Sunday, January 28, 2018

Chris Who? New Jersey Turns Left

Chris Christie said that we would miss him once he's gone, but I just took that as the final ramblings of someone who, like the president, can't stand to be out of the public's eye for even a second and can't stand the thought that someone else might get credit for...anything.

Phil Murphy has now been governor of New Jersey for about two weeks. It's as thought there never was a Chris Christie.

Gone are the self-centered press conferences and town hall meetings that bashed public workers and unions and painted anyone who disagreed with Christie as a cretin or as intellectually-challenged.

Gone is the utterly and completely inappropriate language and disrespect that fouled public discourse and actually made it acceptable to question the motives and incomes of our dedicated public servants.

Gone is the ambition to be president, which ruined Christie's entire second term and stalled any progress New Jersey might have made in areas where we desperately needed government help, such as in transportation, infrastructure and public services.

Gone, and forgotten, is Chris Christie.

Almost immediately, Governor Phil Murphy has set a different tone. He's positive, energetic, full of smiles and positive words. He's serving as a representative of all the people and has yet to paint his opponents as anything other than people who simply disagree with him There's no moral ardor or contrived anger. There are no enemies.

There's simply...a governor trying to do his job.

Of course, over the past 10 days, Murphy has taken decidedly more progressive and liberal stands on the issues. He's for the legalization of marijuana and already there are towns lining up against him. He's reversed Christie's easing of gun laws and is supporting efforts to stop immigration officials from arresting people who are fleeing persecution, and is joining with Governors Cuomo and Molloy to fight against the federal tax cut which will do great damage to the state's economy. He has also signaled his support for public school teachers and aid to districts that saw their funding drastically cut during the Christie years.

It doesn't mean that all of these proposals will bear fruit. New Jersey is a costly place in which to live and conduct business and it will be difficult to raise revenue for new programs. But there is a sense of the possible in the state that suffered under a lagging economy and a governor who didn't seem interested in running the government until he lost badly in 2016.

The Democrats now control all of the levels of state government. My hope is that Governor Murphy will be able to use his optimistic, forward-looking personality to lead the state and address its most pressing problems. He's off to a good start.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Shutdown Follies: Business As Usual

Wait a minute. I thought the point of the conservative movement was to shrink the federal government down to the size where it would "drown in the bathtub." Why are the Republicans so worried about keeping the government open and fear the public's backlash?

Perhaps because, despite their disdain for government services and their blatant disregard for how many Americans interact with their government, they know deep down that blame for this shutdown cannot be placed on a Senator from New York whose name means nothing to most people.

In short, the Republicans and Donald Trump own this shutdown and they know it. Well, I can't really be sure what the president actually knows, but I imagine that in the quiet of a commercial break while watching FOX News, someone has told the president that this doesn't look good for him and that his reputation as a deal maker is what's actually drowning in the bathtub.

Was this avoidable? Of course. All shutdowns are avoidable if both parties are willing to give something up. And it certainly looked like the discussions between the president and Senator Chuck Schumer were gathering some momentum yesterday afternoon with Schumer willing to say yes to some funding for the wall that I thought Mexico was supposed to pay for. In return, the president was willing to agree to a deal for the Dreamers.

What I imagined happened was that the immigration hard liners then spoke to the president and convinced him of the apparent folly of treating children who were brought here by there parents as nothing less than scoundrels and criminals. Especially the ones who went to college, have respectable lives and love this country every bit as much as an ignorant nativist like Steve King. Whom most people have never heard of. See what I mean?

Most people want a deal that allows the Dreamers to stay and most people do not want to spend $18 billion dollars on a wall that will do nothing to stop people from coming to this country illegally. Most people want responsible border security. Most people want the government to fully fund the Children's Health Insurance Program. Most people want a strong military.

In a Congress where a $1.5 trillion dollar hole in the budget is not a problem, haggling over these programs amounts to a Mt. Washington of hypocrisy, full of violent winds, plunging temperatures and dangerous precipices. Add to that a blizzard of Republican accusations that shutting down the government amounts to a repudiation of the mandate of the people as demonstrated in the 2016 election, you know, the one where over 3 million more people voted for Hillary Clinton, and you have a situation where the GOP looks a bit hypocritical.

I have no doubt that there will be a deal soon, but it won't solve any long term problems. That's the problem with swamps. The mosquitoes will always find more blood and stagnant water.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Sunday, January 14, 2018

The Race to the Bottom on Race

At this point, Dr. Martin Luther King's spinning in his grave could be used as wind power to light up the western hemisphere.

President Trump's comments at a meeting with Congressional leaders about immigration on Friday smashed through the moral floor that this administration has set ten stories below the White House and established yet another embarrassing standard in ugliness for an administration that struggles to betray any semblance of normality.

Those defending the president like to point out that he's just saying things that people say around their dinner table, or that he's giving a truthful version of events or that he's not a racist because he contributed to African-American causes or has socialized with African-Americans.

This is hogwash. People are complicated and can present different faces to different crowds. I know anti-Semitic people, some of whom are relatives, who hug me when we meet and can share a meal with me without saying anything offensive. But when it comes to their true views, they are not shy about believing that what they say about the most vile stereotypes is absolutely true. They're still ant-Semites, and it informs their worldview.

In addition, I attended Franklin High School, which was, and still is, one of the most integrated schools in New Jersey. I saw genuine tolerance, friendship and love in the hallways, classrooms and homes.  But I also saw racist stereotyping and denigration at events where one group, either whites or African-Americans, dominated. I saw racial violence that was caused by the same social problems we have today. I experienced Antisemitism.

Many people who harbor racist ideas and attitudes can hide them, but when they get angry or frustrated, as the president does every hour, then the emotional turmoil that lies beneath the skin bubbles up and you find out what a person truly believes. Plus, if people are speaking this way around their dinner tables--denigrating other countries and labeling their people--then we need to do a better job educating our citizens about respecting other cultures and people.

So it is with President Trump. He says racist things. Over and over. That leads me to believe that he is a racist in that he sees whiteness as a virtue, as superior, and the standard by which all other races should be measured. He has equated the tactics and motivations of white supremacists and those groups these white supremacists would like to obliterate. He has questioned the fairness of a Federal Judge based on the fact that the judge was a Mexican-American. He questioned whether the sitting president of the United States was, in fact, a citizen.

These are disgraceful, racist views and none of them is defensible if taken separately. Taken in the aggregate, they are an indictment of the president's character and his ability to lead this country on this issue.

But as with most eruptions associated with this president, there is even more ignorance below the surface. His characterization of Haiti and African countries betrays the uninformed, but largely prevalent idea, that immigrants bring their former country's culture and attitudes with them when they come to the United States. He's saying that they must like the poverty and political dysfunction or economic stagnation or effects of past imperialism that infects their countries. That they cannot possibly become good Americans. That they take American jobs, marry American women, suckle at the American taxpayer's teat.

This is a conversation we've had before. It was discriminatory then and it's discriminatory now.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the offending countries were Italy, Russia, Greece and other European nations who were sending us Anarchists, Socialists, Jews and revolutionaries who were supposedly unsuited for life in a democracy. Before that, in the 1840s, Ireland sent us their starving people, who were referred to, incongruously, yet reflecting true native ignorance, as White Niggers. Miraculously, those tired, poor un-Americans were able to contribute mightily to the nation and enable it to become a beacon of hope and freedom.

The president's ignorance betrays an unfortunately all-American, and increasingly all-Western world attitude that reinforces stereotypes and leads to more hatred. He long ago gave up any promise that he would be a leader who would unify the country and present a positive, forward message that we could rally behind. Instead, we are going backwards.

This Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, please make sure that you remind the world that we are a great people being led by a small man.

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Sunday, January 7, 2018

Secretariat Was a Stable Genius Too

Can someone please tell me what the fuss is all about? Didn't we know that a minority of people didn't elect a statesman or someone with a deep and abiding knowledge of public affairs? Wasn't it clear that Donald Trump was just a real estate guy with a TV show that glorified...himself and...his accomplishments based on...his ego? Is it not apparent that a minority of voters decided that they wanted a regular person who knew as much about the constitution as every other regular person and wanted someone who is as angry as they are about the what's-so-complicated policies regarding immigration, taxes, health care, foreign affairs and the separation of powers?

Didn't one of your parents ever say to you that big people talk about big ideas, while small people talk about...themselves?

The events of the past three days surprise me not. They are disturbing. They are frightening. And they were eminently avoidable. But Democrats have to be very careful about what accusations they make and what stories they gather themselves behind. Enough with the mental health updates or the talk of impeachment. These just make the left seem unhinged, screechy, petty and uninformed. And can someone please tell the New York Times that they don't have to include a recap of every wrong thing the president has said over the past year in every story. I can't even read the paper anymore.

The only objective is to win enough seats to take over the House and/or the Senate and to stop the GOP's reactionary agenda before it can do any more damage to the country. That's why the 2018 midterm elections are key. The Democrats need to mobilize their voters and those Trump voters who didn't like Hillary, but would vote for a sensible Democrat who would protect their health care, truly lower their taxes, safeguard the environment, respect and improve international agreements and support reproductive rights.

It's clear that the Republicans are not going to challenge the president on his behavior as long as he supports their program. But even that is beginning to fray. The order opening up the entire US coastline to drilling is such an outrageously terrible idea that even Governor Rick Scott, no friend to moderation, is against it, as is Chris Christie, who would be able to see the derricks from his beach chair.

There is also resistance to Jeff Sessions' announcing that the Justice Department would begin acting against states that voted to legalize marijuana. Not that I'm a big fan of balancing state budgets on alcohol, tobacco, gambling and pot, but returning us to GiulianiTime.  The absolute last thing we need is for our criminal justice system to begin arresting low level drug users in states that have legalized weed. That would be a travesty. And here I thought the GOP was the party of states rights.

Democrats need to capitalize on these issues and get out their voters and those Democrats who sat out the 2016 election. And they'd better come up with an economic argument too because that will also be the key issue in November, as it usually is. That most people see the GOP tax cut as a sop to the wealthy will help, but seeing more money in your paycheck is a powerful argument to stay the course. Then again, cuts to social programs, as the Republicans promise, will certainly wake people up to the danger.

So cut the garbage about psychiatric evaluations and see this election through the correct lens: It's politics, and all politics is local.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest