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The Fallacy of the "Good Brain" ________________________________________________________________

8/12/2018

What is wrong with Donald Trump? What makes a man who boasts about his wealth, his financial acumen, his brain, a man who was born into comfort, who has never known worldly deprivation, who, in fact, has been more privileged than (just a guess) at least 98% of the planet, so driven to cruelty?

Not content with rescinding the promises of DACA, Trump moved on to separating children from their parents as they arrived to request asylum, and he stands by as immigration officers deport adults who have lived here for years while creating businesses, families, and communities. Next on the agenda? He proposes that the use of safety net programs (Children’s Health Insurance Program [CHIPS] for instance) by anyone, even citizens, should disqualify all others in the household for citizenship or a green card In other words, if a citizen infant gets medical care using CHIPS, her immigrant father or any other non-citizen living under the same roof could never qualify for permanent status.

Imagine being a parent under those conditions. Do you risk the life of your feverish baby by withholding medical care in order to give her immigrant father—or other relative or family friend—a better shot at citizenship?

A president who truly has, as Trump claims, “a good brain,” would put that brain to work seeking a solution to our broken immigration system, a solution that would provide sensible legal paths to citizenship for those already here and reasonable standards for processing and granting amnesty requests.

The truth is Trump doesn’t have “a good brain.” He has hubris, compounded with raging insecurities, mixed with ignorance and cowardice and unbridled wrath that demands to be fed by inflicting pain on others.

Michael Steele, former chair of the Republican National Committee, used kinder terms. “He’s the sun in his own universe,” Steele said recently.

Trump feels strong only when making others suffer. He would be a pathetic leader in any country. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, he’s an abomination, mostly useful as fodder for late-night comedy and probing political tomes.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Time's Up (We Can Dream Anyway) ________________________________________________________________

8/8/2018

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I used to be a proponent of campaign spending limits—and still would be if I thought it had a better chance of survival than a lizard in the path of a Mack truck. Likewise, I support limiting campaign season to something less than a full-time occupation—say, three months in advance of a primary, another three or four before a November election. The time left over by collapsing the time on the campaign trail might be used by incumbents to try legislatingfor a change. (Take a minute to wrap your head around that one.)

Not to mention any names, but some people prefer electioneering to governing. Not to mention any names, but this is especially true of folks who know nothing about government, who think (just for instance) that judges “sign bills” and whose idea of consultation with foreign policy experts is (just for instance) “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.” What???

But I digress. We really need to talk about Congress.

Legislative Posts Captivate

In that arena, I’m willing to abandon my fixation on the undeniable need for campaign finance reform in favor of limits on the number of terms a legislator may serve. I say this because it has become increasingly clear that legislative posts are so captivating that otherwise rational, sentient beings are not only willing, but positively eager to sell their souls in order to hang onto them. Limiting the length of time they spend in the moral rot along the Potomac would afford them the opportunity to redeem themselves by going home and performing productive work—provided, of course, they resist the temptation to dive deeper into the swamp and join the K Street crowd instead. This is a dubious assumption we mustn’t make. But that’s a topic for another time.

Freeing the Beholden

As voters, we stand to benefit from term limits in a number of ways, most notably by freeing (or perhaps forcing) our elected “leaders” to vote their conscience. Look at it this way: If you’d been held hostage by the likes of Donald Trump simply because you feared losing your job, imagine going to DC for a final term. You can’t be re-elected because you’re term-limited. Imagine the freedom. Imagine thinking for yourself. Imagine speaking your genuine truth. Imagine casting a vote that actually serves the common good.

And one more thing. Remember elementary school? Taking turns? Sharing? The founders didn’t expect legislating to be a lifetime job. In no endeavor are fresh eyes, diverse backgrounds, independent thought, and sundry passions (notof a sexual nature, in case you’re wondering) more vital to healthy functioning.

The law of averages would dictate that there are some fine, upstanding legislators in our capitol. But when the party of the president controls both houses of Congress and that party allows itself to be held hostage to a bloviating, ignorant “leader,” the jig is up. Clearly, the only goal of most Republicans in Congress is to get re-elected.

This is not to say that Democrats aren’t driven by the same goal; it’s just that I can’t remember them ever being driven into such paroxysms of lunacy that they went along like sleepy sheep to (just for instance) …

the wanton willy-nilly separation of children from loving parents
lining of the presidential pockets with blatant violations of the emoluments clause
presidential secrecy regarding tax returns
expensive photo ops, AKA “summits” (you know—with Kim Jong Un and Putin)
gratuitous hostility to our allies
transformation of the White House into a “reality” psychodrama
exploding deficits
tax cuts for cronies and crumbs for the rest of us
the failure of ordinary civil conduct in favor of juvenile tweets, verbal mocking, insults, and attacks in endless campaign style rallies (Incidentally, are taxpayers funding all that hoopla and, if so, why?)

Seriously? Why?

You get the picture. How does Congress take this guy seriously? And why?

I’ve already told you. The perks, the connections, the attention, the status, maybe some book deals down the line—and who knows what else? I realize what common wisdom says: term limits are “unwise … impractical … will never happen … “

Yes … and an African American can never be elected president … and women can never make it in politics … and you just have to put up and shut up when it comes to sexual harassment … and people will never give up smoking ……

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The Fallacy of the "Good Brain" ________________________________________________________________

Time's Up (We Can Dream Anyway) ________________________________________________________________

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