Do Americans Still Want America?

There is no doubt that Donald Trump was elected with a preponderance of the vote. So the question is, what did the American people want by their casting their ballot for him? There are hints, after just a couple of weeks of the new Administration, that what Mr. Trump wants to do may be at variance with at least some of those who voted for him thought they were going to get once he was in office. 

Mr.Trump, to put it mildly, is testing the limits of his Executive Authority. It is fair to say he is acting as if Congress no longer has any role to play and thus far his bullying and intimidation of those in his own party seems to be keeping both Senators and Representatives at bay. 

The Courts on the other hand seem to be exhibiting a modicum of independence and backbone in at least putting a hold on some of Mr. Trump’s attempts to rule unilaterally:

- the effort to end birthright citizenship: frozen

- the Office of Management and Budget spending freeze: frozen

- the buyout of Federal employees: frozen

- the destruction of U.S.A.I.D.: frozen

There are more, but you get the idea that the courts, at least in the short term, are going to stand up for the notion that we remain a nation of laws not of rulers. 

But what if Mr.Trump simply decides to ignore the courts in the same way that he is ignoring Congress?

Our new Vice President, J.D. Vance,  wrote on X that “judges aren’t allowed to control the Executive’s legitimate power.” Who, Mr.Vance, determines what legitimate power the Executive branch has? The courts, Mr.Vance, the courts. Under our current Constitution that is their role. 

But what if Mr. Trump simply decides to ignore the courts whose job it is to act as a check and balance on the other two branches of American government? Disobedience of a Federal Court order weakens the credibility of the Federal judiciary, challenges its status as an independent branch of government, and undermines the rule of law. Who is there to enforce a Federal Court order? At a very high level, the Executive branch itself. Thus the conundrum - if the Executive branch itself doesn’t wish to abide by a court ruling then where are we?

On a more micro-level it falls to the U.S. Marshals Service to enforce the order of a Federal Court. The USMS is actually our nation’s oldest Federal law enforcement agency (1789) and is an agency within the Department of Justice which is headed by the Attorney General who is appointed by… the President. The conundrum continues: our Chief Executive appoints the head of the agency ultimately tasked with enforcing the order the President doesn’t wish to comply with. And lest we forget, the Federal Judiciary in the form of the Supreme Court has already ruled that the President has immunity for his own official acts.

All this aside, Mr. Trump has the early approval of approximately half of the American people. Perhaps they truly wished for transformational change. If Mr. Trump continues to test the time-tested boundaries of his power and ultimately decides to ignore them then the American people will have a decision to make - do they still want America? At least the America envisioned by the founding fathers? Or are they that tired of a nation that has lasted nearly two hundred and fifty years that they are willing to discard it?  Mr. Trump is already pushing to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America; what should we call that big gaping land mass between Mexico and Canada that will better represent our future selves? 

Make no mistake. I believe the American people should get what they voted for. Over the next four years we’ll see if Mr. Trump delivers. He doesn’t really need to as, under the current system, he can’t run again so he isn’t even beholden to those who put him back in office. Still, all actions have consequences and so too do elections. 

As my mother used to tell me: be careful son, what you wish for… you might just get it.

The Best Teacher I Ever Had...

It's been a while since my feet last graced the hallways of Littleton Senior High School. I've come to recognize that I'm an experiential learner in that I learn best by doing so in the classroom I was an average student in most classes. Still, I had some great teachers who managed to bring the subject matter to life for me. Social Studies, English, and History were my favorites. One teacher, Mr. Armstrong, was God's gift to English Literature and he had such an impact on my developing brain that I can still recite passages from Chaucer - in Middle English to boot : "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote..." (when that April with its sweet showers...). For all the good that has done me in the last 50 years.

Looking back on a lifetime of learning I'd have to say, if I'm honest, that perhaps the best teacher I had was Mr. Squat. I first became aware of Mr. Squat in the aforementioned High School in the Denver suburbs during my freshman year. Back then I didn't know what I didn't know and Mr. Squat made sure I appreciated that fact by constantly reinforcing upon me the astronomical level of my lack of knowledge. Mr. Squat, unlike my other teachers who tried to fill my noggin with facts and figures, did his best to fill my head with an awareness of what I did not know and thereby instilled in me a curiosity that has remained unsated to this day. 

By my Senior year I was on a first name basis with Mr. Squat and along with a few other likeminded students were encouraged to refer to him by his given name of Diddly. Diddly was not young when I first met him but he has aged remarkably well and I have kept close tabs on him as the years have flown by. His impact on my life has been enormous and as I have grown older I have come to recognize that the world has two types of people in it - those who have been fortunate enough, and those who have been unfortunate enough to have not known, Diddly Squat. 

Those of us fortunate to have known Diddly are well aware of our shortcomings when it comes to knowing everything there is to know. Far be it for us to tell others how to think and act as we're still figuring it out for ourselves. At best we might have caught a glimmer of what's right for us but as Diddly would remind us that might not be right for anyone else, let alone everyone else. More importantly, for every thing we think we know there's two or three, or a hundred things we have yet to learn. In short, as Mr. Squat would gently remind us, we don't have all the answers.

Increasingly I come across, or perhaps am just more aware of, those who have not been fortunate enough to have met Diddly. They seem under the impression that they know what is right for not only themselves but for me and others as well. How I should act, what I should do, even what I should think. They might not even know me, have never even met me, but still they have the correct answers to all of my life's questions.

The fact that I was but a middling student in High School did not quell my love of learning. College simply reinforced on me what Mr. Squat had taught me about how much remained to be learned.  Working my way through all the -ism's (Communism, Capitalism, Racism, Fundamentalism, Fascism, Socialism, Baptism, Skepticism etc.) and -cracies (Democracy, Autocracy, Aristocracy, Theocracy, Meritocracy, Mediocracy, etc.) raised more questions than answers, much as Diddly had said they would. I found my view of the world flip-flopping back and forth, to and fro several times. Thanks to Diddly this was not wholly unanticipated. What I did become certain of was to be leery of those whose  minds were set in concrete, who professed to having all the answers, of knowing what was best for all of us. 

For most of my adult life I have lived in a live-and-let-live culture that seemed to be at the heart of what I thought it meant to be an American. There were always those who wanted to dictate our thoughts and actions but by and large they were in the minority. I was hopeful that as the years went by more folks would become acquainted with Diddly but it seems the more open some have become with acknowledging that they don't know everything the more others have seen it as their role to dictate to the rest of us their individual beliefs. Diddly has perhaps spent too much time in his dotage sitting on the sidelines being quiescent. Perhaps I'll seek him out once more, take him out to lunch and reminisce about days gone by. If you haven't met Mr. Squat as of yet in your life's journey you're more than welcome to join us...