NOTES,  12 JANUARY 2021

Welcome, blog reader, on Tuesday, January 12, 2021. The national political crisis is worsening by the hour. The President of the United States, who incited a mob to overthrow the constitutional government, has refused to resign. The Vice President has refused to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office. The House is Representatives is set to pass tomorrow an article of Impeachment asking the Senate to remove President Trump from office because of the "high crime and misdemeanor" of incitement of insurrection against the United States of America. The Republican majority leader in the Senate is refusing to reconvene the Senate until the last whole day of Trump's term thereby removing any possibility President Trump can be removed from office. The Republican party continues to protect a president who is a clear and present danger to the nation. This is more than a national shame and disgrace, it is one of the two major political parties being complicit in the crime against America. The Republican party will be forever stained by this treachery against our constitutional democracy. My guess of why Republicans are doing this is that after all that has happened, they are still bullied by Trump and afraid of his "base" on election day.

Who were the people in the mob last Wednesday who carried out a violent assault on the Capitol? We know they were almost all white, and included affluent as well as middle class people. However, the bulk of the mob was "The Angry White Working Class Man." On Nov. 1, 2018, on the eve of the mid-term elections, I posted a piece discussing this subject in an effort to understand why TAWWCM is angry and willing to fight for this demagogue. I think it may be enlightening to reexamine this question in light of last week's attempted coup which was driven primarily by white working class people. 

Donald Trump may be a sociopath but he is no fool. He understood innately how to gain power. It worked. He combined economic conservatives and cultural conservatives to rise up against the great democratic movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries: the traditional Republican core, big money (Wall Street, corporations, the very wealthy) and white working men, white evangelicals, and white southerners. The great recipients of this coalition were the very rich. He gave them a huge tax reduction that led to a colossal transfer of wealth to the top 1%. This shifted the tax burden down to lower classes. To the cultural conservatives he threw bones such as "the wall" which is a charade. In fact, he led white lower class people to act against their own self interest in order to pour more money into the pockets of the very wealthy. Yet, they still do not get it. This is what I cannot understand. So many Republicans are still defending the pretend wizard who has been revealed behind the curtain. I have relatives and friends who are still defending Trump. I will keep talking with them to try to understand their thinking. 

Meanwhile, I am re-posting my Nov. 1, 2018 article on the white working class man. Perhaps it will help us get a little clearer picture of why the mob acted as it did last Wednesday. 

_______________________________________

Originally posted on Nov. 1, 2018:    

WHY IS THE ANGRY WHITE
WORKING CLASS MAN ANGRY?

Why is The Angry White Working Class Man (TAWWCM) angry? This is a question I have been asking myself a long time now. After research and thought, I will share with you my view of this, for what it is worth:

America is now engaged in a great culture war. The war has been going on for several decades and is getting ever more violent. Generally speaking, one side of the war wants to expand democratic rights of equality and inclusion in society while the other side wants to roll back rights. After the Second World War, America went through its Great Democratic Revolution in which the nation extended power to social elements that had long been kept out of power, particularly African Americans, women, the old, the poor, the disabled, homosexuals, and transgendered. In the life cycle of great political revolutions of modern history, this is called the "radical" phase of revolution. The radical phase always produces a backlash from people who oppose the reforms for one reason or another. The period of backlash is called the "reactionary" phase because the opponents are reacting negatively against the changes. We are now in the reactionary phase of the Great Democratic Revolution. Eventually, the life-cycle ends in a sort of settlement between the radicals and the reactionaries that brings an end to the revolution.

The schism of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina is part of the culture war. The diocesan leaders objected to the Church's reforms enacting equality for and inclusion particularly for gays but also for women and transgendered. When TEC adopted the blessing of same-sex unions in 2012, the DSC leadership declared the independence of the diocese from TEC. Later, they joined the Anglican Church in North America, a new denomination explicitly set up to institutionalize male power.

What brings up the culture war anew is the impending national election, The vote on Tuesday, November 6, will be very much defined by the culture war.

The pro, or "radical," side of this war is readily apparent. They are the people who most benefited from the reforms, particularly African Americans, women, and gays. But, who are the people on the other side? Who are the "antis," or "reactionaries"? They are the people most opposed to the democratic reforms. The core of this group is TAWWCM.

This leads us back to the original question. Why is he angry? For an answer, we have to go back into history. We have to consider the traditional understanding of masculinity in American culture. Society had a definite concept of masculinity from the start to about 1960. The masculine man was to be strong, confident, assertive, fearless, and dominant. This is now what we commonly call the Alpha Male. The historic American man endured danger to get to America, tamed the wild wilderness, fought wars heroically, particularly the Civil War, conquered the west, subdued the "savage" Indians, and built the railroads. By the early 1900s, he was personified by Teddy Roosevelt, the quintessential rugged individualist. In the First World War, he was the Doughboy who punched out Kaiser Bill. The Great Depression of the 1930s threw him back on his heels but not for long. He was soon called to his greatest challenge ever, fighting two wars at the same time against powerful enemies. World War II brought to the height the traditional view of masculinity, the popular imagination perhaps best represented by John Wayne.

As a reward for this great display of masculinity, the U.S. government rewarded him with the G.I. Bill in 1944 (find here ). This allowed millions of returning veterans to go to college and to start businesses. This was one of the greatest and most consequential laws ever adopted in the U.S. Thus, from 1945 to 1960, the American man, with his traditional understanding of masculinity, enjoyed a golden age. By this point, the Man believed he had a definite role to play, and this was the way society was supposed to be. In popular culture, masculinity was defined by the likes of "Father Knows Best" on TV and the numerous cowboy heroes at the movies. Davy Crockett, the essential frontiersman, was all the rage.

As  much as the white working class man wanted this world to last, it was not to be. In fact, sweeping societal changes affecting the races began to appear soon after WWII: integration of the army, integration of the schools, civil rights and voting rights acts in the 1960s. These led to the incorporation of blacks into public life, such as good jobs. Societal norms for women changed dramatically. In 1960 they got "the pill," In 1973 they got Roe v. Wade. These gave women control over their own bodies for the first time in history. Men lost "control" over women. As for gays, society gradually extended rights and inclusion to them. This was capped by legalization of same-sex marriage by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015. Society gradually removed moral judgment from homosexual activity.

While men's traditional understanding of masculinity was under assault all around by societal changes, it was also being threatened by economic developments. White working class men depended on good-paying manufacturing jobs. In 1947, one in three workers had a substantial manufacturing job with which they could support a family well. Today, only one in eight has such a job (see here ). In the half-century after WWII, the American economy trended from manufacturing to service. The manufacturing work that did remain increasingly went to robots. Thus, the working man was gradually displaced from economic security. Traditional masculinity required a man to provide well for his family. Added to this was a rising fear that immigrants were flooding into the country to take good jobs away from working class whites.

Thus, two uncontrollable factors collided at once to challenge the traditional societal understanding of masculinity, equality of social elements long under his "control," and the disappearance of his economic security. At the same time, a third factor entered, the military defeat in the Vietnam War. Traditional masculinity required mastery of the enemy. Unable to control the enemy, the U.S. simply left Vietnam to its own fate, the first such case in American history. This was another crushing blow to the old understanding of masculinity in America. 

By the 1970s, things had changed drastically for the American working class man. He had lost control over social elements, lost good manufacturing jobs, and lost a war. This was a crushing, even devastating blow to his understanding of  his masculinity, what it meant to be a man in American life. He became disoriented, frightened, even desperate. Many men wanted to lash out against their real or perceived enemies. This was what real men did. When confronted by challenges they responded with force and dominance. They fought back. In America, this meant guns. America is a land of guns, a romanticization of the rugged individualist and the wild west. Unwelcomed change, fear, and guns created a toxic stew of danger ahead.

In the 1970s, popular culture began to reflect the plight of the angry white working class man. The morality plays of the cowboy movies and TV programs common in the 1940s and 1950s gave way to white man rage films. The loner takes to violence to right what he sees as wrong. The movie "Dirty Harry" (1971) started this genre. "Walking Tall" (1973) accelerated it. (see here )

So, the anger of the working class white man goes back at least to the 1970s. By then, American society no longer defined masculinity as the Teddy Roosevelt, or John Wayne-type. Society now expected these once-dominant men to share power with blacks, women, and gays. The old dominator was supposed to become the new cooperator. Many white men did not take the changes in societal expectations lightly. Some responded by retreating to what they knew, the role of the forceful dominator. As self-perceived victims, they sought revenge.

As a political factor, the revenge of TAWWCM began to boil up in the 1990s but in that decade it was largely papered over by the prosperity of the times. The macho conduct of the Iraq War (2003-11) brought back momentarily a bit of the old masculinity. Then, a man of African heritage was elected president, twice, a woman was nominated for president, and Donald Trump entered the scene.

To TAWWCM, Trump was the personification of the old masculinity: aggressive, relentless, unyielding, destructive, dominant, and, most of all, anxious to attack all of the Man's perceived enemies. Trump ruthlessly delivered personalized destruction to a large field of opponents. TAWWCM loved it and quickly became devoted to him as a savior figure. It was not what he said so much as how he said it. They knew he lied or exaggerated a lot. But they did not care. They had found their Alpha Male. Through him, they could restore their own lost masculinity.

Actually, the Trump phenomenon was a combination of three forces: Trump, TAWWCM, and the very rich. Trump has no driving political philosophy. Apparently he is in it to enhance his businesses. The Man wants restoration. The very rich want favors for Wall Street, big banks, the corporate world and the super wealthy. Interesting to note that the only significant law passed in Trump's first two years was a massive tax cut for the very wealthy and big corporations. Of course, that means the national tax burden will shift down to middle and working classes. But, TAWWCM does not see that. He sees only his hero in the culture war. So, Trump has formed a coalition of self, white men in the culture war, and the very rich. He rode this coalition to victory in 2016. He believes it is is recipe for success in 2018 and in 2020. While he plays almost entirely to his "base" of TAWWCM, his ties to the super rich remain almost hidden. It is fair to suspect that Trump is only using the working white man to achieve what he rally wants which is more wealth.

Trump has mainlined, if not normalized, language of demonization and violence. Cases of actual physical violence against minorities have escalated in the last two years. Just in the last week, three angry white middle-aged working class men were charged with killing two blacks at random, sending at least fourteen bombs in the mail to Trump's opponents, and murdering eleven Jews in their own synagogue. These are examples of the culture war, but it is important to note that this is a one-sided war. It is the anti-democratic side that is attacking the pro-democratic side. The charge that this war is coming from both sides, or is the fault of both sides, is flatly untrue. 

Trump has declared that the upcoming election is a referendum on him. He thinks his base will turn out in droves to validate him. He is doing everything he can to energize them. He has made immigrants the target of white anger. We will see next Tuesday what the votes really think about Trump and just how extensive his support is.

Now, back to the schism in South Carolina. The discussion above helps us understand what happened and why. The understanding of masculinity was fundamental to the break. The schism occurred after two big events involving this issue, normalization of church life for non-celibate gays, and authority for women. The first moves of schism occurred after the Episcopal Church adopted the ordination of women. Of the five dioceses that voted to leave the Church, three had refused to ordain women to the priesthood. The dioceses voted to leave after a woman was elected presiding bishop. With its opposition to power for women, gays, and transgendered, DSC's schism from TEC can be interpreted as an attempt to restore the traditional understanding of masculinity: male domination. It is interesting to note that while DSC made a major point of denouncing homosexuality and transgender, it showed little interest in adultery, divorce, and remarriage. The man's ability to control all these things would be crucial to the restoration of old masculinity. The dominant man must be free to divorce and remarry. DSC has never allowed a woman to exercise any office of authority (not even to be a rector of any large parish). Its new parent, the ACNA does not allow women to be bishops. DSC and ACNA believe they have restored traditional masculinity.

Now we have a better understanding of why TAWWCM is angry. He is lashing out at the world in which he has lost control. He wants to restore "the good old days." He does not realize that he really has lost control and he cannot regain it. However, he can, and is, doing harm to those he blames for his losses. Unfortunately for all of us, we have a president who is actively stoking social anger and resentment. No one wants to think about it, but under the wrong circumstances, this situation could develop into a civil war. If the violence continues to escalate, that would be the logical outcome of this crisis. That is why I say we are in a national emergency. That is why we must all go to the polls next week and vote. This is still our country; and we should not allow it to slip into violent disintegration again. We did that once and the results were cataclysmic. We must not allow that again.


There are several books to be recommended for further reading:

Susan Faludi, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. Harper Collina, 1999. According to the blurb on Amazon, "The common theme that runs through the book is that men have attempted to live up to the expectations of masculinity established in post-World War II America, only to find society not living up to its end of the bargain as globalization, downsizing and other economic pressures have made it difficult for men to live up to their expected roles as providers...Ordinary men are losing self-esteem and a sense of purpose."

Michael Kimmel, Angry White Men. Nation Books, 2013. Amazon: "Many white men, as members of a historically dominant group in America, have reacrted to increases in social inequality and the loss of economic advantage with overt anger and rage...including domestic violence, shootings, involvement in white supremacist groups, an the men's rights and fathers' rights movements."

Wayne Allen Root, Angry White Male: How the Donald Trump Phenomenon is Changing America---and What We Can All Do to Save the Middle Class. 2016. Amazon: "Root makes his case why he and his brethren have every right to be angry. Millions of angry white males are not on the attack but rather responding in self-defense." While the books above are critical, this is defensive. It is endorsed by Trump, Ann Coulter, and Mike Huckabee.


Your thoughts are important to me and to my readers. Tell me what you think. Send to the email address above.

NOTES,  11 JANUARY 2021

Greetings, blog reader, on this Monday, 11 January 2021. We have nine days to go in President Trump's term. Let us hope and pray the country survives what will probably be the longest nine days in history. It is Monday and that means time to check in on the crises of the hour. Today, two are predominate, the pandemic and the political.

PANDEMIC. The COVID-19 plague continues to race at a quickening pace. We are in the ever worsening winter spike in the pandemic. We have only to look at this morning's figures in Worldometer, our usual source, to verify our worst fears.

In the world, there were nearly 5m new cases (4,832,559) of covid for a total of some 90m. In just the last two weeks, this number has jumped by 10%. Deaths are also spiraling out of control. Last week (Jan. 4-11), there were some 87k deaths from the coronavirus. That means nearly 2m (1,944,711) people in the world have died from the plague. This is a rising rate of 5% a week. A half a million people have died of covid in just the last month. 

The United States continues to be the world's epicenter of the pandemic as it has been all along. Last week (Jan. 4-11), the U.S. reported 1,614,027 new cases for a total of 22,917,334. This number climbed by a third in just the last month. As for deaths, the U.S. listed 21,959 last week for a total of 383,275. This is a rising rate of 6% a week. The U.S. is now averaging over 3,000 deaths a day, four times what it was in the summer. As we know from the media, many hospitals and morgues are overflowing with the dead and dying. It is horrifying.

The rates in our southeastern states are even worse. Last week South Carolina reported 39,053 new cases for a total of 364,525. This is a rising rate of 12%, well up from the 10% of the previous week. In the last two weeks, there has been a 44% jump in new cases in SC. As for deaths, there were 327 last week in the state, a steadily rising rate of 6%. As of now, nearly 6k South Carolinians (5,811) have died of COVID-19. Deaths and hospitalizations are soaring in SC.

Charleston County continues to see rising numbers too. Last week, it reported 1,926 cases, up 8%, for a total of 26,967. In the last month, cases jumped by a third. As for deaths, there were 12 in the county last week for a total of 335. 

Numbers in Alabama are even worse. There the state reported 26,805 new cases for a total of 401,900. This means that one in ten people in the state have contracted the coronavirus. It is clearly racing out of control. Hospitals have been overrun. As for deaths in AL, the state reported a staggering number of 456 last week. This was double the week before. As of now, 5,334 Alabamians have died of the plague. It clear that COVID-19 plague is racing out of control in our local states.

While all the data can only horrify us, we have to remember that the vaccine has arrived. Vaccinations are being handled by the local authorities. That means it is different by state and county. And, this means it is rather chaotic. 

I will relate to you my experience for what it may be worth to you. When the vaccine first arrived in my county (Calhoun, AL), it was offered to the most vulnerable, as it should have been: hospital personnel, EMTs, police, nursing home residents and the like. Then, it was opened to residents over 75 (that means me). So, last week, the local major hospital set up shop to administer the vaccine in the local convention center. It is rather small and holds less than a thousand people. They announced first come, first served for the week. Well, you can imagine pandemonium on the first day. On Monday, thousands of county residents (all over 75) descended on the place to line up in the dark and cold for hours before the doors would open at 7:00 a.m. It was a nightmare. My wife and I decided to bide our time. On Wednesday, friends of ours went and reported still impossible lines. They stood for three hours before getting to the front just in time before the vaccine supply of the day was exhausted. Remember this was for people over 75, so the average age was probably 85 and half the people were in wheelchairs, with walkers, or hobbling on canes. My wife and I decided to go at opening time on Thursday. When we arrived at 7:00, the traffic was backed up for blocks away. The convention hall was already full and closed. Fortunately, the authorities had learned a lesson and were handing out appointment cards to the overflow. We got one to return at 11:15 a.m. So, we went back at that time and had to stand in line for only an hour. We got the Moderna vaccine. The nurses made everyone wait 15 minutes afterwards to be sure there were no bad reactions. I saw none.

The nurse told me my arm would be sore and I would be tired for a day or two. She was right. My arm was quite sore for two days. And, the day after the shot, I took several naps. I was indeed fatigued. But, those were the only side effects I had and I count myself very fortunate to have had the vaccine and to have had virtually no bad after effects. We go back for our second vaccination in a month. Hopefully, the authorities will be a bit better organized by then.

My advice to you is, if you have not had a vaccination yet, call your county health department or your family doctor's office and find out the plan for the local administration of the vaccine. Make you plans according to the local schedule and get your vaccinations as soon as possible. Bear in mind the plague is racing our of control everywhere, even with more contagious strains.

POLITICAL. Parallel to the worst public health crisis in a century, we are in the midst of the worst political crisis in America in the last century and a half. The president of the United States incited a mob to overthrow the constituted government. This is the very definition of sedition (inciting people to overthrow a government). The people in the mob and the people who incited them must be held accountable. If they are not, this will lead to more and worse mob actions. As a student of the French Revolution, I can guarantee you that if one mob actions succeeds, there will be a parade of intensifying mob uprisings. Political chaos will ensue. Stable government will be impossible. 

As for the people who incited the mob, President Trump certainly did. Everyone recognizes this fact. But, he was not alone. Don Jr. and Rudy Giuliani did as well. Then, there is the embarrassment of Alabama, Mo Brooks, member of the House of Representatives from Huntsville. He harangued the mob, before their march, for ten minutes with the theme "time for fighting." He yelled at the crowd that the Democrats were stealing the election, helped by treacherous Republicans. "Will you fight for America?" he shouted to the mob. He ended with the blast,"The fight begins today." If inciting mob action is a federal crime, Mo Brooks should be treated under the law. At the very least he should be expelled by vote of the House of Representatives. Failing that he must be censured. No member of Congress should be allowed to get away with inciting a mob to overthrow the government. Mo Brooks' behavior was so off base, even the very conservative Republican governor of Alabama issued a disclaimer. Then, there is the other embarrassment of Alabama, the new senator, Tommy Tuberville, who in his campaign could not name the three branches of the government, was one of only five senators (of the 100) who voted to overturn the legal and legitimate elections in Arizona and Pennsylvania. The vote came AFTER the mob attack on the Capitol demanding just that. He and the other four senators should be censured by the Senate. The ring leaders of the five, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, should be expelled from the Senate, or at the very least censured. They must not be allowed to get by with this scot-free.

So, what now? It seems that Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, is giving an ultimatum to Mike Pence, the Vice President, that if he does not invoke the 25th Amendment within a day, she will proceed with impeachment in the House. If so, the House is likely to vote to send an article of impeachment (incitement of insurrection) to the Senate by mid-week. If that is not impeachable, nothing is. The last word from Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the Senate was that he would not reconvene the Senate until Jan. 19, the last whole day of Trump's term. This would kill any chance of removing Trump as president. There is talk that the Senate would take up the impeachment sometime later in the Biden administration. As of now, everything is fluid. Events should become clearer today as the hours pass. 

The bottom line is that President Trump must be held accountable for what he has done. He incited a mob to attack the Capitol in order to force the Congress to overturn the constitutional democracy. This is absolutely intolerable if our democratic republic is to survive. Such behavior must be punished. Trump must be held accountable for his misdeeds even if the Vice President and the Congresspeople do not have the courage and strength to remove him from office. The other people who incited the mob, as well as the participants in the mob, must also be held accountable for this political crime. The future of our country depends on it.

So, get ready for a momentous couple of weeks. God only knows what is going to happen. I think we are still in a sort of shell shock at last week's events. As for me, I am getting over my initial disbelief and shock and am turning to anger. I am angry at the people who did this to my country, the greatest nation-state in the history of the world. I know, I know, we are supposed to be the people of the Jesus way, the way of love. Our presiding bishop tells us this at every turn, as he should. That is his job and he is doing it well. However, there is such a thing as tough love. It is necessary sometimes, even if we had rather not. Everyone who has ever been a parent knows what tough love is. Your 16-year-old comes in an hour after curfew with alcohol on his breath and his clothes reeking of weed. What to do? Time for tough love to keep him from following a path of self-destruction. You ground him for a month, or worse for him, take away his cell phone and computer(s) for two weeks. He may rant and rave and seethe, but deep down, you and he both know it is for his own good. Sometimes we have to practice tough love even when it hurts.

Now is the time for tough love for those of us who love this country. Deep down we know we have to do this for our own good. Let us hope and pray our political leaders have the wisdom and courage to do what is right in this perilous hour.

Remember friend, we are all in this together and we are all here for the living of this hour, as stressful as it may be. Peace. 

  

THE AMERICAN POLITICAL CRISIS DEEPENS

Sat., 9 January 2021, 1:00 p.m. 

The crisis in our American government is getting more serious by the hour. As a lifelong student of history, I am fascinated, horrified to be sure, but still mesmerized by the recent dramatic and historic events in our country. I am trying to keep up with the news of what is happening and endeavoring to put matters into perspective as we go along. I am trying to understand what is occurring and what it may mean. Writing this blog helps me sort out my thoughts and I hope it helps you sort out yours too even if you may disagree with me. I have several observations to share with you today based on the latest news:

---The assault on the Capitol last Wednesday was much more serious than we first believed. It was an attempted coup d'état, that is, an overthrow of the constitutional government. It was not just a demonstration, march, or appeal to the Congress. It was an outright attempt to overwhelm the constituted authorities in the Capitol and force a reversal of the recent presidential election. The goal was to keep Trump in power even though he had been rejected by the people. 

The assault was also more violent than we first thought. We have only to look at the sickening videos commonly available on the Internet to see just how horrifying it was. A police officer was killed and at least 50 others were injured. At last count, 5 people were killed in the attack.

The mob crushes a police officer against a steel door.

The invaders brought in weapons. They intended to do personal violence. Outside, they had erected a hangman's noose. Inside the hysterical mob screamed for Vice President Pence as they searched high and low for him. If they had found him, they may well have killed him before any forces could have rescued him. (In the French Revolution, the mob would have torn him to shreds, cut off his head, stuck it on a pike and propped it up outside for all to see.) They also intended to take hostages as one mobster carried a handful of zip ties to bind hands and feet, obviously of the Congresspeople. If the mob had actually kidnapped Representatives and Senators, the outcome could have been catastrophic.

I am willing to speculate that the invaders had some sort of guidance inside the building. If you have ever visited the Capitol, you know it is a vast and bewildering maze of seemingly endless halls, stairways, and rooms on numerous levels. One needs a map to get around there. Yet, the invaders seemed to have no trouble finding the most important parts of that massive building. 

Finally, we know well now that this insurrection was planned. Trump himself kept saying there would be a big march on the Capitol on January 6. It had been advertised openly on the Internet for weeks. A major question now is why the authorities were caught woefully under-prepared for a mob assault that everyone knew was coming. 

We know now too that the invaders have declared victory. They have been crowing about their success ever since the assault. They even are reveling in their arrests. There are new credible reports that the far-right gangs are planning violent actions in Washington on Jan. 17, 19, and 20. If the authorities are not prepared next time, shame on them. They will have had plenty of warning.

---The public response to the attempted coup of the 6th reflects the deep division of the country. A recent YouGov poll shows that 63% of Americans opposed the attack on the Capitol. However, the same poll shows that 45% of Republicans supported the attack. Think about that for a moment. Nearly half of Republicans believe it was a good idea for a mob to try to overthrow the government. This is shocking. Moreover, only 27% of Republicans viewed the insurrection as a threat to democracy. Huh? The reality is that it was a attempt to overthrow democracy. If that was not a threat to democracy, what would be? Of course, the majority of Republicans also believe the big lie that that Trump actually won the election and it was stolen from him by the Democrats. There is absolutely no evidence to support this fantasy, yet most members of one of the two major parties in America continue to believe it.

---The Republicans' favorable views of Trump, the lie of the stolen election, and the attempted coup go a long way to explaining the reactions of the Republican Representatives and Senators since the insurrection. Trump has refused to resign. Vice President Pence has refused to call the Cabinet to consider invoking the 25th Amendment that would suspend Trump from office. Mitch McConnell, majority leader of the Senate, has just announced he will not call the Senate to reconvene until January 19, the day before Trump's term ends. This kills any chance that Trump can be removed from office by constitutional means. The House can and will impeach, but only the Senate can remove the President from office (by 2/3 vote). It appears now that the only punishment for President Trump will be a second impeachment by the House of Representatives. This is better than nothing, but still much less that is prudent for the long run. 

Only a handful of the 52 Republican senators have spoken out to criticize the president even after everyone has recognized that he incited a violent insurrection against Congress. Some Republican senators and representatives are speaking out against any punishment of Trump. SC's Graham says impeachment would do more harm than good. Actually, the harm would be in doing nothing about people who tried to overthrow our government. It was Edmund Burke who said the only way for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.

---Some Republicans, and their media friendly outlets as Fox News, are spreading the falsehood that the attack on the Capitol was the work of Antifa infiltrators and not pro-Trump demonstrators. This is another big lie. Law enforcement officials have flatly refuted this fiction, yet it continues to be promoted. Thanks to cell phones, we know who the guilty parties were.

---Twitter has deleted Trump's account. My guess is the company suddenly realized it could be legally culpable. After four years of letting Trump say whatever he wished, it is a bit late now suddenly to cry foul. 

---Trump has announced he will not be attending Biden's inauguration on the 20th. One should bear in mind that a president cannot be indicted while he is in office but can be once he is out of office. At 12:01 p.m. on Jan. 20, Trump will be out of office. Can't you picture a swarm of FBI agents handcuffing the former president, on the podium, on live TV, with the world watching? It makes good sense for Trump to stay away, maybe even in another country.

So, where does this leave us at this point? A monumental political crime has been committed. There must be punishment to fit the crime. The future of the country depends on it. As of now, it appears that the only punishment of Trump as president will be an impeachment but not a removal from office. We do not know yet what charges await him once he is out of office. 

Last Wednesday's attempt to overthrow the constitutional government is the most serious political challenge to the nation since the Civil War, 155 years ago. First, we have to recognize the gravity of the situation. Then, we must bring to justice the people who caused and participated in this insurrection. Finally, we must take measures to ensure such an event cannot happen again. All of these measures must be taken to guarantee the strength and stability of our constitutional, democratic republic. The U.S. Constitution, despite its flaws, was a work of genius. It has served us Americans well for more than two centuries. Now it is our turn to serve it well.

I expect to keep a running commentary on the events of the next 11 or 12 days. I invite you to come along. This will be too important for all of us to miss however disturbing it may be. May God help us in this the hour we were given to live. Peace.

 

CIVIL WAR

Jan. 6, 2021. The Capitol, Washington D.C. Do you recognize the portrait on the left? It is John C. Calhoun. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. (Click on image for photo enlargement.)

The battle of Washington yesterday was vivid evidence of the state of civil war that now exists in America. Here are my thoughts on the day after the battle.

America is deeply divided. At base, the division rests on race. White people have always seen this country as the white man's own country. Now, the white man is being overtaken by non-white social elements in America. Within a generation, white people will be a minority of the population of the United States. The U.S. will be made up of minorities. Yesterday's mob violence was a vivid expression of white supremacy (look at the Confederate flags paraded in the Capitol).

This racial conflict is forcing America into a crossroads. The country will move in one of two directions. The first is the continued evolution of democracy, that is, equality and inclusion of all people and peaceful majority rule. This is the historic trend of the country for the past seventy years. The Great Democratic Revolution, that started in earnest in the 1950's gave us tremendous strides in equality and empowerment of social elements long ignored and marginalized. Blacks, women, and homosexuals have been the principal recipients of the GDR. However, this democratization has inspired great fear among many whites, particularly white working class men, white evangelical Christians, and white southerners. The fear is that they will be overwhelmed by non-white people and will lose control of "their" country. We have seen a vast upsurge in white supremacist groups in recent decades, especially in the last few years. Racial fear is the driving force among these people.

The other direction is to move to minority rule under a fascist-oriented state. This would keep the whites, soon to be a minority in the U.S., in power. In order for the minority to keep power, it would have to resort to police/military force. It would also have to veer away from the evolving democracy and overthrow, or seriously alter the U.S. Constitution. Sociologists have told us for a long time that a third of the American people favor a fascist state rather than a democracy, as long as the fascist state serves their perceived self-interests. That means an awful lot of Americans do not believe in or support democracy.

Yesterday's battle was an expression of the second trend. The President of the United States is a demagogue, always has been. He understood innately that race was the key to his power and so he stoked white racism to gain the White House. His "base" is about a third of America. They see Trump as a saviour figure who will "save" America for the white people like themselves. They want a white-controlled fascist state. About 50,000 of them descended on Washington and flocked to a rally to hear their saviour figure exhort them to march on the Capitol promising to join them (he did not, instead, having lit the fuse, got into his warm car and raced back to the safety of the White House). Hence, the violent mob invasion and desecration of the Capitol. Blood flowed. Mayhem and vandalism ensued. 

There are two elements of the insurrection. One is the ego of Donald Trump. His personality cannot accept his electoral defeat and so he has created a fictitious world in which he was not defeated and he is inciting the violent mob to enforce this delusion. Trump himself is not necessarily driven by white supremacy. His niece, Mary Trump, says he is probably a sociopath because he has spent his life emulating his father whom she declared outright to be a sociopath. A sociopath is one who is entirely self-centered without any ethical or moral principles or concerns for other people. Sounds about right.

The other element of the insurrection is Trump's "base" who are clearly willing to use violence to promote their view of society and government. They are white supremacists. So, there is a symbiotic relation of Trump and the mob. He gets his ego stroked and they get white power. The explosive result of this is the likes of what happened in Washington yesterday.

So, as I see it America is at a crossroads. Either we continue developing democracy or we veer to fascism. My sense as a student of history tells me we will follow the first path. However, even if we keep on this path we have a major problem with the third of the country that is violently resistant to that path. We are deeply and dangerously divided as a civic society. Our challenge now is to keep that society cohesive. How we go about that is the big question of the day.

For starters, it would be wrong for us to ignore the insurrection staring us in the face. This is a domestic war between democracy and fascism. We must view it that way now. The President of the United States tried to subvert the constitutional government of the United States. He should be removed from office as soon as possible. He must be stopped. He must be held accountable. So too must be the political office holders who aided and abetted his anti-democratic and anti-constitutional words and deeds.

My sense tells me democracy will win out because it is the tide of history. However, it will win only if the people who love it are committed to protect and defend it. This is the time to stand and fight the war that has been forced upon us.

_____________________________

ADDENDUM, 1:30 p.m. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, today called on the Vice President and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment in order to remove President Trump from office. In the absence of this, she said she would consider moving forward with the impeachment of Trump in the House of Representatives.

PRESIDENT TRUMP MUST BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE TODAY

President Trump spent an hour this morning inciting a crowd of thousands of his devotees, some armed, in Washington to march on the Capitol. After he finished, the mob promptly marched on the Capitol, stormed the building and took occupation of the Senate and House chambers. This is an attempt to overthrow the constitutional government. This cannot be tolerated. President Trump must be removed from office now. He has another couple of weeks in office. If he is left in place, the constitutional government may not survive. This is a national emergency. Congress must act to remove this president.  

 

COUP ATTEMPT UNDERWAY

6 January 2021, 1:00 p.m. The Trump mob has just invaded the Capitol in Washington. The crowd of thousands had been incited by Trump to march on the building. The mob breached the doors and flooded into the building. At this moment, the police seem helpless to stop it. The Senate and the House and in recess. Their doors are locked. No one knows where this goes from here. This is obviously an attempt to overthrow the presidential election and keep Trump in power. This is a civic emergency. 

AN HISTORIC MOMENT

Two earthshaking events should get our attention now. In one, a Deep South state has chosen an African American and a Jewish American at the same time as its new U.S. Senators (some news outlets have declared one the winner and the other is ahead and almost certainly the winner). One has to be a southerner of my age range (over 70) to fully appreciate the significance of this monumental event even though Warnock is not the first black man elected to the U.S. Senate from the south. If someone had told me as a child that a black man and a Jewish man would be elected by a majority of the people in a southern state over two white conservatives, I would have laughed at the absurdity of the thought. Unimaginable in the Jim Crow south of my youth. No more. It has actually happened. This is a colossal accomplishment for American democracy. I cannot emphasize this enough.

The other enormous event of the day is that the U.S. Congress is set to certify the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice-President today (or tomorrow). This will happen over the shocking attempt of Republicans to overthrow the clear-cut legal and legitimate democratic election. President Trump and a band of his anti-democratic followers are trying to overthrow our constitutional democratic republic in favor of minority rule. The anti-democratic agitators will make an ugly show today but in the end cannot stop this monumental event of American history.

I for one am taking a pause to say a prayer of thanksgiving and for protection of our democratic nation-state. Too, I am celebrating an enormous victory for human rights. In time, we can analyze all of the historical aspects of these two huge historical happenings in this great moment in time.

The great democratic revolution of the Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries has just won a tremendous victory over the forces of reaction and counter-revolution. And, it was my fellow southerners who played a key role in making this happen. I could not be more proud of my region of America today. 

NOTES,  4 JANUARY 2021

Today is Monday, January 4, 2021. Happy New Year to you. Here is a wish that all is well with you and yours as we enter a new calendar year in our lives. What will this year hold? It is hard to imagine it could be as bad as last year, but then no one knows. It is not given to humans to know the future. I have always believed that was a good thing. If we knew all the bad events that were going to happen to us in the months ahead, we would not want to head into them. 

It is time to check in on the crises we have been following for months now. Today we focus on the two outstanding ones of the hour, the pandemic and the political.

PANDEMIC.  The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread at alarming rates worldwide, particularly in America. According to our usual source of data, Worldometers, in the last week (December 28-January 4), nearly 5m new cases of infection have been reported in the world (4,718,661) for a total of 85,935,986. Nine million of these occurred in just the last two weeks. This is a rising weekly rate of 6%, up from the 5% of the earlier week. As for deaths in the world, there were 84,241 last week for a total of 1,857,966. This is a rate of 5%, up from the 4% of the previous week. In the world, more than 150,000 people have died of the plague in just the last two weeks.

Figures are even more alarming for the United States that continues to be the epicenter of the pandemic with no hint of change. The U.S. reported 1,669,460 new cases last week, a rising rate of 9%, up from the 7% of the preceding week. The U.S. is reporting a total of 21,243,307 cases, app. 25% of the world's total. Deaths are also soaring in the U.S. Last week, the U.S. reported 20,178 deaths, a rising rate of 6%, up from the 5% increase of the week earlier. In the last two weeks, over 36,000 American died of the plague. The total of U.S. casualties now stands at 361,316. This is about 1 in 6 of the world's deaths. Remember that the U.S. is by far the richest and most powerful nation-state in the world. The failure to respond well to this pandemic is a national disgrace and scandal. It is a black mark in American history.

Our local states in the southeast are part and parcel of this national disaster. Last week, South Carolina reported 29,293 new cases, by far the largest number ever recorded in one week. This was a rise of 10%, up from the 8% of the previous week. SC is now listing 325,472 cases of covid. Death numbers are also alarming. Last week, SC reported 329 deaths from COVID-19, a rising rate of 6%, up from the 4% of the earlier week. SC is now listing 5,484 deaths from the pandemic. In the last 14 days, SC has seen a 20% rise in new cases, 60% rise in deaths, and 50% increase in hospitalizations.

In Charleston County, new case numbers are soaring while death rates are falling. Last week, the county reported 1,530 new cases for a total of 25,041. In the past two weeks, it has reported 3k new cases. As for deaths, the county listed 3 last week for a total of 323.

Alabama also reported soaring numbers. It listed 28,467 new cases last week, a rate of 8%, up from the 7% of the earlier week. AL is now reporting a total of 374,095 cases. As for deaths, AL listed 187 last week, a rising rate of 4%, down from the 7% of the previous week. The state is now reporting a total of 4,878 deaths from the pandemic. In SC and AL alike, hospitals are overrun with COVID patients.

All of the numerous charts available on the pandemic show a soaring spike in cases and deaths in the last few months. We are clearly in the worst part of the pandemic, at least so far. Fortunately, vaccinations are now being administered, but experts say it will be months before these may reverse the spread of the disease.

POLITICAL. America is now in its most serious political crisis since the 1960's and possibly since the Civil War. The President has rejected the results of the fair, free, and legal election. He claims the election of his opponent was fraudulent and that the election was stolen from him, the true winner. He and his backers have not produced one shred of empirical evidence to support this shocking claim. Yet, he and his "base," app. a third of the country, continue to assert that Trump won the election and that Biden will be an illegitimate president. They are promising a big demonstration of resistance on this Wednesday, when the U.S. Congress meets to officially certify the results of the Electoral College election in December. In fact, Biden has been duly and legally elected the next president. Yet, 140 Republican members of the House of Representatives and at least 12 Republican Senators say they will object to certifying Biden as the winner. This is a continuation of the attempted coup d'état that Trump and some Republican officer holders have been carrying on for the last several months trying to overthrow the vote of the people and keep Trump in power against all principles of democracy. It will not work but it will go far in de-legitimizing the new administration in the minds of at least a third of the nation. This is dangerously destabilizing to the whole structure of the American civic-state that rests on shared rules and majority vote. 

Just when we thought nothing Trump would do or say would shock us any more comes the news over the weekend of Trump's hour long rant to the (Republican) GA Secretary of State and his lawyer. Apparently deranged and delusional, Trump demanded they (illegally) "find" enough votes to make him the winner in GA and threatened arrest if they did not do so. Trump should be removed from office for this gross abuse of power, not to mention possible crime. It is beyond the pale for any president to do this. My hat's off to the GA Secretary of State for standing up to this outrageous behavior. He told Trump his data was wrong and refused to back down. Who would have thought that a Republican secretary of state in a Deep South state would be the one to finally sock the schoolyard bully? I say Brad Raffensperger is the hero of the hour.

President Trump has sixteen days to go in office. God only knows what he will do next as he gets ever more desperate. He is like a wounded animal. Thank goodness all of the living Secretaries of Defense just issued a strong letter that the military cannot be used for political purposes (as overthrowing an election). The courts too have tossed out Trump's entirely fictitious claims of election fraud. There is simply no credible evidence to present of election wrongdoing. Still, if we have learned anything at all about Trump in the last four years it is that he will go beyond all traditional bounds of law and order to serve himself. It is all but certain we will see a lot of chaos and turmoil in the next sixteen days. I would not be surprised to see a lot of violence too. I am looking out for Wednesday when Trump has called his armed followers to rally around him in Washington to protest and resist the legal and legitimate election, again, something that no president has ever done. Our constitutional democratic republic is in peril.

Meanwhile, there is an election of two senators in Georgia tomorrow. Conventional wisdom says the Republicans will win, but all bets are off now that Trump has thrown everything in Georgia (and the country) into chaos. The results will be close and I would not be too surprised to see the two Democrats win. If they do, the Democrats will have two of the three branches of the government, the executive and the legislative (House and Senate). And, if this happens, the Republicans can thank Trump for their political deaths. But then, they are the ones who selected him and enabled him all these wild years. Trump did not do all his destruction of constitutional norms by himself. He had a lot of help from Republicans who thought they could control this Frankenstein monster for themselves. Now he may very well be destroying them too on his way out the door. The Republican party is now badly divided and it is difficult to see how they survive Trump. 

Americans are in a bad place today. We are suffering through the worst public health crisis in a century as we struggle to hold the nation together under the constitution that we have revered for more than two centuries. We are badly and dangerously divided. We are seriously challenged to beat the virus and keep the civic society intact. The next few weeks will tell us a lot about how we respond to this double threat. May God help us.

As always, remember we are here for the living of this hour. We the people did not create these crises. They were thrust upon us, one by nature and one by human action. Nevertheless, the terrible challenges must be met and met with a resolve to prevail. Peace.  

REFLECTIONS ON THE YEAR 2020

Today is Thursday, December 31, 2020, the last day of the year, and what it year it was. I for one plan to stay up until midnight tonight not so much to see the new year in as the see the old year out. I am sure we can all agree to shout good bye and good riddance to 2020. I can honestly say it was the worst year of the seventy-seven I have been granted so far. Yet, if you are reading this, you survived. I survived. All is not lost, far from it. Our lives have changed, but not all for the worse, not by a long shot.

The opening paragraph of Charles Dickens's classic A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favorite passages of literature: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." He was referring to the pre-French Revolutionary age. I think we can use that for 2020. It was definitely bad but it was also good. Let's start with the good.

In thinking of the good in the last year, three things jump into my mind right away. First and foremost is the arrival of vaccines against the coronavirus. In record time, several pharmaceutical companies produced vaccines for public use. This was a miracle of modern science and technology. Within the next few months, vaccines will be available to the general population. With this, the pandemic will decline and life can soon get back to "normal" whatever that may be. 

The second good thing may be the most important in the long run. Faced with its greatest challenge to its integrity since the Civil War, the American constitutional democratic republic held the line. Pushed by a president who knew no bounds of law and order, the old institutions of law and order prevailed as record numbers of Americans went to the polls to reaffirm their devotion to our democratic republic. They loudly and decisively rejected a would-be autocrat and defeated his attempted coup d'état. 

The year also saw a third movement that we should not forget, the re-awakening of racial justice. Following the police killings of several black people, countless thousands of ordinary American citizens in virtually every city and town spontaneously took to the streets to demand justice and equality for all people regardless of race. Along with the election, this was another way the people arose to reaffirm the basic principles of democracy in America.

Now for the bad in 2020. Here, obviously stands first the pandemic of the coronavirus, or COVID-19. This was the worst public health crisis since the great Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19. Then, 600,000 American died along with millions more around the world. In spite of the enormous progress of modern medicine, we are on track to equal this. Accord to Worldometers, as of today, 1,815,389 people in the world have died of covid. Of these, 350,845 were Americans. The U.S. has been since the first the center of this pandemic. While the U.S. has 4% of the world's population, it reported 24% of the world's cases and 19% of the world's deaths. This reflects the lack of national response to the plague. While many others countries successfully quelled the spread, the U.S. did not. In fact, the Trump administration lurched between denial, indifference, and malevolence. Worst of all, they made the pandemic into a political issue in an election year. In my view, President Trump will go down in history for two colossal moral failures, the separation of children from their parents at the border and the handling of the covid pandemic.

With the pandemic, we must consider many after effects of the health emergency. Millions of Americans lost their jobs. Unemployment is twice what it was before the pandemic. Thousands of businesses have closed. Eight million Americans slipped below the poverty line. Millions face hunger and residential evictions. 

While we see that democracy held in America, the other side of that shows us that there was a very strong and residual movement in 2020 to overthrow the democratic republic. President Trump pushed the boundaries of power as far as he could. After the election, which was clear-cut against him, he tried to overturn the legal and legitimate result and keep himself in power. He failed but only because the courts blocked him. Even in view of four years of anti-democratic behavior, nearly half of the American voters (47%) voted for Trump which meant they voted for an overthrow of democracy. This is beyond shocking. And, the most disturbing point of this was the racial element. Some 60% of the whites voted for Trump while over 80% of blacks voted against him. We now have a country that is even more racially divided than it has been, at least since the 1960's. This is the legacy of Donald Trump who ran his whole campaign on racial fear.

Now that we have considered the good and the bad of 2020, we can ask ourselves: Was 2020 the worst year ever? The answer to that depends on our criteria of evaluation. These would have to rest on the measures of death and destruction as well as the trajectories into the future. I see the year 1940 as the worst, at least in modern history. It was in that year that Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy secured control of continental Europe with every hope and expectation of indefinite domination. France fell in June after only six weeks of fighting. This left only Great Britain at war with Hitler. He was planning and preparing an invasion of Britain and the British were getting ready for it. To "soften up" the British, he launched The Battle of Britain, day after day of devastating bombing raids. Britain fell on its knees, literally and figuratively. To save themselves, the British relied on their control of the seas. The Americans were "neutralized" in Neutrality Acts, much to President Roosevelt's chagrin. The Russians were not neutral, they were actually friends of Hitler having agreed in their Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 to divide up Poland. In 1940, the Soviets took over the three Baltic states. Stalin was confident he would live peacefully with Hitler. So, as 1940 came to a close, there was every reason to believe Germany, Italy, and Japan would prevail as the new world dominant powers. If they had, the world would be a profoundly different place than it is now. So, 1940 gets my vote as the worst year in recent history.

Is the COVID-19 pandemic the worst plague in history? Not by a long shot. It is no where near as devastating as the Black Death of the Fourteenth Century when some 25 million people, a third of the population of Europe, died. Survivors at the time commonly considered this to be the end of the world. It was indeed the end of the word that they knew.

Is President Trump the worst president in American history? He gets my vote. There is a long list of wrong doing but we have to look no farther than his behavior after the election to prove the point. He tried to overthrow our democratic institutions. No president had ever tried to do such a thing.

So, who should be our Person(s) of the Year for 2020? Who are our outstanding heroes who helped us get through the nightmare of 2020? My vote goes to Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx. Even under death threats, they never failed to tell us the truth, guide us on best response, and to give us hope for a better day. In my view, they are our national treasures of 2020. They were our guiding lights as we groped our way through the dark tunnel of the pandemic. They are my heroes of the hour.

As a student of history, I like to consider the big picture and try to make sense of where we are in time. Here is my view of this. We Americans are living in a moment of clash between forces of revolutionary change and forces of resistance. The Twentieth Century gave us two big legacies: that the government is responsible for the welfare of the people and that evolving democracy is the best political system. Starting in the 1950's, American began moving toward effectuating these two guiding principles. Blacks, women, homosexuals and many other maginalized/ignored social elements found the benefits of this Great Democratic Revolution. However, the traditional power structure, the white man, arose to resist this revolution which would displace him from control of the various power structures of America. Donald Trump became the pinnacle of the white  man's backlash to the evolving multi-cultural democracy in America. He was more than a dog whistle to white racists. He brought together the elements of anti-democratic resistance. He came close, but ultimately failed to stop the GDR. Democracy won but just barely and there will remain a very strong anti-democratic resistance for the foreseeable future. I expect this resistance actually to strengthen as it becomes clearer and clearer that white people will become a minority of American society. Demographic trends show this happen within a generation whether white people like it or not. White people have shown they will not "surrender" "their" country easily to the non-whites. I suspect there is much more trouble and violence ahead on this front. Trump did not cause racism in America. He was just the most recent politician to capitalize on it and just because he failed we cannot say the problem has gone away. Not at all. Racism is the original sin of America and until we come to terms with it we will continue to be dangerously divided as a nation.

Finally, what about the schism in South Carolina? What did the year 2020 mean for that? The former members of the Diocese of South Carolina who left the Episcopal Church started a legal war almost eight years ago when they sued the Episcopal Church for possession of the property they knew belonged to the Church under church law. Along the way in the last eight years, the state courts have been on both sides. The SC supreme court ruled for the Episcopal Church but before and after that the local circuit courts ruled in favor of the breakaways. We are now awaiting a judgment of the SCSC. The basic issue there is whether the justices will uphold the SCSC decision of 2017 or overturn it. Unlike the state courts, the federal courts have been clear on the side of the Episcopal Church. The federal district judge in Charleston recognized TEC as hierarchical and the Episcopal diocese as the one and only legal heir of the old diocese. His decision is on appeal with the U.S. appeals court. There is little chance the appeals court will change anything. So, after eight years and at least ten million dollars, we still do not have resolution of the legal war. However, we are much closer now than ever and I expect there is a very good chance both state and federal courts will issue final judgments in the year 2021. Even if they do, this may not be the end of the story as the breakaways have proven clearly that they will deny, delay, and sue until there is absolutely no possibility of legal action left. So, alas, even if the courts rule in 2021 that may not be the end of the sad history of the schism.

My best wishes to you and yours as we move into a new year. A new day is coming. It has to be better that what we are leaving behind. I am confident it will be. At any rate, remember we are here for the living of this hour, with whatever that may entail. Peace.

 

FORT WORTH SECESSIONISTS PRESENT ARGUMENTS TO U.S. SUPREME COURT

On yesterday, 23 December 2020, the breakaway contingent going under the name of Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, presented its written arguments to the United States Supreme Court. This was in opposition to the Episcopal Church's petition to SCOTUS, of 19 October 2020, asking the court to grant cert in order to review the ruling of the Texas Supreme Court that found all in favor of the secessionists in Ft. Worth.

Find the breakaway's brief of yesterday here .

The basic argument TEC had made was that the Supreme Court's Jones v. Wolf decision of 1979 was fatally flawed and needed to be clarified or replaced. The evidence was that states all over the country had arrived at widely different, even contradictory, decisions following Jones which had introduced the notion that civic courts could resolve church property disputes within a denomination by strictly adhering to state property laws neutrally. TEC had argued that this approach was a violation of the First Amendment that prohibited the civic state from interfering in the internal matters of a religious entity.

Not surprisingly, the secessionists argued in their brief of 23 December that the Jones decision was perfectly fine and needed no attention. According to them, neutral principles had worked well as evidenced by its wide application in numerous states. So, the basic point of contention between the two sides is whether the Jones decision should be left as is or should be reinterpreted.

Interesting to note that the breakaways' brief undercuts its own assertions in its Appendix which lists four groups of states responding to the Jones decision: those that adopted it, those that rejected it, those that were unclear, and those that had not addressed it. This actually substantiates TEC's case that the decision had led to judicial chaos and needed clarification.

Also interesting to note that the breakaways' brief completely ignored the South Carolina Supreme Court decision of 2017 that followed neutral principle and still found that TEC owned 29 of the 36 parishes in question as well as the Camp. 

In my view, the basic issue facing SCOTUS now is the interpretation of the First Amendment. Does the civic state have the constitutional right to settle property disputes within a denomination? If so, what are the exact parameters under which this may occur while adhering to the First Amendment? Even the breakaways admitted that the Jones decision and its "neutral principles" guide had led to wildly different outcomes in the courts.

TEC asked SCOTUS to grant cert and review the Ft. Worth case. I expect this decision will hinge on whether the justices see this case as one of the First Amendment or of the contemporary culture war. If the former, they will grant cert and side with TEC. If the latter, they will deny cert and allow the Texas Supreme Court decision to stand. 

Traditionally, SCOTUS has shied away from Episcopal Church cases. Time and again it has refused to accept property cases from TEC. However, the new 6-3 conservative majority in SCOTUS has loudly signaled its devotion to the rights of churches against the state. The recent Cuomo case was a prime example of this. In this, the court said the state could not discriminate against churches in imposing attendance limitations even under the health emergency of the covid pandemic. If the court continues this hard swing in favor of the First Amendment rights of churches, it stands to reason it would want to review the Ft. Worth case. This is certainly what TEC wants. On the other hand, if the ultimate goal of the conservative justices is to bolster traditional conservative cultural and social institutions in America, they might see the Ft. Worth case as a chance to strike back against the socially and culturally progressive Episcopal Church. This would work to the breakaways' favor.

Now, we wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether to grant cert. This will be by vote of the justices and will likely occur in the next few months. If they deny cert, the matter is over and the TX SC decision stands in finality. If they grant cert, they will take up the case and issue a decision upholding or overthrowing the TX SC decision and this would probably happen by July of 2021.

NOTES,  21 DECEMBER 2020

Good day to you, blog reader. Here is a wish that all goes well with you and yours on this, the 21st day of December of 2020. It is Monday, and time for the weekly check in on the crises we have been tracking for months, the pandemic, the litigation, and political. So, where do we stand now on these issues?

PANDEMIC. We are now in the worst phase of the year-long COVID-19 pandemic and matters are getting even worse by the hour. All metrics show alarming trajectories of cases and deaths. 

Consulting our usual source, Worldometers, we find that in the last week (December 14-21), there were 4,527,981 new cases in the world for a total of 77,264,853. In just the last two weeks there were over 10,000,000 new cases in the world. As for deaths in the world, there were 80,935 last week, a rising rate of 5%. This brings world deaths to a total of 1,701,599. In just the last two weeks there have been over 150,000 deaths from COVID-19. This represents 10% of the entire mortality of this pandemic. Numbers are skyrocketing. 

The United States continues to be, as it has been since March, the world's epicenter of the plague. America has by far the most cases and deaths in the world. Last week, the U.S. reported 1,530,312 new cases, a rising rate of 9%. This gives a total of cases of 18,267,579. Over 3,000,000 of these new cases were reported in just the last two weeks. As new cases continue to run at around 10% a week, deaths from COVID-19 continue to hover around 6% weekly. Last week, 18,410 Americans died of the plague. In all, 324,869 people have died from the coronavirus in the U.S. Of these 36,000 happened in just the last two weeks.

The pandemic continues to sweep South Carolina and Alabama as it has in the last few months. In SC, there were 21,200 new cases last week for a total of 273,406. In the last two weeks, over 41,000 South Carolinians have contracted the virus. As for deaths from the virus, there were 196 in SC last week for a total of 4,935. The death total of the last two weeks was 370. Alabama continues to be hard hit. In AL, there were 26,821 new cases last week for a total of 322,452. There were over 50,000 new cases in the last two weeks. As for deaths in AL, there were 287 last week for a total of 4,389. The coronavirus is spreading out of control in our southeastern states as in much of America. 

Charleston County continues to see surging numbers as well. It reported 920 new cases last week, and nearly 2,000 in the last two weeks. Deaths in the county are up to 313, and rising at a 9% weekly rate. 

While we are in the midst of a terrifying winter surge of the pandemic, there is great news at hand. Two new vaccines are now available and will be offered to the public in the next few months. The light is at the end of the tunnel, as far as the pandemic goes.

LITIGATION. We are still in a holding pattern in the court cases. We are awaiting two briefs in two important cases. The first is the brief of the Anglican Diocese of SC in the South Carolina Supreme Court. The Episcopal diocese appealed to the SCSC to overturn Judge Dickson's outrageous order and submitted its brief (written arguments) to the SCSC last month. The ADSC brief (counter arguments) will be presented in the near future but I am uncertain of the exact date.

On 23 December, the breakaway faction in Ft. Worth is due to submit its brief in the United States Supreme Court. The Episcopal Church has asked SCOTUS to grant cert and accept its appeal of the Texas Supreme Court ruling that found all in favor of the secessionist contingent in Ft. Worth. After the breakaways turn in their brief, the justices of SCOTUS will decide whether to grant cert. This should occur in the new few months. 

POLITICAL. I am preparing an end-of-year review of the political crisis in America and so will skip this for now. I will return with my thoughts on this soon.

Meanwhile, as a gardener, I always look forward to this day, the Winter Solstice. This year it falls on today, Monday, December 21. For nature, the winter solstice is a turning point. This is the darkest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. From here on, the days will lengthen and the sun will brighten in the sky. Typically, the worst of winter weather is yet to come, but the rising light portends all the great promises of spring and new life. 

In prehistoric and ancient times, people universally marked and celebrated the "rebirth" of the sun after the winter solstice. As they saw the sun declining in the sky, they feared it would die, and its death would extinguish all life. Thus, there was always great rejoining when the sun began to lift on the horizon in what is now late December. Nowadays the Christian world celebrates new birth at Christmas. The four gospels do not provide the time of year in which Jesus of Nazareth was born, so early on it seemed fitting for Christians to put it in late December (in the cult of Mithras, widely popular in the Roman Army, Dec. 25 was the birth day of the mythical saviour-figure Mithras). So, today I am rejoicing at the passing of the Winter Solstice and the impending celebration of birth, this Friday. Welcome new sun, welcome new life.

The Winter Solstice today provides a metaphor of this whole year. This is the darkest day of the darkest year of my lifetime. Yet, in this fearful moment, there are many signs of new life as there is every reason to hope and expect a better day ahead. Things will be better. We have to believe that. Always remember, we are here for the living of this hour. Peace.

AWAITING CHRISTMAS

Greetings blog reader. It is just a week until Christmas Day. I do not know about you, but I can hardly wait for that day to arrive. I may be reverting to my long-ago childhood, but did we ever need Christmas more? This has been the year from Hell. We need the arrival of the Divine Presence now more than ever, at least in out lifetimes. So, I say, hurry Christmas, hurry the arrival of the new light. 

Many blog readers noticed I did not make a posting last Monday as I usually do. I had just learned that my 81-year-old brother in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, had contracted the coronavirus. That means his wife, along with my sister, probably have gotten the virus, or will get it. Right now, he is at home taking OTC meds. It is a good thing he has a relatively mild case, at least so far, because there is not one ICU bed left in the entire state of Mississippi. That state has been overwhelmed. It seemed that all the heaviness of the year fell in on me at once and I did not have the heart to write anything on the computer last Monday. 

Perhaps you too have family members and friends who have acquired the virus. The plague is spreading rapidly and people are falling sick all around us. It is hard to keep up a good spirit in this seemingly ever darkening night.

We must not, will not, let the night vanquish us. One way we can keep our heads above water is to relish the small acts of kindness that we can do for each other. Let me share with you a few recent examples that will lift your spirits as they did mine.

For 25 years, my local parish has provided a free Thanksgiving Day meal for the community. It started out small and has turned into a major event, especially for a small church. In spite of the pandemic, this year the parish went all out and served a record-breaking 675 meals. And this year, we had only pick-up and home delivered meals. We packed in extra food for people to use for days. 

Another act of kindness. My good friend from childhood lives in downtown Chicago, near Lincoln Park. A few years ago, he was hit by a truck while crossing the street and ever since has struggled to get around. He has to have a walker to go anywhere. Well, on the day before Thanksgiving he was crossing the street and out of the blue a woman he had never seen appeared at his side to help him across. On the other side they struck up a conversation about what they were going to do on the next day, Thanksgiving. He told her he had hoped to go to his favorite restaurant a few blocks away but would not do so this year. The woman immediately said she would go to the restaurant, pick up and pay for his favorite meal, and deliver it to him on tomorrow, Thanksgiving. She did. At noon she appeared at the door, tote bag in hand. My friend was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. A person he had never seen spent her Thanksgiving Day going to great lengths to see to it that he had a good day. Many people would say things like this just do not happen in big cities but they would be wrong.

Another act of kindness. Once a month my local parish has a "Beans and Rice" day to distribute free beans and rice to anyone who wants them, no questions asked. You might be surprised at the number of people who arrive to collect just these basic staples. We have a local food pantry in town but it screens its patrons. Our local Daughters of the King chapter decided to make December's Beans and Rice day a free food day. And so, they found enough money to buy bags and bags of food to hand out to anyone who arrived to collect the beans and rice. My wife, Sandy, was the driving force behind this project, I am proud to say. The Daughters prepared hundreds of bags which they handed out to the surprised and delighted patrons on this months's Beans and Rice Day.

St. Luke's parish house, Jacksonville AL. Sandy Caldwell looks over the room full of bags of food assembled by the DOK for distribution on Beans and Rice Day, Dec. 12.

And finally, I like to go back to my favorite Advent hymn, "Lo he comes with clouds descending." This is one of the most beautiful hymns in the hymnal and I always look forward to it at this time of the year. We need it now more than ever. My favorite rendition is the one by Richard Jensen on Youtube. There are many other versions available on Youtube. Any one will do. I invite you to listen to one of them today.

So, it is with little flickers of light that we banish the darkness of the night in which we find ourselves. We are here for the living of this hour, as hard as it may be. Peace.