabinet. Meanwhile, Democratic activists—generally in blue states—are calling for round-the-clock resistance. Protesters have gathered in front of Schumer’s apartment, in Brooklyn’s Park Slope, for rallies organized under the tagline “What the F*ck, Chuck?” (At least one demonstrator brought a model of a skeleton, to illustrate the importance of a spine.)
Can Schumer negotiate these currents? Can anyone? It seems no exaggeration to say that on these questions the future world depends. As Schumer himself put it the other morning, to the almost vacant Senate chamber, “This is not a drill.”
Schumer, who’s sixty-six, is an optimist, a trait that he says he inherited from his father, Abe. Abe, for his part, inherited an exterminating business from his father, Jack, a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine. The family lived in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and Schumer, growing up, would sometimes lend a hand killing roaches.
....
“He isn’t just one thing,” Barbara Roper, the director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, said. “In between crises, he may be a friend to Wall Street and advance an agenda that we, frankly, think of as harmful. But, if you’re talking about what he did during the financial crisis, he was an advocate for strong reform. And then there are a whole host of issues that have to do with more bread-and-butter consumer issues where he’s been a strong and reliable supporter.”
Barney Frank, the former Massachusetts congressman and one of the chief authors of the financial-reform bill that became known as Dodd-Frank, sat next to Schumer in House committees for eighteen years.
Politicians “are often either good inside players or good outside players,” Frank told me. “Chuck is unusually good at both. He understands that in a legislative body, sharing power with so many people, you need to compromise. Another thing that you need to do, which he does, but which other people do not do, is eschew an attitude of moral superiority.” ...
Over the years, Schumer’s talents as a “legislative strategist” have put him at the center of some of Congress’s most contentious negotiations. He was a primary author of the Brady Bill, which required federal background checks for gun buyers ... More recently, in 2013, Schumer was part of the so-called Gang of Eight, a group of four Democratic and four Republican senators who crafted a sweeping package of immigration reforms. The reforms would have created a path to citizenship for millions of people now living in the U.S. illegally and, at the same time, would have made it more difficult for employers to hire undocumented workers. The bill passed the Senate but died in the House.
....
At another point, he said, “Deep, deep down, I believe in the American people—their solidness, their decency, even at times when they’re angry and frustrated, their pulling back and trying to do the right thing. And I’ve believed in it my whole life and this is the most challenging time for it, but I still believe in it. And, if I’m wrong, God help America.”
As I read through this, I thought, how much worse this is, day by day, in every way, than it was back then (March 2017). Trump and his brother from another mother, Kim Jong Un (who is meeting with Syria's Bashir al Assad soon) are part of a new world order that will fulfill our worst nightmare, if it comes to pass. Given the revelations about the early Saudi visit (they sussed out and bought Trump early) it looks like there will be an unholy alliance of the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt (AL Sisi), Turkey (Erdogan), Russia (Putin), The Philippines (Duterte), China (subtly offside, but smarter than Trump) and any other of Trump's favorite dictators I've forgotten, to replace our former alignment with our North American neighbors, Europe, Japan, and the world's democracies (no matter how lame). Trumpians love it. 1984 is almost here. With Bolton and Pompeo and his new empowerment, there is no longer any restraint to his violence. It is 208 days until Democrats (if elected) take their seats in January, and daily mayhem x 208 is a nightmare!
The only hope is that the sewer smells so bad it overcomes the apathy (and all too often, ignorance) of voters. Meanwhile, voter suppression was just approved by our new Supreme Court, and many people will find it hard to register and vote. I had a whiff of it renewing my driver's license a few weeks ago, and I had my documents in hand.
Most working stiffs at the low end simply don't have the resources or time off from their jobs to jump through the new hoops for the less fortunate, the elderly, those who've had to move (poor people are evicted at an astonishing rate, which is profitable for slumlords who confiscate and sue with a complicit court system), those who are too busy living hand to mouth. And the silence on climate has gotten worse, except among us "librul elites". They're too busy paying for transport to realize the way it has always been is not OK.
The reason I know is because I've been to court with a couple of victims; they work for me as Home Health Aides, caring for my mother. And the conditions of their lives, if you haven't been down in the dirt with the system that puts and keeps them down, you don't know how bad it can get. We have been lucky to be able to help them. It is not OK for the presence of a literate white person to change the outcome!
