After multiple complaints of sexual harassment and advances which reached back to 1997, US Congressman John Conyers resigned his House seat today, after having been called on to do so by members of the Democratic House Leadership including Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clayton.
After multiple complaints of sexual harassment and advances which reached back to 1977, Roy Moore, candidate in Alabama for the U.S. Senate had his previously revoked RNC support and funds restored after having been formally endorsed by President Trump, no stranger to the charge. After multiple complaints (16) of sexual harassment and advances which reached back to the 1980’s, Donald Trump famously bragged on tape — which the nation heard ad nauseam — “And when you're a star, they let you do it, you can do anything... grab them by the pussy." The Republican Leadership response was swift and expected…. they went to ground and started wearing Groucho Marx disguises, demonstrating definitively that winning was more important than their Christian morality or common sense integrity and that the welfare and the reputation of their country was not part of their voting decision. And so, we’re back. Full circle. Except for one thing. The Democrats finally acted with integrity, dug around and found their moral fiber, and forced Conyers out. It wasn’t as easy for them as you’d hoped it would be… but they nonetheless did the right thing. Barack Obama got legislatively arrogant after his 2008 election, the result of which was the 2010 Democrat loss of 63 House seats, and another 23 in the 2014 presidential election. The balance of power shifted, for which the Dems are still playing catch up. This is a chicken egg debate, however: did Obama get arrogant and simply not talk to the Republicans or did they freeze him out (like not advancing judicial candidates) and make him go it on his own? Pick a side and polish up the debate. Each side is pretty adamant about what happened but history will make the final call and the answer will be multifaceted with enough blame shared by all. The American people will again bear the brunt of the pain, all of whom apparently think each of their individual concerns must be met to their total satisfaction or there is no room for coming together with the other side. You want to know how far “the other side” got so far from you — how they became “so radical?” Ask yourself how willing you are to give up one of your sacred cows for what’s REALLY important to you. That’s compromise, not losing. If you are a single-issue voter, you are part of the problem, not the solution (abortion or Second Amendment, whatever, you pick it). There are no litmus tests in a democracy. You have compromise and a democracy or chaos waiting for authoritarian dictates based on the arbitrary and capricious whims of a strongman. And before you say it, I’ve already heard that the rat bastard Republicans are tearing down our country and the institutions upon which we all depend; and that the rat bastard Democrats are a bunch of bed-wetting environmental radicals determined to remake this country into a socialist state. Those are the extremes, we mostly live somewhere in the middle. The good news in all of this is after millennia of wondering, we’ve finally discovered where Karma actually resides: Washington D.C. This era is ample evidence that NO ONE in Washington D.C. (of any party) reads history, or if they do, they consciously ignore it by chanting themselves to sleep with, “It will never happen in America.” Worse, however, since “it will never happen in America” there is apparently no reason to talk to each other about what IS happening — and speak to each other in terms of resolution and solution rather than head-strongly about how wrong the other side is and how right and righteous our side is. You can trust me when I tell you we do not have the A-Team in either party serving either house, they frankly are not all that bright, and many have simply been there too damn long. Remember, this is still the good news. The bad news is that it IS happening... right now… in America. We are living through history, and what history demonstrates is that most people don’t recognize when they are living through history. It’s just another day that happened while I was at work. As of this writing, we’ve just had the longest serving Democrat in the House step down, at the same time our President — who’s own public record on the same issue is far worse — is endorsing a Republican candidate for Senate whose record on the same issue is arguably worse than the quitting Democrat or the sitting President. So what can any of us do about this? a) stop believing the worst as the default; wait for some evidence before you launch something into social media; b) give yourself permission to think about why the other side is trying to do what they’re doing; there’s logic behind whatever they do — you don’t have to agree with it, but at least understand what it is before you start forwarding stories from websites no one’s heard of; c) expect more from your friends and be prepared to talk them down off a rant; someone gets wound up on social media and the toxicity spreads much further than it was intended; d) if you’re happy with the ways things are going, do nothing; the chaos is manufactured daily so you needn’t create any. If you’re not happy with it, get involved formally in the 2018 elections; people committed to change are working for a candidate of change… people who are merely committible are bottom scraping the net and trolling it for social media. e) finally, and if there is any merit in this mini-rant it is this: nothing above this line matters so much as your own integrity, moral compass, and devotion to family and friends… because if the world really does go to hell in a hand-basket, they will be the only things between you and the madness which follows. Have a nice day. Get your flu shot. Hug a loved one. Vote. And for God’s sake, clean out the cat box.
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