Anil Madan
Africa-Press – Lesotho. For the first time in US history, the Speaker of the House of Representatives lost the equivalent of a no-confidence vote in parliamentary systems and was out on his ear.
The vote was instigated by Matt Gaetz, a Congressman from Florida, who is on the far-right fringe of the already far right Republican Party, and a vocal opponent of Kevin McCarthy, the speaker until yesterday. This denouement was months, even years, in the making.
I will not get into details, reserving that for a future discussion, but my view is that Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of the Republican Party, and the spiritual guru of its far, far, right wing, started this debacle when he declared that government is not the solution, government is the problem.
As I have written many times, this was the antithesis of the statement in the Declaration of Independence (DOI) that the raison d’être of government is to secure the unalienable rights of the people included among which are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Indeed, the DOI goes on to state that when the government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Long before Donald Trump took that well chronicled ride down the escalator at Trump Tower and announced his candidacy for President, American Democracy suffered the machinations of Newt Gingrich (American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 19990, the Tea Party, and assorted other right-wing extremists.
America’s Democracy had a shining moment when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and President George H. W. Bush (the elder Bush) declared: “This will not stand.
” Sadly, Bill Clinton demeaned the office of President with his penchant for fellatio, followed by denial, followed by impeachment.
Democrats rallied to rescue their miscreant, President. American Democracy was in trouble. Al Gore, sensing that equivocation might trump loyalty to his President, sensed—wrongly—and equivocated.
So, we got George W. Bush who, in one of the greatest public cons, together with his henchmen sold the American electorate a bill of goods that led to the Iraq war and the invasion of Afghanistan.
GWB’s presidency that accomplished nothing beyond impoverishing the nation with the runup of massive national debt (yes, it is little appreciated that he accumulated more total debt in his 8 years than the preceding 42 presidents), was perhaps the least productive the nation has ever had.
But he was about to be trumped. American Democracy fared no better under Obama whose presidency is probably best remembered for doing nothing other than continuing the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles.
Even the praise for Obamacare, the enhancements to American healthcare, such as they are, were accomplished by the House of Representatives to whom Obama ceded the job.
It is a fair comment that the Republicans never gave Obama a chance to shine. And he did not. The best that can be said is that he conducted a White House sans scandal.
When the best credential you offer is that you did nothing, but did it with integrity, there isn’t much to talk about. Then, of course, there was Donald Trump.
What more needs to be said than that he tried to have a mob overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election? And he has persisted in propagating his LIE that the election was stolen.
That this fundamental betrayal of the core idea of America and everything for which it stands, does not engender outrage in every American heart is the most befuddling circumstance in the history of this country.
It is worth pausing here to understand that Trump’s claim is that because he was “winning” as of 10:00 PM on election night, before ALL votes had been counted, the counting should have stopped.
The sheer idiocy of this position has eluded his supporters. Sheer idiocy. That is the overwhelming message one reads from the smoke signals emanated by American Democracy.
Trump’s antics to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021, and his continuing lies have cast a pall on the very notion that American Democracy is superior to authoritarian governments.
China’s highest officials certainly did not hesitate to tell Secretary of State Antony Blinken that American Democracy was nothing to brag about when he had his inaugural meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Alaska as the Biden administration took office.
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