Thank you for your daily reminders that there is some constancy in our government. Steady is what I need to feel confident that our democracy will exist during my lifetime.
You write, “I believe for as long as there is a United States…a presidency like the one we have will be a necessity.” Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I always had understood that the Founders, seeking to establish structures of government and to balance their powers in a way that would protect the country, were especially aware of the need for constant checks and balances against the excesses of executive power. I also had understood, while each branch would have its duties, that the powers granted to Congress, the branch most accountable to its constituents, would surpass the other two, yet paradoxically Congress, over time, has ceded more and more of its powers to the Executive and to the Judiciary. However much civic education and engagement is part of a school’s curriculum, it’s not nearly enough.
Past presidents who were champions of democracy would probably prefer a holiday for Election Day vs. Presidents (Presidents' or President's) Day. Just saying...
The American presidency is a very powerful position, arguably the single most powerful position in the world. Trump was the first and hopefully the last president to abuse the power of the office so thoroughly. By his unconventional approach, evil intent & complete refusal to recognize the Rule of Law, he very nearly ended America.
Trump destroyed trust. Trust in him as well as trust in our entire government.
He exploited every gap in the law, tradition
and policy pertaining to presidential power.
The legislature now needs to address those gaps so they are no longer vulnerable, should we ever again have a president like Trump.
But I think it should be made clear that what we experienced under Trump’s presidency
isn’t the fault of our Constitution or the way our government is set up, it’s 100% the fault of the man in the oval office and every republican in Congress who refused to put country and countrymen over self-interest
in money.
We should have rid ourselves of Trump, the mobile crime scene, when he was first impeached. We didn’t because every republican in Congress refused to protect our country from an obvious criminal and the criminals he surrounded himself with.
But, we can fix most of the gaps Trump exploited if, and only if, enough Democrats are elected to give us a clear, unambiguous majority in both the House and the Senate. The stakes in the next election are enormous and require all of us to rise above whatever dirty tricks the gop throws at us so we can shut these republican criminals down.
Taking a long view, IMO the solution to this perpetual problem will be removing all political donations from the United States electoral process and substitute taxpayer-funding of elections.
Until then, the winners will probably continue to be the best candidates that some corporations and rich people's money can buy. And that's been not such a success, judging by the results.
When was the last time a normally funded candidate won any national election?
I totally agree. We must make all campaign donations illegal or we will be beating back(metaphorically speaking) money-grubbing jerks for the rest of our lives & I’ve got better things to do. Public money should be the only money allowed—each candidate should get the same amount. The FEC should keep track of expenditures so nobody can cheat. Once the money is spent, there’s no more spending allowed.
Then maybe we can pass gun control legislation, force the costs of prescriptions down and finally, at long last, get Medicare For All.
I think it is the profound use of the English language that makes your articles so incredible. Most of us would have written, "it's been on my mind a lot."
What a difference one word makes, lately. The feelings and thoughts, the sense of time, the sense of pondering, all are tied up in that one added word, lately.
I read and I write a lot, and so I can say with sincere amazement that I have never read anything that comes close to what you do Dan. You put our thoughts, our hopes and so much more onto the page, and I, for one, am very grateful that you do! And grateful that you do it with such sensitivity, such humbleness, and with such a light touch.
As usual, Dan's column is spot-on. Except I'm not sure about the grammar argument. Whether the day is to remember two Presidents or all of them, (-s' ) seems appropriate. Just to muddy the waters, isn't there a rule that if a possessive is part of a title the apostrophe is omitted? That would make it Presidents Day.
I would like to recommend the book "Demagogue; The Threat to Democracy from Its Worst Enemies" by Michael Signer. He makes the case that democracy is fragile, and that vulnerability to the rise of a despot is not beyond the pale. The Trump cult is scary.
I used to believe that the President was a representative for our country with limited powers. It was my understanding that the President would listen to his advisers or experts to help him make the necessary decisions for our country. Under Trump I felt that the President was able to do and say whatever he wished without any consequences. Biden has brought back a sense of normalcy, reason, and competency. However, the Republican Party has been able to forge ahead with their disturbing agendas by using their majority power in our state legislatures nationwide. They are forcing people to have babies making it a criminal act for anyone who violates this law. They are suppressing voting rights and plan on putting their people in place to count the votes. Giving someone water waiting in line is a crime in one state. They are banning books in public schools and want teachers to be sued for teaching students what is deemed “inappropriate.” Can you just imagine teachers getting fired because some student doesn’t like them? They are in essence creating a police state. Yet, the President has no authority to stop this. Our country needs to be saved from the destruction of our democratic principles. Who is going to save us?
We save ourselves by voting. It’s the only way we have a say in how we are governed. There is nothing more important to our way of life than voting.
Everyone should be appalled at the republicans’ efforts to keep anyone of us from voting or passing laws giving republicans the right to change our votes and/or toss them out. What I don’t understand is why our DOJ isn’t addressing that problem, because it’s actually more important than than arresting and indicting the criminal former president, which the DOJ also doesn’t appear to be addressing.
One more thing. Authoritarianism is
just a less-loaded term for fascism.
What we’re up against is fascism: book
banning is a fascist act, because it controls information. The Critical race theory nonsense is a fascist move to control curriculum. Privatization of the post office is also a fascist move to control information. Privatization of social security is a way to make us pay someone to manage our social security money instead of having the government
manage it for us. Senator Rand Paul’s incessant harassment of Dr. Fauci is a fascist attempt to undermine Dr.Fauci’s authority as an expert virologist, because authority in a fascist state can exist in only one person—the Dictator. It’s also a warning to other experts who testify in a Congressional hearing that they will also be treated with contempt.
The easiest way to impose fascist control is to do it incrementally and to call it something other than what it is. So the excuse for banning books is so our tender-hearted children won’t have to deal with past horrors of American life, when said children see and hear much worse horrors every day on TV. So it’s not really about protecting children at all, it’s about control.
Republicans have been steadily moving this country in the direction of becoming a fascist police state for the last 30 years and it’s past time to put the brakes on it once & for all, or we will be very, very sorry. The most effective way to do that is to eliminate money from our election system. Let’s face it, campaign donations are bribes, especially campaign donations from corporations.
It’s past time to put an end to it and it will be a hellava fight, but it’s the only way we can maintain our freedom and our quality of life.
We have to >be< the cavalry coming to our own rescue, because time has run out.
Consider the enormous forces and financial expenditures that created this MAGA entity. It did not just materialize from Brownian motion with micro-gravitational attraction.
Enormous profits were made by the few who were in there before the beginning, promoting this pathologically lying malignant narcissist game show host who possesses breathtaking ignorance; (not knowing "oranges" from "origins" for example); in Stalin's terminology, "a useful idiot".
This is not a complex situation, once the holiday decorations are removed. Money selects the candidates. Not the people whom they are supposed (as in, imagined) to represent.
Get out the donations and we can get down to the business of running the country the way the people want.
The way we were lucky enough to get Joe Biden happened with the fluke that Drumph was so unbearably terrible.
After Drumph, Tiny Tim would have seemed to be a pretty good pick.
Thank you for your daily reminders that there is some constancy in our government. Steady is what I need to feel confident that our democracy will exist during my lifetime.
You write, “I believe for as long as there is a United States…a presidency like the one we have will be a necessity.” Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I always had understood that the Founders, seeking to establish structures of government and to balance their powers in a way that would protect the country, were especially aware of the need for constant checks and balances against the excesses of executive power. I also had understood, while each branch would have its duties, that the powers granted to Congress, the branch most accountable to its constituents, would surpass the other two, yet paradoxically Congress, over time, has ceded more and more of its powers to the Executive and to the Judiciary. However much civic education and engagement is part of a school’s curriculum, it’s not nearly enough.
Great read. Presidents must serve all Americans. All in Congress should have term limits as do President.
Past presidents who were champions of democracy would probably prefer a holiday for Election Day vs. Presidents (Presidents' or President's) Day. Just saying...
I love Steady!! And I love your perspective Mr. Rather. It’s like you put to voice my deepest and innermost thoughts and fears
The American presidency is a very powerful position, arguably the single most powerful position in the world. Trump was the first and hopefully the last president to abuse the power of the office so thoroughly. By his unconventional approach, evil intent & complete refusal to recognize the Rule of Law, he very nearly ended America.
Trump destroyed trust. Trust in him as well as trust in our entire government.
He exploited every gap in the law, tradition
and policy pertaining to presidential power.
The legislature now needs to address those gaps so they are no longer vulnerable, should we ever again have a president like Trump.
But I think it should be made clear that what we experienced under Trump’s presidency
isn’t the fault of our Constitution or the way our government is set up, it’s 100% the fault of the man in the oval office and every republican in Congress who refused to put country and countrymen over self-interest
in money.
We should have rid ourselves of Trump, the mobile crime scene, when he was first impeached. We didn’t because every republican in Congress refused to protect our country from an obvious criminal and the criminals he surrounded himself with.
But, we can fix most of the gaps Trump exploited if, and only if, enough Democrats are elected to give us a clear, unambiguous majority in both the House and the Senate. The stakes in the next election are enormous and require all of us to rise above whatever dirty tricks the gop throws at us so we can shut these republican criminals down.
Taking a long view, IMO the solution to this perpetual problem will be removing all political donations from the United States electoral process and substitute taxpayer-funding of elections.
Until then, the winners will probably continue to be the best candidates that some corporations and rich people's money can buy. And that's been not such a success, judging by the results.
When was the last time a normally funded candidate won any national election?
I totally agree. We must make all campaign donations illegal or we will be beating back(metaphorically speaking) money-grubbing jerks for the rest of our lives & I’ve got better things to do. Public money should be the only money allowed—each candidate should get the same amount. The FEC should keep track of expenditures so nobody can cheat. Once the money is spent, there’s no more spending allowed.
Then maybe we can pass gun control legislation, force the costs of prescriptions down and finally, at long last, get Medicare For All.
Exactly why we need more & more Progressives elected!
We MUST elect Progressives up/down the ballot or nothing will change….
....had on my mind a lot, lately.
I think it is the profound use of the English language that makes your articles so incredible. Most of us would have written, "it's been on my mind a lot."
What a difference one word makes, lately. The feelings and thoughts, the sense of time, the sense of pondering, all are tied up in that one added word, lately.
I read and I write a lot, and so I can say with sincere amazement that I have never read anything that comes close to what you do Dan. You put our thoughts, our hopes and so much more onto the page, and I, for one, am very grateful that you do! And grateful that you do it with such sensitivity, such humbleness, and with such a light touch.
Thank you Dan, thank you.
Amen, Brother!!
Your last three sentences say it all! Thank you for these wise words!
As usual, Dan's column is spot-on. Except I'm not sure about the grammar argument. Whether the day is to remember two Presidents or all of them, (-s' ) seems appropriate. Just to muddy the waters, isn't there a rule that if a possessive is part of a title the apostrophe is omitted? That would make it Presidents Day.
I would like to recommend the book "Demagogue; The Threat to Democracy from Its Worst Enemies" by Michael Signer. He makes the case that democracy is fragile, and that vulnerability to the rise of a despot is not beyond the pale. The Trump cult is scary.
I used to believe that the President was a representative for our country with limited powers. It was my understanding that the President would listen to his advisers or experts to help him make the necessary decisions for our country. Under Trump I felt that the President was able to do and say whatever he wished without any consequences. Biden has brought back a sense of normalcy, reason, and competency. However, the Republican Party has been able to forge ahead with their disturbing agendas by using their majority power in our state legislatures nationwide. They are forcing people to have babies making it a criminal act for anyone who violates this law. They are suppressing voting rights and plan on putting their people in place to count the votes. Giving someone water waiting in line is a crime in one state. They are banning books in public schools and want teachers to be sued for teaching students what is deemed “inappropriate.” Can you just imagine teachers getting fired because some student doesn’t like them? They are in essence creating a police state. Yet, the President has no authority to stop this. Our country needs to be saved from the destruction of our democratic principles. Who is going to save us?
We save ourselves by voting. It’s the only way we have a say in how we are governed. There is nothing more important to our way of life than voting.
Everyone should be appalled at the republicans’ efforts to keep anyone of us from voting or passing laws giving republicans the right to change our votes and/or toss them out. What I don’t understand is why our DOJ isn’t addressing that problem, because it’s actually more important than than arresting and indicting the criminal former president, which the DOJ also doesn’t appear to be addressing.
One more thing. Authoritarianism is
just a less-loaded term for fascism.
What we’re up against is fascism: book
banning is a fascist act, because it controls information. The Critical race theory nonsense is a fascist move to control curriculum. Privatization of the post office is also a fascist move to control information. Privatization of social security is a way to make us pay someone to manage our social security money instead of having the government
manage it for us. Senator Rand Paul’s incessant harassment of Dr. Fauci is a fascist attempt to undermine Dr.Fauci’s authority as an expert virologist, because authority in a fascist state can exist in only one person—the Dictator. It’s also a warning to other experts who testify in a Congressional hearing that they will also be treated with contempt.
The easiest way to impose fascist control is to do it incrementally and to call it something other than what it is. So the excuse for banning books is so our tender-hearted children won’t have to deal with past horrors of American life, when said children see and hear much worse horrors every day on TV. So it’s not really about protecting children at all, it’s about control.
Republicans have been steadily moving this country in the direction of becoming a fascist police state for the last 30 years and it’s past time to put the brakes on it once & for all, or we will be very, very sorry. The most effective way to do that is to eliminate money from our election system. Let’s face it, campaign donations are bribes, especially campaign donations from corporations.
It’s past time to put an end to it and it will be a hellava fight, but it’s the only way we can maintain our freedom and our quality of life.
We have to >be< the cavalry coming to our own rescue, because time has run out.
Consider the enormous forces and financial expenditures that created this MAGA entity. It did not just materialize from Brownian motion with micro-gravitational attraction.
Enormous profits were made by the few who were in there before the beginning, promoting this pathologically lying malignant narcissist game show host who possesses breathtaking ignorance; (not knowing "oranges" from "origins" for example); in Stalin's terminology, "a useful idiot".
This is not a complex situation, once the holiday decorations are removed. Money selects the candidates. Not the people whom they are supposed (as in, imagined) to represent.
Get out the donations and we can get down to the business of running the country the way the people want.
The way we were lucky enough to get Joe Biden happened with the fluke that Drumph was so unbearably terrible.
After Drumph, Tiny Tim would have seemed to be a pretty good pick.
But we can't count on this happening twice.
Yes, yes, yes. You nailed it. Thank you.
Thank you again Dan for a discerning commentary.
Thank you, sir. Well said and well presented. Pronouns notwithstanding, a succinct evaluation of where we, as a country, should be heading.
Thank you again, Dan. Right on target.
Well said! Thank you, Dan!