Tom Kielty

ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES, LIBERALS... BUT LOOK BACK FIRST

Dark days these last few have been.  And, for my liberal brethren, this sentiment may make them just a little darker.  But look deep and think.  There are plenty of holes in the Democratic playbook that allowed an admittedly conniving snake to slide right into a position to screw this nation up for decades.   And, there’s plenty of blame to go around here.

   
Including some for my beloved former President, Barack Obama. To his credit he always took the high road and in his defense he didn’t know the high road was on the verge of being fracked out of existence once his term ended.  He furthered American interest and esteem around the world and his policies are ultimately responsible for the current economic upswing - alongside our current “businessman” President who is running up the deficit like an Atlantic City casino he plans to swiftly walk away from once it inevitably cashes out.

  
However, in this Supreme Court mess, taking the high road against an opposition who had roadblocked his every move for nearly eight full years will historically be an indelible mark against his successes.  When the GOP refused to consider confirming Merrick Garland, Obama should have finally - after fighting tooth and nail throughout his entire term for any semblance of bi-partisanship - invited them to kiss his ass and slammed down an executive order like a breakaway dunk.  Taking the high road against a weasel like Mitch McConnell accomplishes nothing and now as a nation we’re living it.

Would that have been constitutional?  My rudimentary research defines it as a gray area.  It likely would have included a lot of long and hard and ultimately silly gerrymandering, but so what?  Does anyone recall Senator Ted Cruz reading the Dr. Seuss classic, “Green Eggs and Ham,” on the Senate floor?  You know what goes good with those green eggs?  Sausage.  And, as the old adage informs, “If you want to eat the sausage, you probably don’t want to know how it was made.”

Liberals need to not only watch how it’s made now, but to dig in and get their hands dirty wearing the mess from how it’s made.  Conservatives, and their underlings, have been doing it successfully for years.  Maybe never so much as this week when they’re smugly enjoying the taste. 

  
It’s an easy route to blame an 81-year-old Supreme Court Justice for stepping down to do whatever an 81-year-old Supreme Court Justice does in his golden years.  Golf?  Painting?  Playing canasta?  The man was appointed by Reagan for fuck’s sake!  And, newsflash: Ruth Bader-Ginsburg is 85!  You want a senior citizen to throw a little blame on?  Get ready, because here it comes. 

   
Senator Bernie Sanders.  That kindly - yet remarkably simultaneously cranky - senior citizen who gave light to a following of politically disenfranchised youth.  His continually courting the vote of impressionable youth and avowing that he deserved their "votes of conscience" when he was so obviously out of the race was a stupid and selfish grandstanding move.  A more reasonable candidate, one not caught up in his groundswell of support, might have seen  a bigger picture as a darker force gained momentum. 

At the time I remember very clearly writing something along these lines: Senator, it's time for you to go home. The contender has benefitted from sparring with you.  You’ve thrown some great shots and educated us to the weaknesses in our approach.   But, there's no reason for you to keep throwing knockout blows when the title fight is still to come and you're simply not the one going into the ring.  You’re weakening “our” side now.  

Do the right thing, bow out gracefully.  Encourage your idealistic supporters to throw their vote behind the more reasonably minded candidate.  “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  It’s pretty simple stuff.  That would have been the truly patriotic thing to do.  I now wonder how the folks who lambasted me with, "He has every right to be campaigning!"  - when it was very much obvious that he wouldn't be the nominee - feel about that self-righteousness when at the time this current administration seemed as likely as cinematic Wes Craven craziness .

 
 Point blank: you don't bring a knife to a gunfight, and if you do, you sure don't let somebody "on your side" dull the fucking knife.  Bernie Sanders took that knife up into the Green Mountains and spent a day gnashing it on a rock.

  
A day?  Hell, the guy did it until July 12th of 2016 and even then in his concession to dropping out he was griping about “Super Delegates.”  How much of that time could have been given to fighting the frightening and then rising cult of personality of the man who currently watches television and tweets from Pennsylvania Avenue.  Only history will tell, but Sanders did give us this:

Don’t give up.

  
An admirable admonition in the face of this current assault on American ideals.  There are going to be countless things one can do to stand up against this emerging climate as, “Power against the people,” has replaced Patti Smith’s, “People got the power.”   There can be a battle to struggle against the confirmation of any new Supreme Court Justice prior to mid-term elections.  It’s what blocked Garland’s confirmation.  The GOP knew how to make that work and did.

In the most historically recent right wing playbook, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” he advises:

 
“If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him... If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”

It’s a big fight ahead.  Conservatives and their lackeys have never been afraid - mostly the well- guided and pointed lackeys - to get their hands dirty to make that sausage.

Roll up your sleeves.