“A Crazy World”
As I think back over the last two weeks, I shake my head, in
concern, frustration and even a small part of wonderment.
There is the threatened shutdown of Homeland Security. Who would have believed that there
would be a contingent of 40-50 Republicans in the House who would defy their
own leader, not to mention common sense, and threaten to shut down Homeland
Security in order to try to hold Obama hostage for what history will recount as
a rational humanitarian act to protect a well-defined group of immigrants from
deportation, an action made necessary only because Republican House leadership
has not had the courage (call it what you will) to put the matter to a
vote. One wonders what foreign
governments and citizens think about this at a time of terrorist attacks and
high risk.
Then there is the continued assault on Obama’s health care
plan. The Republicans simply won’t
give up in trying to overturn the affordable health care legislation. Forget the fact that 11 million more
people now have health insurance than they did before and that millions more
have coverage that previously might have been denied because of a pre-existing
condition, or students past the age of 26 now being covered on their parent’s
insurance, or that the rate of health care cost increases has declined? No, despite all of that, we are moving
toward a Supreme Court decision whether a very small different interpretation
of language in the Act might disqualify the subsidies which are being provided
to people in all those states which did not adopt plans of their own. The Republicans have come forward with
alternative plans, obscure in their details, and to the extent knowable,
representing either a major reduction in coverage (who could want that; we’re
already the only developed country providing such narrow coverage), or being
what some conservative Republicans are calling “Obama-Lite.”
Then there is the irony of the Iranian military supporting
Iraqi Shiite militia in combatting ISIS.
But the United States studiously indicating that in no way will the
support we are also providing to the Iraqi Army and Shiite militia be
coordinated with Iran.
At the same time, we have a Republican bloc fighting to stop
a negotiation on nuclear arms control with Iran before the deal is completed, without
identifying a realistic alternative.
Which brings us to Israeli President Netanyahu’s address to
a Republican-dominated Congress, receiving multiple standing ovations, even as
he defied the President’s position on negotiating with Iran, offering no
alternative in its place other than “no deal” which would have Iran proceeding
untrammeled in the development of their nuclear capability.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Party so consumed with “dislike” for a President to so reflexively oppose almost every
initiative proposed by the President and his administration.
And then there is the Russian-Ukrainian development. The most perilous development that I’ve
seen on a global level since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Here, we have Republicans, and some
Democrats, too, demonizing Putin to a degree that I have not seen imposed on
any Russian leader, even during the Cold War. There are those who have concluded the Minsk ceasefire
wouldn’t work even before it had a chance to take hold. The threat to provide lethal defensive
equipment to the Ukrainian armed forces continues even with its all-too
predictable consequence of triggering an escalation of Russian
involvement. Where do people think
that will end? There is only one
conceivable positive outcome to the situation in Ukraine: a negotiated settlement that will
create a constitutional structure giving reasonable autonomy to Eastern Ukraine
and economic support that offers the opportunity for providing a stable,
relatively uncorrupt Ukrainian government.
*****
I honestly can’t recall a recent time where I have seen more
dysfunctionality in our government.
Still, we have been in this kind of place before, and we have to try to
do what we can in our own circle of influence. And we are doing that here in Cincinnati surely as we work
to achieve a ballot initiative that will provide quality pre-K education for
all children and home visiting for families who need it.
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