My Country, ’Tis of Thee…

Legislative News by Nelda Holder –

It is Thursday evening, March 6.

I am sitting in the dark that has just fallen, having watched the evening news and turned off the television.

The news was … more depressing. More and more and more depressing. People are losing their jobs indiscriminately by the thousands upon tens of thousands because the White House Powers-That-Be decided to send people home indiscriminately. If you are among the last so-many-thousands of people hired, you are simply fired. No cause, other than the insane demand of a multi-billionaire who wears a baseball cap and carries a chainsaw around the high halls of government. The shadow president. Elon Musk.

Don’t worry. We didn’t elect him. So it’s not our fault, right? We—The People. The people who are now the victims of Musk by the authority of the president who WAS elected—just last November. President Donald Trump. He’s the one responsible. The commander in chief, who has decided that “we, the people” offer him the opportunity of a lifetime to play king—or God—and act on any whim, no matter how cruel.

For this is what this president is about. Cruelty. Seemingly for the sake of cruelty alone. Why else would he treat federal workers, elderly Americans, disabled Americans, war veterans, hospitalized Americans, hard-scrabble Americans … like scum? Oh—I know. They ARE scum to this man whose open, pretentious, vulgar display of greedy opulence and private wealth in the face of public need and general wellbeing has tumbled countless people—in five weeks—into instability and mental/physical danger. For what?

You’d best be finding the answer to that. Because in addition to the deeply personal calamities he has imposed on tens of thousands of Americans, and in addition to the safeguards he and Elon have ripped to shreds with the chainsaw, in case you haven’t noticed we are losing allies and friends all over the globe.

The Trump administration’s double-cross, which now threatens our ally, Ukraine, and favors our adversary, Russia, has broadened into a foolish and dangerous gamble affecting our closest friends—primarily the members of the NATO alliance and the countries and people with whom we created a long and lasting and prosperous peace through our World War II alliances and moral backbone (not to mention our closest neighbors—Canada and Mexico).

Moral.

Now there’s a word that seems to have no place in the lexicon of this administration. What is moral about sending thousands upon thousands of honest, dedicated, productive workers home with no more employment? What is moral about disrupting governmental programs that keep our elderly safe; that help educate our children; that lead to medical advances which prolong lives; which preserve our natural heritage and beauty; that track our political safety globally; that feed starving people, that provide medical cures to those otherwise sentenced to early death.

Are you listening out there? If Musk and his tribe of morally illiterate post-teens have the blessing of the president of this country, do you think this is just fine?

Has it hit you yet? Is your grandmother going to ask to live with you because her Social Security has disappeared? Is your child going to contract a life-threatening disease because proven vaccines are frowned upon by the chief medical advisor? Is your ancestor’s grave—and memory—going to be desecrated by an administration that possesses no wisp of personal or patriotic honor? Or bravery?

What could be more important to you right now than seeing that this country, which is approaching its 250th “birthday,” does not lose the liberty and justice for all that was its shining promise as it emerged from the Revolutionary War. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands, in the past five weeks have had their liberty and justice snatched away. Their self-sufficiency as workers and citizens crippled. Their social safeguards chain-sawed to bits.

If this has not yet touched your life—something that is nearly impossible if you think you are a citizen of a democratic society—then give it another day until the stock market rips up your value. Give it another two days until the shattering of our military alliances leaves us vulnerable and twisting in the diplomatic wind. Give it one more week until you go to your own office and find the locks changed; Give it until midnight tonight when your child is suddenly violently ill and the hospital you are counting on has had funding and services cut and that specialist you need, unfortunately, was dismissed from the staff.

I don’t know, really, about you. Maybe it’s easier to just let those sycophants play their games (because you really don’t think it will reach your own life). Maybe you think this current president of this current country knows what’s best for all of us. So once he’s done with these “minor” adjustments then the country (with its economy and sense of wellbeing) will purr like a kitten.

If that’s how a majority of Americans … Americans … truly feel, then I have had the wool over my eyes for a very long time, and every bit of the proud history of overcoming our many cultural/political/ethical flaws in order to seek that “more perfect union” has been just a bunch of hogwash.

But if you really did believe—at some point—in liberty and justice for all, check your pulse to make sure that you still do. Then figure out what you need to do to keep this train on the track towards that more perfect union. I guarantee you—that does not look anything like the meanness, the lack of compassion, that glorification of the few at the expense of the many that we are now going through.

Let’s take our country back.

Oops, the Legislature just made that harder ….

Unfortunately, the North Carolina General Assembly’s Republican leadership is trying to make it harder for our own state to defend itself against the onslaught of unjust dictates and interference on the part of any national administration.

Just as the entire country is being slammed with edicts of questionable merit and often composed by unelected “representatives,” the North Carolina Senate’s Republican lawmakers have chosen to put forward legislation that would ban our duly elected state’s attorney general from suing the US president over questionable executive orders.

Ironically, the lead sponsor of the bill is Sen. Tim Moffitt (R) of Henderson. Moffitt offered the public a choice rationale in a recent interview with the capital city’s WRAL News reporter Will Doran. “Just zero it out,” Moffitt said, referring to any state law giving the attorney general powers or duties. “That way, the attorney general is just a feckless, empty shell who has no ability to do anything.”

Voting along party lines (28-17) on March 5, the proposed ban is now on hold for a second vote. If again approved it will go to the House for a vote. If ultimately approved, the question was raised by Sen. Julie Mayfield (D) of Buncombe County as to what would be done if Jackson used the power of his independently elected office to ignore the prohibition. Moffitt’s response was “Just zero it out”—or, repeal any state law giving the attorney general powers of duty, leaving him or her with “no ability to do anything.”

Why so much vitriol? Perhaps history colors opinions. Doran reports that no Republican has been elected attorney general here since the 1800s. The fact remains, however, that the current General Assembly is no longer ruled by a supermajority in both chambers. So overriding a potential gubernatorial veto of any such “zero it out” would not be a given.

Nelda Holder is the author of The Thirteenth Juror – Ferguson: A Personal Look at the Grand Jury Transcripts.