THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS EVERYBODY'S DADDY!

By Edwin Cooney

Every day, in countless ways, millions of Americans express their contempt for the government of the United States — especially the federal government — George Washington's greatest gift to us! The fact of the matter is that our national government is our most valuable tool. Both its structure and prescribed functional procedures have flaws, but they do ultimately serve us pretty well! As much as millions of us insist we don't like it, we not only depend on it, we really count on its benevolent protection. Should we ever divorce it, we'll simultaneously divorce our own liberty.

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.”

The above preamble proscribes no procedures or functions of government. It merely establishes the purposes of government. Nor does this preamble draw distinctions between the federal government and the state governments; those are outlined in general throughout the body of the document.

What's at issue in 20th Century America isn't so much the purposes of liberty but whose primarily responsibility it is to apply “the blessings of liberty” to this free and independent people. Even more painful is whether or not all people are to continue to have equal participation in the election of both state and national leaders. Those of us who have had the freest and longest right to elect our own government have among us those who fear that we will soon become a minority rather than remaining a traditional majority in the operation and function of popular government. Sadly, that fear stems from our knowledge of how, historically, we treated Blacks even after the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the Constitution had set them free and asserted their equality.

Conservatives have argued that a government strong enough to give you what you want and even need is a government strong enough to take your liberties away. Liberals since FDR have argued that the essence of liberty is a government strong enough to maintain the legitimate interests of the people guided by those knowledgable enough and well informed enough to maintain its sovereign control over its government.

As I see it, both liberals and conservatives, no matter how comforting or discomforting it is, possess government as a legitimate tool to meet their political and social ends.

As we contemplate the welfare of our national government, we're inevitably beset by contradictory concepts broadcast and published by today's media. Conservatives chant “USA USA” even as they express distaste for our national governmental structure. Liberals express regret for our past sins and long for our adoption of the serene social governments of modern Europe.  If, as asserted at the outset of this commentary, our national government is our "daddy," all natural daddies invariably learn that with all the advanced knowledge they hope to pass on to their children, those children possess the capacity for knowledge and opportunity that's even greater than their own!

Government may be our “daddy,” but we're the root of our daddy's conscience! Every daddy knows, even as he passes cigars to his friends at the birth of his child, that his child will grow away from his authority free and knowledgable enough to create his or her own future which will be greater than his could ever be.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

AMERICA'S NATIONAL NIGHTMARE!

By Edwin Cooney

Since the election of Senator Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008, millions of Americans have begun to worry about their socio/political future. White Anglo-Saxon Americans worry that soon they will be a minority group rather than a secure and controlling majority voting force at the polls — and they are determined to adjust voting laws and procedures to alter the situation. Blacks deeply resent and fear ongoing inequality and they are determined to use affirmative action (or reverse discrimination) to get even. Many believe that they ought to receive government reparations as redress for their traditional secondhand social status since 1619. Women long to be hired and compensated just as men are. LGBT citizens resent and fear efforts to continuously harass them thereby dehumanizing them.

The left and right fear one another. Women fear the loss of control over their bodies. Men fear that their wives, daughters, and sisters may have to share a bathroom at school with people they regard as "sexual perverts." Even more, we fear the possibilities of becoming politically and socially socialistic or oligarchic. Christians, Jews, and other religious leaders fear agnosticism, atheism, and secular humanism. However, another entity is even more dangerous and potentially destructive. This entity is not a political ideology but a catastrophic behavior that knows no political philosophy. Let me describe it before I identify it!

(1.) In the fall of 2020, a group of Michiganders attempted to kidnap Michigan's Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer due to her strict anti-covid regulations within the Wolverine State. Nearly as disheartening, there wasn't the traditional bipartisan condemnation of the incident by outraged politically active citizens and office holders.

(2.) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul was brutally attacked in the early hours of the morning on October 28th, 2022 in his San Francisco home. Aside from the traditional outrage to such an act, some right wing commentators have even suggested that Mr. Pelosi's attack was stage-managed by Democrats and perhaps by the Pelosi’s themselves. The tradition of such behavior stems at least as far back as the Third Reich.

This behavior has no political heritage. This behavior has been used by extreme ideologies of all sorts. Its proper name is “gangsterism.” It celebrates the late Al Capone.  Paul Pelosi's  attacker, 42-year-old David DePape, explained that it was his intention to break Speaker Pelosi's knees so that she could be seen being wheeled in and out of the House of Representatives as a punished liar in denial of the 2020 presidential "steal." Up until this time, this form of gangsterism wasn't generally accepted behavior by potential candidates for public office, but now it's too close to the edge of acceptability for this American citizen's comfort. The acceptability of gangsterism at present is closer to practice in the Republican Party than it is in the Democratic Party. However, the fear is that not even the Democratic Party is safely above employing gangsterism if it really turns out to be a workable way to successful policy and decision-making in 21st Century American electoral politics!

The most hopeful factor coming out of last Tuesday's off-year elections was that both thievery and violence were lacking.

I believe this is the most fearful time in our history since before the Civil War, but it doesn't have to be ultimately catastrophic! Perhaps the political process itself will soon rectify the apparent hold Donald Trump and his supporters have over the GOP via the possible candidacies of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The ambitions of three men may flush Donald Trump away and, at the same time, minimize what can be called “GOP gangsterism.”  

Back in 2005 when I began writing these columns, I quoted the 1952 Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson when he asserted: "Neither political party has a monopoly of virtue or rascality!"

I've spent most of my life believing that assertion. Right now I'm desperately clinging to it!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

REMEMBER, WE'RE STILL A POLITICAL EXPERIMENT

By Edwin Cooney

When America goes to the polls tomorrow, it appears that such fundamental issues as climate change, equal representation in government, and the rights of women to make personal medical choices will not likely be resolved. The only struggle likely to be addressed is which of the two major political parties will control our national government. The results of tomorrow's election will most likely reflect, more than anything else, the effectiveness of the messages put out by one party's media minions.

Only 246 years have passed since our 13 colonies declared themselves free of Great Britain and merely 233 years have flown by since we established our federal system of checks and balances. We then proceeded to fill a vast continent with largely white Anglo-Saxon peoples. Hence, in comparison with the rest of humanity, be they born in Mesopotamia, China, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain or Britain, we're vastly new at governing ourselves. Of course, for much of the past 200 plus years we've governed ourselves better than most, but the world “turns" and expands and new opportunities for both unity and conflict persist in coming up for our consideration and selection. Never have we possessed so much while at the same time appearing to be on the edge of losing almost everything except a meager disconnected existence. In other words, we may well be on the cusp of a new "dark age" perhaps as bleak as Medieval Europe!

The attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home and husband by 42-year-old David DePape has elements beyond left and right, even beyond wrong and right. What's even more frightening insofar as I'm concerned are questions such as:

(1.) What type of behavior do we expect of ourselves versus what we are willing to tolerate from political leadership?

(2.) How united or divided is America in 2022?

(3.) Does “right” hate “left” and “left” hate “right” so much that human tolerance must be replaced by some form of authoritarianism as long as that authoritarianism is economically profitable?

What's most disturbing is hearing candidates for sheriff, mayor, governor, and the House and Senate promise to take on crime "head on" (whatever that means!) and then minimize the seriousness of the attack on Paul Pelosi!

Government at all levels has to be accountable. Too many leading politicians in 2022 insist on the predominance of freedom over government. The fact of the matter is that freedom without government is anarchy. National freedom demands, as do personal freedom and family obligation, mutually supportive rules and  expectations.

The most dangerous legacy of Trumpism is the expectation that a single leader can be above all law and accountability. It's my hope that some time within the coming months someone is going to force Mr. Trump publicly to demonstrate his obligation of accountability should he be elected to a second term. Since June of 2015, Donald John Trump has appeared to possess a degree of infallibility worthy of the most authoritarian medieval monarch or pope.

The Tuesday off-year election of 1814 solidified the authority of President James Madison in the wake of the War of 1812. On November 8th, 1842, the legitimacy of our first unelected president,  John Tyler, was endorsed along with the legitimate independence of an opposition congress. On Tuesday, November 8th, 1870, the American people elected a congress that supported the establishment of America's new Industrial Age with all its assets and liabilities. In 1898, following victory in the Spanish-American War, Americans adopted President William McKinley's international expansionism. On Tuesday, November 8th, 1910, we elected a new progressivism congress in opposition to President William Howard Taft's conservatism. In 1938, the people put limitations on FDR's New Deal. In 1966, LBJ's authority was checked in the wake of the Vietnam war. Finally, in 1994, the GOP's "Contract with America," in opposition to President Bill Clinton, became a temporary political reality.    

Today, we're on the verge of a new version of what's expected in America's body politic. We could know more after tomorrow although, at the outset, I asserted that was unlikely. Still, tomorrow's election of the entire House and one third of the United States Senate, as practically non-responsive as it may be, will begin to give us a clue to our future.

Remember, our democratic-republican government is only 246 years old while the royal authoritarian-type government has thousands of years of experience. It constantly beckons citizens who have lots of money to rule. Examples include the truly “great” like Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, and England's Henrys.

Next week I'll share with you a most revealing warning sign of that possibility.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY