The only thing ‘self-evident’ is we must get better at America-ing

I constantly hear, “This time feels different,” meaning this time of protest and civil unrest may actually lead to permanent policy changes and maybe even revised cultural perspectives. But on what basis are we so confident these changes will happen? We like to believe a dark pall will lift in January when, hopefully, Trump leaves Washington, D.C., but then what?

Partisanship, Separation of Powers and the Government’s Lack of Self-Control

That there is partisanship surprises no one. That the partisanship erodes the separation of powers and the checks and balances mandated by the Constitution, however, takes us a down a foggy road that the Founders would likely find distressing because it appears to be a consolidation of power that subverts a constitutional process.

The puppet is unprecedented – the political power grab is not

The Republicans in Congress may think they hold the puppet strings, but their own ineptitude means they are as reliant on a professional manipulator like Putin (via Devin Nunes and FOX News) to guide their hands on the controls as Trump is on the Russian leader to keep thoughts of money-shaped sugarplums with porn star boobs dancing in his head.

Aspiration and the conniving racist albatross

"How do we get there from here?" Presidential candidates are supposed to be standing at the foot of a mountain called Aspiration, their hands gesturing affirmingly as they express their soaring ideas and respective visions for our country. They passionately implore us, explaining how, if we follow the path on which they are embarking, if…

The road to impeachment runs through Russia

Committee photo (left) by Donna Burton (Public Domain)Kremlin (right) by A. Savin via Wikimedia Commons There is no question most of us have wanted Donald Trump out of our political discourse since his scathing, xenophobic scree after he came down the escalator at Trump Tower four years ago this month. Since Robert Mueller delivered his…

Lying to win: agenda, ego and insecurity in the GOP

Games, when we played them as children, had a singular agenda: WIN! Otherwise, what was the point - fun? Fun was just a side benefit, which there was always a lot more of when you got to yell, “I WIN!” I was terrible at games when I was a kid. When I say “terrible,” I…

Faith’s Fatal Turn

America cut me deeply, today. Liberty’s light seen dimming away. Pray and die while the bullet holes burn. How to believe with perfect faith When faith takes a fatal turn? How to believe America’s great When it’s its distrust we must learn? This is not the pain one feels When a wound is fresh and…

Was John McCain an ‘honorable man?’

Was John McCain an ‘honorable man?’ “The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft’ interred with their bones.” That line in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, from Marc Antony’s “Friends, Romans, countrymen…” eulogy of the slain leader, is the bard’s take on how we hold different perspectives in our judgement of people…

My name is America. Please help me.

My name is America, and I am in an abusive relationship. My children make demands on me to which I do not have the ability to comply. It’s not in my constitution. No, I have not succumbed to the stresses of age. I am only 242 years old. By the longevity achieved by many of…

Trump decides to keep immigrant families together – if it’s not too inconvenient

It's multiple choice, really. There are lots of reasons Donald Trump has decided to rescind his administration's Draconian policy of ripping babies out of the arms of asylum seekers crossing the southern border of the continental United States. Pick one. I have my opinion. A) Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Methodist, is being threatened with…