We Must Do Better

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

I had just gotten off the phone with constitutional scholar Linda Monk.

Linda Monk and I became friends years ago when I invited her on my radio show. She was on my show several times and was always insightful. I initially interviewed her about her book, The Words We Live By, a book on the Constitution. An alternative title would be A Simple, Thoughtful Guide to the Constitution and Why It Is Essential.

Her follow-up book, The Bill of Rights, the User’s Guide, was as excellent and fabulous as the original book. Anyway, I called her to discuss the 14th Amendment.

First of all, let me say that Linda Monk is brilliant. She is a Harvard-trained lawyer. She grew up in the Deep South, which gives her a deep sense of right and wrong. As with all of our conversations, we wandered through recent events. Although I wanted to talk about the fourteenth amendment specifically, we talked about many different things, including gerrymandering in North Carolina. We discussed corrupt Clarence Thomas and his misdeeds. We also discussed the overwhelming flood of legislation that can generally be described as, “I hate you because you are different.”

Our conversation was delightful. It was filled with lots of laughs and information. At the end of the conversation, as I hung up the phone, I felt somewhat depressed. As a progressive, how could you not?

Two steps forward …

Over the past 60 years, progressives have slowly but steadily pushed this country to be kinder, more equal, and more accepting of anyone who is not a white male. We have more equality for women. We have (almost, but getting there) equal pay for women and minorities. We have passed laws that say you cannot discriminate against pregnant women, the LGBTQ community, or anyone because of their religion.

Republicans in many states, including Texas and Florida, have passed laws in the last several weeks to erase all of this. Republicans are trying to tell teachers what they can and cannot teach. They are trying to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. They are even telling teenagers who they are permitted to be in their lives.

It is enough to make you want to throw in the towel. Just shake your head and say it is enough. I am done. But, of course, that is what they want. Republicans want you to throw in the towel. They want us to feel helpless, overwhelmed, and defeated.

I am reminded of that fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman many years ago. Muhammad Ali was nearing the end of his career. George Foreman was a mountain of a man. He had knocked out Joe Fraser and Ken Norton, whom Muhammad Ali struggled to defeat. Not only did Foreman knock them out, but he also knocked them out quickly in the early rounds. From the opening bell, in the Ali-Foreman fight, it appeared that Muhammad Ali was outmatched. Foreman seemed to be landing hard blow after hard blow.

In the third round, Ali employed what would later be called “rope-a-dope.” Muhammad Ali would retreat to the corner and cover-up. He would taunt Foreman (“Is that as hard as you can hit? My mother hits harder!”) and allow Foreman to punch him as hard as possible. The blows would glance off Ali’s arms and shoulders. Foreman had punched himself out by the sixth round. Then in the middle of the seventh round, Ali saw his opportunity against his exhausted foe and countered with a flurry of punches that knocked out Foreman.

We need to be more like Ali. We cannot let these Republican tactics affect us. We must cover up, study our opponent, and wait for our opportunity to strike (not physically). We need to vote!

Extortion

Yes, it is possible to sugarcoat what the House Republicans did with the debt ceiling, but why should we? This was plain and simple extortion. So, while the Republicans controlled the House during Donald Trump’s presidency, they never asked for draconian budgetary cuts. In fact, they raised the debt ceiling three times during his tenure in the White House without nonsense.

The Republican proposal was ridiculous—if you believe that some Americans need help. The GOP proposal cut $3.6 trillion over the next decade to childcare, veterans’ healthcare, medical research, schools, and more. It limited the IRS’s ability to go after wealthy tax cheats. It would not allow Congress to close tax loopholes. It cut spending on healthcare coverage. It decreased food assistance for our most needy families. The worst part was that all these cuts were designed to hurt the economy—and therefore President Biden’s reelection prospects.

Fortunately, President Biden is a better negotiator and smarter politician than any of these Republican House members—maybe better and smarter than most of them put together. He got a deal that, while it’s far from perfect, is even farther from the Republicans’ original proposal. The nation, our economic future, and even the world economy can breathe a sigh of relief.

But avoiding the potential catastrophe of the Republican proposal or, worse, default, brings me back to my opening comment on the 14th Amendment. The fourth section of the 14th Amendment says the validity of public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

So, the question is, can a president—Joe Biden or any president—use this clause in the 14th Amendment to declare the debt ceiling null and void? I know that by using this clause, President Biden and the American economy cannot be held hostage by the House Republicans.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do things. If you want to decrease funding for a particular program, we have a budgetary process in Congress to do so. It is tedious. It is cumbersome. But it can be done. The debt ceiling needs to be eliminated. Just throw it out the window. Invoke the 14th Amendment to save future administrations from this nightmare.

Jean Carroll

As you recall, E. Jean Carroll sued Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. She won a $5 million award against Donald Trump.

She won. She prevailed over Donald Trump. Let that sink in a minute.

Yet, days after the verdict, Donald Trump went on CNN in an ill-advised townhall and spouted the same lies that he has been spouting for the last several years about Ms. Carroll. Ms. Carroll and her lawyers returned to the Manhattan court. They asked for “very substantial punitive damages award in Carroll’s favor to punish Trump, to deter him from engaging from further defamation.” She is right.

Durham Report

For years Donald Trump and his allies called the Mueller report a witch hunt. In order to fight back and prove malfeasance by the FBI and others, Attorney General William Barr, a Trump lapdog, appointed John Durham as a special counsel. John Durham was going to prove that the FBI illegally targeted Donald Trump and his campaign. John Durham was going to prove that there were no connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.

After years of hype, the long-awaited Durham report has been released. It is a nothingburger. Over 300 pages of “the FBI shouldn’t have done this or should not have done that,” but there are no significant indictments. There are no major convictions. Nothing. They couldn’t even blame Hillary Clinton for this one.

In a way, you have to feel sorry for John Durham. He was set up to fail by William Barr. We know that there were connections between Russia and the Trump campaign. Don Junior held a meeting in his office with Russian operatives. Paul Manafort gave campaign polling data to a Russian operative. Roger Stone was convicted of lying to Congress. General Michael Flynn was convicted of lying to the FBI about his meetings with the Russian ambassador.

The latter three of Donald Trump’s political operatives were sentenced to penalties including time in prison for their crimes. Then Donald Trump pardoned all three men.

We have to admit, the Russian investigation was overhyped. Though many people were convicted, progressives were told for months that Trump, too, would be marched out of the White House in handcuffs, any day. That never happened. That was never going to happen. Yet, there is no denying that Russia tried—successfully—to influence the US election through various means, including social media. (We still need to fix social media!)

Gun Violence

May 24 marked the first anniversary of the Uvalde school shooting. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t remember exactly which school shooting this was. There have been so many. This was not the Columbine school shooting. This was not the Parkland school shooting. This was not the Sandy Hook school shooting. Instead, this was the school shooting in a small town outside of San Antonio. This was a shooting in which the police froze with indecision while 19 schoolchildren were murdered. It was yet another shooting involving an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon.

According to Forbes, in the late 1990s, fewer than 100,000 AR-15 and AK-style rifles were manufactured in the United States annually. Now, gun makers crank out over 1 million of these weapons per year. Over 20 million of these weapons of war are in the hands of Americans right now.

One law will not stop gun violence, but a series of laws will. First, of course, is this rule: Elect Democrats. Then demand these changes to our laws:

Enact red flag laws (red flag: if anyone is proven in court to be a danger to themselves or others, their firearms can be temporarily taken by the courts.) This should be a no-brainer.

I know that Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and current GOP presidential candidate, said in her CNN townhall that she is against Red Flag laws. I’m not sure how any sane American can be against Red Flag laws. If an American citizen loses their ability to think rationally, shouldn’t a judge have the power to remove the guns from that citizen until that citizen has regained the capacity to think normally or at least without delusions or hallucinations?

No one under 21 should legally be allowed to own a gun.

Anyone who buys a gun should be responsible for anything that happens with that gun.

Gun owners should be required to have liability insurance.

Every gun purchase, even at gun shows, must be accompanied by a thorough background check.

We need a nationwide gun buyback program.

We need a permanent, nationwide ban on ownership of assault rifles like the AR-15.

Together we can curb gun violence. So far this year, over 16,000 Americans have died secondary to gun violence. There have been 241 mass shootings this year. We must do better.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.