Peace-loving Americans are slow to anger, and it took four years of provocation for it to boil over. The tragedy of the shocking outbreak of disorder in Washington is that, barring one misstep, it likely never would have happened at all.
There are not many Blue Dog Democrats, that old redoubt of moderate liberals, left these days. As our colleague David Sherfinski reported last week, this once influential voting bloc has been diminished to about two dozen members. Like strangers in a foreign land, these days they appear out of step with party aims, and relegate their "serious" actions to letter writing and, we imagine, various forms of hand wringing.
Energy seeks an outlet, and political energy is no different. Throngs of thousands rallied on tarmacs across the nation -- sometimes steamy, other times frigid.
A lot of people are quite upset at Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley's announced decision to object during the Electoral College certification process this coming Jan. 6. It's, to be clear, a symbolic move, and will result only in two hours of debate in both chambers. At the end of the debates — the subject of which will be whether or not to count Pennsylvania's (and possibly other states') votes — Congress will still have to respect the Electoral College decision.
As Meghan Cox Gurdon, a children's books columnist at The Wall Street Journal, recently reported, Lawrence High School, a public secondary school in Massachusetts, successfully pulled the poet Homer from the curriculum. As ninth-grade teacher Heather Levine put it, "Hahaha — very proud to say we got the Odyssey removed from the curriculum this year."
Earlier this month, before Congress went on Christmas break, the capital was abuzz about California Rep. Eric Swalwell's relationship with a representative of a foreign power whose interests don't exactly coincide these days with the United States.
This past week, during the early hours on Christmas morning, an RV packed with explosives detonated in downtown Nashville. It was, we have since learned, a suicide bombing by a man named Anthony Quinn Warner. Not much else is known at this time.
The holidays traditionally place a strain on the budgets of many Americans, and the sporadic COVID-19 lockdowns throughout 2020 have only added to the struggle to make ends meet. As if those financial challenges were not enough, Joe Biden has more in store. Change is hard, to coin a phrase, and the kind of "clean energy revolution" he has in mind is likely to cost a pretty penny.
Speak one's mind is an abiding American tradition. It is becoming rarer, though, as censorship intensifies.
The Kennedy Center ($40 million), gender programs in Pakistan ($25 million), military assistance for Egypt ($1.3 billion), stimulus checks for the family members of illegal immigrants ($1,800 each).
We've all read — or watched — Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." The story has so permeated our discourse that characters like Scrooge and Tiny Tim are employed as similes for miserliness and poverty. We also tend to remember, and use as metaphor, the trio of ghosts that visit Scrooge, ultimately precipitating a change in his soul for the better.
As the last days of 2020 dissipate, coronavirus lockdowns, quarantines and isolation are escalating. The year will surely be remembered as one when freedom faltered. As natural as the morning light is the yearning for freedom, but fear of disease is erecting sturdy barriers that thwart the inborn desire for autonomy. Trends that predate the pandemic signal that the new year will likely bring additional challenges in the struggle against forces that oppose the irrepressible impulse to be free.
In the era of extreme political double-standards, what the Democratic apparatus has planned in the coming months and years is sure to stupefy — and upset — all good Americans. The first big flashpoint, of course, will occur over the Biden-Harris Cabinet appointments.
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