Day 330…
For no real reason that I can put my finger on, yesterday turned out to be a day of pulling things together.
Something must have triggered it, because suddenly we were organizing receipts, putting things into storage in the basement, bringing down the garbage and recycling, and I was cutting my hair.
Michael gave me his usual support for my haircutting handiwork after his usual pausing while looking at the back of my head. “…It looks good,” he said after running his hands through it a couple of times. “I think it’s… good…”
It’s probably a good thing that I won’t be appearing on television anytime soon.
Maybe it was because it was a bit warmer outside. Not warm enough to get rid of the snow but warm enough not to have warnings against going outside with any exposed skin appear on the phone.
Before our flurry of activity, Michael and I went for a walk in Riverside Park with a friend of ours. People were out with their kids sliding down hills on everything from rainbow-hued plastic toboggans to the monochrome lids of plastic storage crates. By the afternoon, when we were out, garbage cans were already surrounded by small mountains of large multi-colored plastic shards which were all that remained of a day well spent.
It is meant to be sunny and well above freezing for the next few days, so much of the snow is likely to melt. Until then, it’s good to know that it’s being taken advantage of.
While we were out enjoying the day, Republicans in Washington were deciding how they are going to move forward. This is not an insignificant decision. Whatever they decide over the next few weeks is going to color our national politics for a very long time to come. Do they side with the ex-President and his followers or do they forge a new way forward without him?
In an op-ed piece, Mark Sanford, the former Republican Governor of South Carolina makes a clear case for where he believes they need to go. Calling the last four years, “an unmitigated disaster,” he outlines five things that he believes Republicans need to do to if they are to survive.
Adhere to the truth and reject the acceptance of so-called “alternate facts.”
Establish a tone that is not tone-deaf. Cease the yelling and rudeness.
Re-embrace reason, faith and common sense.
Re-embrace science.
Re-embrace math. Republicans spend a great deal of time complaining about the cost of Democrats social bills, but under their watch, the national debt as spiraled far out of the bounds of control that they claim to be the guardians of.
Not only do these proposals seem reasonable they also all seem blatantly obvious. There is, however, no guarantee whatsoever that the Republicans, as a Party, are going to embrace any of them.
In a closed-door meeting of GOP lawmakers, yesterday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia apologized to her fellow Republicans for her past remarks that supported QAnon conspiracy theories. She claimed not to have any information about the Jewish space lasers she blamed for starting the California wildfires, but she defended her hateful and incredible comments about school shootings being staged.
Instead of a rebuke, she received a standing ovation from some of her fellow Party members. Defending her, House Minority Leader Jeff McCarthy said this morning, “The Republican Party is a very big tent. Everybody is invited in.”
Today, the Democrats are going to vote on whether to remove her from the committees that she is currently serving on. Being rebuked and removed from them by the Democrats is going to have the opposite effect that a rebuke from her fellow Republicans would have had. It will just convince her that she is right and a victim of the left.
The GOP meeting last night, was behind closed doors. We only know of the standing ovation from verbal reports. What will happen with this vote in the House, however, is that Republicans will have to publicly vote for or against her. That record will survive.
Bill Cassidy, a Republican Senator from Louisiana, said, “She gives conservatism a bad name.”
Yesterday, the House GOP Conference voted on whether or not to censure Representative Liz Cheney from Wyoming for siding with those who would impeach the ex-President. They voted 145 to 61 not to. She handily won.
Before anyone gets too excited about that, however, it should be pointed out that the vote was conducted by secret ballot. Would she have retained support if those same Republicans had to vote on the record? Certainly, the vote shows where the members’ consciences lie. The 61 members who voted against Cheney are most certainly the far-right wing of the party. The majority of the party seems to want to proceed reasonably.
The voting today in regard to Representative Greene will happen out in the open. That same support of reasonableness is probably not going to be repeated.
Or will it? Really, nothing except the future direction of the Republican Party is at stake.
Marjorie Taylor Greene can’t give conservatism a bad name by herself. She will need the support of the rest of the Republican party to do that.
Instead of wallowing in all of this, President Biden is planning on visiting the State Department today to outline his foreign policy objectives. Refreshingly, he hasn’t sent out a single tweet insulting anyone today.
Our former President’s, “America First” foreign policy, in as much as it was thought out at all, seemed to mainly involve insulting and alienating our allies and befriending and supporting our enemies.
Certainly, instead of that, President Biden appears to be embracing the five basic tenets outlined by former Governor Mark Sanford.
Adhere to the truth.
Establish a tone that is not tone-deaf.
Re-embrace reason.
Re-embrace science.
Re-embrace math.
It shouldn’t take courage to follow those seemingly obvious and commonsensical directives, but in our current political climate it actually does.
Let’s hope that our Republicans, and make no mistake, they are ours, can find the courage to stand up for what is right. Let’s hope that they not cave into what is, instead, just a temporarily politically expedient way forward for them individually.
Adhere to the truth.
Establish a tone that is not tone-deaf.
Re-embrace reason.
Re-embrace science.
Re-embrace math.
It shouldn’t be this hard.
❤️”Re-embrace”
love it....astrologically speaking we are in Mecury Retrograde....everything that begins with “re” is in place / re-organize, re-do, re-birth, re-naissance...!