Freak Out Friday – January 4, 2019

How about that. I remembered to say 2019 rather than 2018 in the headline. Maybe this whole new year thing is becoming that much easier to remember.

We spent New Year’s alone this year, as we did last year. We used to spend it with some neighbors of ours, watching the great ball go down in Times Square. But that doesn’t happen anymore because, I believe, they are Trump supporters. And because we are most definitely not, apparently that means we can’t be friends anymore. Honestly, I find that surprising. Once upon a time, whoever you supported in the political spectrum was simply one minor aspect of your personality. It was rarely if ever discussed (talking about politics was understood as a topic to avoid) and you could enjoy the company of others because there was so much you did have in common. That no longer seems to be the case, and that saddens me somewhat. It’s gotten progressively worse over the years, but Trump has brought it to the fore in a way none of his predecessors have. I’d be happy to remain friends with people who I’m politically opposed to, but have not been given that opportunity. Which is depressing as hell.

Fortunately Trump is making it easier by working with the new Democratic House to ease the burdens of the hundreds of thousands of Federal workers who are sitting home staring at walls or working for no pay.

Kidding, obviously.

Trump purportedly spent the holidays alone in the White House while the rest of his family went elsewhere. This was the smartest thing they could have done, because who wouldn’t want to be anywhere except at Trump’s side during the most joyous time of the year that non-Jews experience. (Our New Years involve standing around for hours in synagogue, and then a week later we have to be depressed for hours in a synagogue. No wonder we discourage converts.). There the master deal maker, who condemned Obama during his shut down by stating that a real leader wouldn’t have let it happen in the first place, sat around and waited for someone to come to him with an offer. That’s it. Sat around and waited. He didn’t initiate negotiations, he didn’t order the Senate to skip their vacations, he didn’t apply any pressure. He just sat there like a recalcitrant toddler and waited for someone to give him his way, despite the fact that the Democrats had made their position clear: No wall. If the Mexicans wanted to pay for it (not to mention if all the people who owned land that the wall would have to be constructed upon wanted to donate it to the cause), then fine. Hell, if Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire wanted to pay for it, then fine. There is still no empirical evidence that warrants it: a study done in 2017 determined no connection between rising immigration and either drugs or alcoholism. But sure, build a wall that Mexico will pay for, just as Trump promised dozens of screaming crowds.

Which, of course, is not going to happen, just as any reasoning person said when he first made the “promise.” Would Mexico pay to build a wall around Trump? Very likely. But they aren’t going to pay for a US version of the Great Wall of China which, by the way, was repeatedly breached back in the day. To say nothing of the fact that many illegal immigrants are people who come in with visas and then simply don’t leave when the visa expires. Is he going to wall off JFK and LAX as well?

So the obvious thing to do is for the Senate to stand up to him. Nancy Pelosi and the House have done the exact right thing: they recreated a bill that the Senate GOP already passed and sent it to them to bring to Trump. If we had a government filled with people who actually understood and supported the constitution they’re sworn to protect, they would send it to Trump, who would likely veto it because Fox News and the far right tell him to. And then the Senate would override the veto, because that’s how the government is supposed to work. Balance of power with three equal branches.

Except Mitch McConnell and his cronies have forgotten that, if they ever knew it at all. All that determination they spouted to oppose Obama during his eight years has gone out the window. Instead they have simply become a subset, subordinate to the president and his desires, and will not send him something they know he will not sign. Through their inaction, they are tossing aside the entire notion of balance of power and instead catering to his whims.

And it was his whim to shut down a quarter of the government. You remember: when he was in the meeting with Pelosi and Schumer in which he flat out said he would shoulder all the responsibility. Of course, that was two weeks ago, and now he said this:

“The Shutdown is only because of the 2020 Presidential Election. The Democrats know they can’t win based on all of the achievements of “Trump,” so they are going all out on the desperately needed Wall and Border Security – and Presidential Harassment. For them, strictly politics!”

You know what? Let’s just say, for kicks, that he was right. Let’s say that “Trump,” the “president” of the “country” was correct and it was, rather than his personal responsibility as he said it would be, the Democrats practicing “strictly politics.”

Here’s the thing: they’re politicians. Of course they’re going to practice politics. Condemning them for doing their job is like condemning a lawyer for practicing law. Playing politics is how the government is intended to work. They don’t let their actions be guided by TV commentators or bloggers. They look for political advantage and try to accomplish their goals. If that’s “strictly politics,” then so be it.

It’s the Senate that’s not playing politics, letting the president take the lead and lacking the guts to stand up to him and oppose him the way they did Obama for eight years.

We need to remember something about Trump: he has a string of failed and bankrupt businesses behind him. He is not a good negotiator, deal maker, or businessman. And now he is bringing that exact same lack of skill to the presidency in a way that will ensure that, sooner or later, all the “closed” signs hanging outside Federal buildings are going to be replaced by “going out of business” signs.

PAD