We Are Crossing A Line I Have Seen Us Cross Before--60 Years Ago--Over the War In Vietnam

It took hundreds of thousands of lives. Unrelenting domestic protests, first led by students and then by people everywhere. But finally it became unmistakably clear in 1965-66 to President Johnson and Defense Secretary, McNamara. This war which we had entered so reluctantly and had waged, despite the strong outspoken judgement of leaders such as George Ball,and the grave doubts of the President and McNamara themselves--it was NOT winnable. But still..the killing continued. We know it is very difficult for people to admit they are wrong, especially if they have convinced themselves that they are fighting for a just cause. Have we crossed the line now? I cannot be sure. But I am reading a superb book right now, "McNamara At War:A New History" written by Philip and William Taubman. It tells the story of the tragic and ill-fated Vietnam war and the flawed reasoning which led to its escalation. Back then, there was the fear that failing to WIN in Vietnam would give license to communists to take over southeast Asia. Today, Trump and his supporters argue that the actions ICE is taking are needed to overcome the years of open borders. Yet..yet in a matter of about 10 days, TWO US CITIZENS have been shot dead by ICE agents-- most of whom are utterly unprepared to deal with the situations they face. (Again, striking similarity to the unfamiliar situation our troops faced in Vietnam). Today we witness a traumatized five-year old boy being ushered to a police car in the bitter cold. And we see an old man of perhaps my age being led out of his home in his pajamas. (Back then, in 1965, a man protesting immolates himself outside McNamara's office at the Pentagon. McNamara's children privately tell their father his is doing the wrong thing). This morningm I am inspired by the men and women who are still standing out in the freezing cold in Minneapolis, day after day,to protest this enactment of a police state,to support their neighbors and to signal unmistakenably and bravely how they want their community to live and how they want it NOT to live. I have seen this scene before. Sometimes--too often-- the protests have petered out. But sometimes they haven't.They did not in Vietnam.I believe this is a time that they won't peter out. I hope I am right. Will Republican leaders in substantial numbers stand up for what they know is right. They have been unwilling to do that so far.I hope and pray they will today, recognizing our nation's very future is at stake. We have crossed a line, there is no doubt about that. There should be no looking back. I hope there will not be, I further hope that the mid-term elections, nine months from now, will serve as a vivid rebuke to the many self-crippling policies and the all too prevalent immoral character of the Trump Administration. This will be the opportunity for all the voters of our Nation to declare the future they want to experience for themselves and their families.

Tolstoy on Lincoln and the Greatness of His Character

"Now why was Lincoln so great that he overshadows all other national heroes. He was not a great general like Napoleon or Washington; he was not such a skillful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the great; but his supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar moral power and the greatness of his character"

When Will We Stop The Erosion of Our Democracy

When will we stop this cancer eating away at our national institutions and at the moral order by which we choose to live? What we are witnessing is not a series of isolated excesses. It is a sustained campaign. The Trump administration has repeatedly violated the law, attacked the independence of long-standing institutions, and sought to criminalize conduct that has no rightful place in the criminal code. The sheer volume and brazenness of these actions are so startling that they threaten to numb us into passivity. We see it in the extrajudicial seizure of Venezuela’s strongman, Nicolás Maduro, and in the unvarnished declaration that America’s interest there is oil and control—an unmistakable return to the logic of gunboat diplomacy. We see it in the assault on the Federal Reserve, capped by reckless and unfounded accusations against Jerome Powell. We see it in ICE parading through our streets, wielding fear and, in some cases, leaving death in its wake. We hear it in threats to take Greenland “one way or the other.” We see it in a feckless posture toward Russia amid the ongoing slaughter in Ukraine, and in a craven unwillingness to confront Netanyahu’s government in Israel. The pattern is unmistakable. The beat goes on. Congress has failed to meet this moment. Republicans in Congress, in particular, have abdicated their constitutional responsibility to assert the power of the purse and to ensure that appropriated funds are spent as the Constitution requires. The courts—especially the lower courts—have repeatedly ruled against these abuses. And still the administration presses forward, daring the system to stop it. This is not new in world history. We have seen before what happens when nations slide into the doctrine that “might makes right.” and a majority of the people put their faith in a proclaimed savior to right their grievances. We saw this in Japan and in Nazi Germany under Hitler, and in Fascist Italy under Mussolini. They taught the world that lesson in the 1930s and early 1940s, at an unspeakable cost. After World War II, chastened by catastrophe, we committed ourselves to a different path—building institutions to restrain power and preserve peace: the Marshall Plan, the European Common Market, and the architecture of a rules-based international order. But we grew complacent. We assumed these achievements were permanent. We enjoyed their benefits and mistook hope for vigilance. We failed to reckon honestly with the darker instincts that persist in people and nations alike—the urge to seize land, to dominate, to accumulate power simply because it can be taken. That time of complacency is over. Those of us who consider ourselves moderates can no longer content ourselves with watching events unfold from the sidelines. I applaud the citizens who have taken to the streets to protest ICE. I applaud Jerome Powell for stating clearly that he and the Federal Reserve will not be intimidated. I hope—and expect—that leaders of our cultural institutions, including Presidents of Universities and Lonnie Bunch of the Smithsonian, will say the same. I applaud arts organizations that have withdrawn from the Kennedy Center rather than allow their names to legitimize a cynical and politicized rebranding. There comes a moment when anger is not only justified but necessary. This is that moment. There is a time to speak plainly, without euphemism or apology. That time is now. What is happening cannot stand. Enough is enough. We have had enough. I hope and pray that not only our leaders, but men and women in every walk of life, recognize this for what it is: a direct threat to our democracy and to the way of life we have long cherished and pledged ourselves to defend. The time for detached intellectual rumination has passed. This is the moment for action—thoughtful, yes, but also relentless, courageous, and sustained. There is no other recourse.