Listen to the May 2024 version of this post in the author’s voice (3 minutes)
On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?Psalm 137:2-4, RSV
Whatever my aversion to partisan politics has been in the past, it’s stronger than ever. Putting age aside, as well as a highly forgettable VP, I find little encouraging in the Democratic ticket. The Democrats no longer promote the view that abortions should be safe, legal, and rare, but that they should be affordable and accessible (making them common). If I didn’t think the unborn were human beings, I wouldn’t object. But I cannot see the difference. After conception, it’s all shades of gray, lines drawn in the sand.
Meanwhile the Republicans—the majority of them—celebrate a man who lies profusely, who is a known sexual predator, who seldom speaks factually, who relentlessly spews superlatives, and who promoted the ruin of the democratic process in the 2020 presidential election.
Few instances of television shine as do the January 6th hearings, also known as the Select Committee Hearing, January 6th Committee. Ten hearings were publicly aired in 2022. Being so thorough and, really, damning, they are indispensable for voting or thinking (or both types of) Americans—so much so that I refuse to argue with anyone about national politics if they have not watched these hearings at length.
Often conducted by outstanding Republicans (Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger), often interviewing or examining Republican members of the Trump Cabinet, these hearings demolish the lies and conspiracy theories that rationalize the behavior of President Trump and many of his supporters on January 6, 2020.
It is chilling to imagine Donald Trump being elected as President in 2024. Nothing would make me vote for him and only a change in candidates would allow me to vote for the Democrats. My hope is that the political Chernobyl that America has been reduced to will burn itself out in the next four years without fully dismembering our country.
Perhaps in 2028, someone with the integrity of Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger (or Democrats or Independents of similar stature) will help restore democracy. Or, lamentably, perhaps America is in an uncontrolled decline.
I’ll give Isaiah the final word here:
The Sovereign Lord . . . brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
Publishing Info
This post was first published on: May 14, 2024. If this article is significantly updated, the publication date beneath the title may change in order to bring current posts to the top of the directory.