It is hard to comprehend the fallout from the chaos that is being wrought by the federal government.  The mandate that President Trump claimed after the last election was due to the perception that the electorate accepted him and his platform with clear knowledge of all of the issues and the ram ifications of how he and his party would approach them. I don’t know if that sweeping a mandate has ever been the case, no matter who is elected to a national position.  Perhaps I am a bit jaded on this subject, but those that orchestrate the campaigns of any candidate make me feel that they are offering us candidates who will appear to be all things to all people.  Spinning the issues and marketing an image are techniques that may be the way that such things go on a national level.  They leave me unconvinced of political mandates and wary of promises and hidden agendas. Robert Kennedy said that politics is the art of “getting things done.”  But getting things done in government has to be, must be, orchestrated within the processes written into our Constitution and if I may be so bold to say, on a sense of moral justice and compassion. History tells us that George Washington was offered the position of King and he rejected it in favor of a government designed with checks and balances to prevent the heavy hand of autocracy.  As this new administration proceeds, fulfilling its promises to the electorate, how does it measure up? How do we reconcile the imposition of tariffs that will only further damage our international relationships and raise prices at home?  What do we do when thoughtless firings of federal employees across the board, sometimes obliterating entire services negatively affecting our economy? How do we reconcile these bogus attempts at saving money when these firings compromise our healthcare and that of those who have come to depend on our largess in poor countries as well as damage our relationships in the international community that have held us in good stead for many years?  Can you look those who were fired in the face and explain this? How do 20-something drones inexperienced on any level of life skills and government, directed by an unelected oligarch, make decisions that have already cost lives around the world and the livelihood of dedicated public servants?  When 30,000 federal employees are furloughed, how does this affect the services they performed?  Social Security?  Medicare? Medicaid? Cancer and Alzheimer’s research, nuclear armaments…on and on? And how to we explain the boorish, almost middle school behavior of the top two members of the Executive branch of government in a meeting with the President of Ukraine?  I can’t explain what I saw, what you saw. I also know that you saw the attack on the capital on Jan. 6.  I know that you saw the Capital Policy force attacked with everything from Mace to broken fencing, heard chants “Hang Pence”, the Vice President tarred by those who wanted him to violate his oath. People died because of this insurrection. We demanded justice.  It followed, and perpetrators caught, tried and sentenced.  Then in the spirit of “getting things done” the new president pardoned all of those so tried and sentenced. And, of course, we have Congress with the power of the purse and the courts to interpret the law, but the current executive branch is simply ignoring authorized funding by Congress as well as court verdicts, often firing judges who rule against executive orders. Checks and balances? So, what do we do when we see that getting things done transforms our process of checks and balances into the wand of the pretender to the throne?  What do we do when the reins of government are becoming reign of one person and his cadre of billionaires many of whom have publicly advocated the destruction of our government? I was in Italy about 10 years ago and as part of our tour we visited an American cemetery that swept up over the hills for miles, a cemetery in which lay the bodies of the dead American soldiers who fought the fascist governments of Mussolini and Hitler.  Sons and daughters of the middle class who gave their lives for our Constitution and the democracy that it provides. Theirs was the fight that created the idea of American Exceptionalism, an idea that is being challenged by the new executive branch of government.   I cannot help but believe that their sacrifices are affirmed or not affirmed by the value we put on the process here now. George Bernard Shaw said, “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.”  Democracy is work.  There is a price to be paid to live in a democracy. There, over those Italian hills, was the promise of our Constitution writ in blood, in the pain of war and the loss of loved ones for something that we held so dear. It is up to us to determine if democracy is worth the price they paid. How do we measure the value of democracy, the allegiance to the letter and spirit of the Constitution?  Is it the price of eggs?  The sale of citizenship for $5,000,000? Is it the refusal to be bamboozled by trumped up issues and snake oil promises of empire and the profligate destruction of services on which we depend to live the life we enjoy under the Constitution. It is our choice. ...read more read less