Both my cousin and a very good friend of mine brought to my attention ¹Kathleen Parker’s opinion piece in the Washington Post (Feb. 10, 2017), entitled Trump’s two-year presidency. Parker offers her “ ‘good’ prediction” … “based on the Law of the Pendulum.” She prognosticates that “Enough Americans, including most independent voters, will be so ready to shed Donald Trump and his” [policies] “… that the 2018 midterm elections are all but certain to be a landslide … sweep of the House and Senate,” for which the “Democrats will take them back in a tsunami of protest.” From there, she surmises the Democratic majority in “approximately 30 seconds” will “begin impeachment proceedings … That is, assuming Trump hasn’t already been shown the exit.”

Parker makes a good case for her crystal-gazing, noting how Trump and “henchmen,” in their overreach of power intoxication, have assaulted our democracy’s most cherished principles, while mounting conflicts of interest and courting ethics violations. Noting the phenomenal push back of protests and in-your-face street activism, she draws an analogous pendulum swing to characterize party politics “From 2010’s tea party to 2018’s resistance”— intimating a “beginning … leftward trek” without a pause in the center. She alleges a sought for “nations’ center, where so many wait impatiently—linking the reader up to another article in the ²Post’s (Daily 202, PowerPost’s morning newsletter – Jan. 23 – James Hohmann). Which is her way of introducing a cautionary tale, without saying so, of Democratic Party predisposition to internecine self-destruction in the competing self-interests of those who want a “revolution,” i.e., remove and replace; and those who want a “movement,” i.e., upgrade and improve.

The dust has barely settled over the 2016 presidential race, where that predisposed polarization played out within the intrigue of Russian interference and probable Trump campaign collusion, conflated with split-screen opposing optics on who done what regarding the emails, when the real what was a who speaking with an East Slavic accent. An accent that echoes though every Donald Trump tweet and comment, every Steve Bannon (Chief Strategist) behind-the-scenes policy decision, every General Flynn (National Security Advisor) pro-Russian recommendation, every twisted Sean Spicer (White House Press Secretary) and Kellyanne Conway (Counselor to the President) alternative fact. 

Within every tantara or trumpeting of making America great again can be heard the strains of the song “Dixie,” wafting the past into our political discourse, rending our common humanity into separate shreds of division and bigotry. 

Considering that 40%, that is, 92,671,979 of eligible voters, couldn’t get off their “righteous indignation” or apathy to cast a vote against this oligarchy-autocracy threat, one wonders if DEMs and Independents against Trump can now unite in common cause to pause the pendulum at the nation’s centrist concentration alluded to by Kathleen Parker. That would be something to witness and celebrate: a majority undivided America fighting for equality and opportunity for all—as inconceivable as that seems presently. However improbable, our toasting glasses here on Mustang Mesa are at the ready. 

Fingers crossed.

Carl