Precarious times

Some random thoughts about the country and my eye.

I’m having a bit of difficulty writing these days. I wake up in the morning and my eye is a mess because of a growth around my optic nerve. I have trouble looking at a computer screen for more than a few minutes, so I can’t get my words down and I’m distracted by my eye. The medicine I take resolves the problem within a few hours, but leaves me fidgety and unfocused and I have a hard time holding a coherent line of thought.

I say this because I’m writing less than usual and wanted to let readers know why. I’m starting new treatments that will likely fix the problem. Until then, I’ll write when I can and may drop pieces like this one that reflect my unfocused thoughts. I’m not going away. I will just write less frequently until I find a new normal. That said, here goes.

Democrats should leave John Fetterman alone. He’s contrarian but he’s not a Republican. He still votes with Democrats the vast majority of the time. He wouldn’t if he were a Republican. He will likely be gone after his first term. Ignore him instead of pushing him to make bad votes just to spite his critics.

All of these gerrymandering wars will have unintended consequences. I’m not sure what they will be, but I feel pretty certain that not everything will work out the way the people drawing the maps hope. Gerrymandering is a strategy for short-term gain that might have long-term consequences, especially in the midst of a political realignment that is still not sorted out yet.

The corruption in the Trump administration is astounding and the Republican Party is complicit. They have an obligation to the American people to provide oversight of the executive branch, not look the other way. Unfortunately, I don’t think the American public cares. Selling pardons and profiting from foreign governments should be more than just unseemly. It should be illegal and probably is, but if Democrats demand accountability, the GOP claims the accusations are political despite clear evidence of wrongdoing.

The weaponization of the Department of Justice to go after journalists is as disturbing as anything happening right now. Since the GOP has abandoned its oversight role of the executive branch, the media is the watchdog. Threatening and arresting journalists is a direct assault on the First Amendment.

We’re in a dangerous place where one party condones corruption and abuse of power. The elimination of democracy via gerrymandering puts the country further at risk. The Founding Fathers designed a complex government to prevent concentrations of power and we have people systematically dismantling those checks and balances one by one. We are in precarious times.