There was this terrific battle.
The noise was as much
As the limits of possible noise could take.
There were screams higher groans deeper
Than any ear could hold.
The opponents of the Iran Nuclear Accord rightly claim that their “strong opposition conveys an important message to the world,” but they’re dead wrong about the actual message. The immediate 100 percent rejection of this 159-page document by the entire Republican legislature only showed, yet again, that they’ll oppose anything President Obama proposes. Why pretend this is reasoned debate, or any debate whatsoever? It’s like Tom Brady, a fan of Donald Trump, pretending he didn’t know there was air in the football. The Republican vote was 300 to 0.
Engulfed by a tsunami of misleading ads, the Democrats nevertheless squeezed out enough votes to carry the day. Senators complained about “minority rule,” but Obama was twice elected by an ungerrymandered majority, and this is what he was elected to do. The world — we’re joining the other major nations (and Pope Francis) on this — is proud of America again, recognizing what we tend to forget: Obama is the leader of the free world.
It took courage for Florida’s first Jewish representative, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to vote for the measure, as did Senator Bill Nelson and Representatives Kathy Castor, Alan Grayson, Patrick Murphy, Frederica Wilson and Corrine Brown. We should thank them all.
Almost half our country’s energy seems focused on breaking things down instead of building new foundations. David Brooks picks up on this while explaining the Trump phenomenon: Trump, he wrote, isn’t so much a leader as “an expression of his followers’ id.” Considering Trump in Freudian terms (id, ego, superego) is a fine idea, but Brooks doesn’t go far enough. (Quick reminder, roughly: id = our irrational, often destructive urges; superego = our moral constructive conscience; ego = the mature, rational mediator between the two.)
Think of ISIS, smashing the icons of antiquity, as the id of Islam, out of control and given full rein. The far right wing is the id of the GOP, not yet in control but dangerous to the party and the country. In a democracy built on a unifying affirmative vision, this minority wants, besides wrecking the Iran deal, to repeal Obamacare, expel the immigrants, crush the unions, deny climate change, refuse gay marriage, eliminate gun control, defund Planned Parenthood, undo voting rights, close the Cuban embassy, cut programs supporting the poor, hinder equal pay, restrict women’s rights, and shut down the government. They even complained when Obama had dinner with China’s Xi Jinping, and erupted when he restored the original Indian name, Denali, to Mount McKinley (named for a Republican president who never visited the mountain). On the eve of Pope Francis’s visit, George Will, a major Republican pundit and passionate champion of the Iraq war, attacked the Pope’s “fact-free flamboyance.”
Michelle Goldberg (author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism) recently said America is “in a period of racial animus.” I don’t see any kristallnacht or mass lynchings in our near future, but when a loudmouth orator gets a crowd worked up by insulting immigrants and women, it’s not a good sign. And there’s Mike Huckabee, weeping in front of a crowd supporting Kim Davis as she emerged from jail. Davis came out and cried, “Never give up this fight!”
America’s main problem may be that it doesn’t yet realize we are in a fight.
Whiz bang! How much faster and easier to destroy instead of build! How good Jimmy Carter looks, in his last few years, as he builds houses with Habitat for Humanity all over the world. Despite his occasional spurt of lust, Jimmy Carter’s looking more noble as he ages. Noble is as noble does.
And when the smoke cleared it became clear
This had happened too often before
And was going to happen too often in future
And happened too easily…
—Both quotes from “Crow’s Account of the Battle,” in Crow, by Ted Hughes (1930-1998).
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2015.