He Thinks Everything Belongs to Him Now

The National Guard has distributed itself throughout our nation's capital with one crucial task: Picking up the garbage.

There's too much crime there, we've been told. Well, yes, there always has been. If there's been some crime, there's been too much. As elsewhere. 

We need to go back a few years. Back, as it were, to Term One of Awfulness, when 47 was 45 and connected to DC but not vice versa. He dealt with it and the environs of the White House kind of like a new plaything. I wonder if he wanted to stay away from it more than Mar-A-Lago, if for no other reason than a fuzzy declaration that he didn't need it to be president. At any rate, he didn't change the atmosphere all that much, though something kept telling you that he wanted to.

Before we begin, a reminder: Whatever he does is going to be dreamt up by him alone, the credit for which is always completely all his. Regardless, the effects are his, for himself and himself alone. This, I hope, makes it easier to understand, never mind any connection to decent purpose or ethics or sound thinking.

It's unquestionably true, though, that the above attitude has now pivoted. He hangs around the capitol much more than he used to for anyone of the following reasons: He's simply older and lacks as much energy than he used to have; as the size of his government has gone down, his control of it has gone up; and he wants to leave his mark on everything people can actually see so people remember him, supposedly (but certainly not universally) for good reasons, just ask him. 

Thus, he has seized the Kennedy Center and will alter the selections to honor people altogether; he has demanded that the Rose Garden, once a place of peaceful gatherings, be flattened by concrete; and (although this has not worked to the best of my knowledge) the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to something designed to transfer ownership somehow, like the Gulf of America.

Hence, it becomes (to him) not too big to seize control of the entire federal territory and make it into his possession, replete with designation and faux significance that's genuinely his. This wouldn't necessitate overwhelming it with National Guard units, but something happened as he oozed his way back into town. I can only guess, but I'll bet it was something like this:

Remember when the Rodney Strong demonstrations rocked DC? Not only were the cops called out to stop riots that never really started (yeah, there were a few busted windows, but still not exactly Detroit in '67; now that was a riot), but 45 decided he had to make a public showing of strength by waltzing across Lafayette Park, hard by the White House grounds, stand in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, where many presidents (but not him) attended services, and wave an upside down copy of the Bible at the cameras, reassuring the MAGA faithful that he, and God (just about in that order) were still in control here. And that was that.

Onward beyond two elections, one of which he actually lost and then cajoled his minions to try to overthrow the government's token efforts to rubber stamp the Electoral College. Filled with lyrics of "the boys are back in town," he now needs to hang around longer and thus make the surroundings those of which he's comfortable--thus, for instance, $200M to redo a ballroom that he'll use, maybe, three times in four years, I'm betting. But there came forward something else.

He's just learned it, I'll speculate, because he had four years to point that out last time, and either the knowledge or the realization of it escaped him: The specter of the homeless on DC streets. Someone has recently, and I mean within the last month or so, told him although he's seen little of it, the streets of our sacred capitol are fairly crawling with ragged, destitute people who ought to be somewhere else, anywhere else, just out of his sight.

Some have been raised in DC. Some have not and have traveled probably from the Midwest or Northeast, where the weather's far more disagreeable. There are grates on some of the downtown sidewalks, out of which warm air emerges at times. They can be found sleeping there inside those workout sleeping bags.

They can also be spotted sleeping on benches in the many public parks of the city. One of them,  McPherson Square, is steps from a Metro stop and just a few blocks from Lafayette Park. Down a little way to the east is Franklin Square. Late at night, there are homeless with or without sleeping bags, trying to get a little shuteye. They seem to mean no harm. I never saw one even solicit money or food. But there they are. The homeless shelters are full. They have nowhere else to go.

I have no doubt that this bothers 47 no end, he of the overdone opulence about which he demands. Crime is down in DC by all measurements, but that doesn't stop him in the least. If he knows about disheveled existences messing up what has now become his city, he will deal with it as dealing with a cold with a blowtorch. There will be nothing left of it, no reminders, and certainly no compassion. But a better look.

Characteristically, the National Guard is focusing on the mostly black parts of the Northwest part of the district, the more prestigious and certainly the part with the most money. An MSNBC film shot was made near the corner of 14th and U Streets, NW, the area where the black businesses are best established. His claim of going to extreme measures to stop extreme crime waves will probably be met with partial caring, but overall, delayed neglect that white liberals often exhibit toward blacks--caring, but diminishing as it becomes part of a larger effort that people need to get serious about. What is not mentioned is the blackest part of the city, the part that lies east of the Anaconda River. But he is not threatened by that. He doesn't see it, so it's not there.

Brown-nosing to the max, three state governors--South Carolina, West Virginia, and Ohio--have pledged to send some of their National Guardsmen to the scene of pseudo-chaos. Looks like they'll be visiting DC soon. I mean, why else would they do that? Are they worried about being in danger? Don't they have their own states to protect? Or are they overenrolled?

No matter. 47 is there, so he cares more than he would normally do, which is not at all. He can't possibly be identified with anything bad, not that it matters all that much if he stops it, but if it's attached to him in some way that only he can determine.

Besides, it's his city, his national buildings once belonging to the national government. So he takes over the Kennedy Center because he's otherwise afraid of getting booed if he goes to anything there. It's an open signal for those on the right to attend and pay extravagant fees for doing so. (I went a couple of times while I lived there, and while it wasn't cheap, neither was it exclusively for the excessively opulent.)

He threatens the governors of California, Illinois, and New York with National Guard takeovers of San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City as well. At some point, there will be a showdown. Someone has to take this monster to court and slow him up. But at what point will he stop heeding a negative ruling? Will checks and balances endure? Will federalism slow down his train to nowhere?

That moment is imminent. He thinks everything belongs to him now; consider the opulent, gaudy remake of the Oval Office, unreflective of anything except what he wants, at this very moment. This is the detritus of neglect, apathy and sycophants. Consider, also, next steps.

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark

Portraits of Great, and Other, Americans

Heather Cox Richardson, professor of history at Boston College, entered the pantheon of people who have been privileged (as I'm sure she saw it, too) to read the lines from Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" at Tanglewood last night. She joined an impressive review of personalities who have also performed it: Gregory Peck, Adlai Stevenson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Osgood, Coretta Scott King, Danny Glover, Henry Fonda, Barack Obama, Gen. Normal Schwartzkopf, even Margaret Thatcher, to name just a few.

That above group includes me, who certainly doesn't belong in the same category of prestige. I was asked by Brian O'Keefe, director of the Cedarburg High Orchestra, to perform it in concert our fairly new entertainment center back in 2001, probably because I had gained membership on the NEA Board of Directors and carried sufficient weight to do so. It was fun to do, and I appreciated the opportunity.

I considered it a privilege, too, and an honor. I practiced my fanny off. I wanted the words to be impressive more than any performance I could add. As usual, Lincoln's words, taken from various speeches, carried the day.

The piece's origins are noted in a biography of Copland written by a University of Houston music professor, Howard Pollack. It was composed in 1942, when the country looked around for something to hang onto as the Axis seemed ready to pounce on the U.S. and the rest of the world and enslave it. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the conductor Andre' Kostelanetz, in preparing for a summer tour, commissioned the playwright Jerome Kern, the composer Virgil Thomson, and Copland to write works that would present a "musical portrait gallery of great Americans." 

Kern and Thomson opted for literary figures, but Kostelanetz suggested to Copland that he should try a statesman like Lincoln. Copland, said Pollack's book, was astonished that "Lincoln Portrait" became one of this best-known compositions. He said it was written to address an emergency; I wonder if he would express that sentiment now as well. If you've ever heard it, you know its powerful impact.

The thing about Lincoln's words is that they endure. Drop them into place today, and you stare at a prophet way-way beyond comprehension. "Fellow citizens," Copland quotes him at the start of the piece, "We cannot escape history." That was taken from his State of the Union (what was left of it) Address in 1862, at a point at which it appeared that the Confederacy would in fact win its battle for independence--and the perpetuity of slavery on the continent. 

He goes on: "We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation." Just as true today as then. There's plenty of dishonor to go around, too: Not only from those who abandoned democracy and shunted it into the ditch, but those who also let them get away with it: the major networks, the Supreme Court, nearly everyone significantly connected with the Republican Party, for instance. They know they're on the wrong side of our history, but they believe, as others believed likewise throughout history, that this time they'll get it right and they'll run the show forever. But forever is a long time, and their dishonor will cloak them instead.

We have been here before, but there are important differences: some seventy-odd years ago, it was fear of communism and the rise of demogoguery, led by Joe McCarthy (from my home state, sadly); he had the power of Congressional investigation, a spinoff of the House Un-American Activities Committee, that he manipulated to gain the pulpit and humiliate others. That was bad enough, but one embarrassing moment for him brought him down, and with that momentum, the Senate censured him and he faded into the maelstrom of alcoholism. 

Copland also fell prey to anti-communist investigations. He was a kind of textbook example, having been a "fellow traveler" in the 1930s with other artists and performers who idealistically sided with the Soviet revolution in desiring the nation to get itself through the Great Depression. He sided with actors who called themselves The Group, made up of such later stars as Karl Malden, John Garfield, and Franchot Tone. They were unabashed communists at one point; Copland went to meetings but never declared himself as such. He was also a member of what was called The Composers Collective; while there, "he puzzled over the question of finding a musical style appropriate to the Marxist Revolution,"wrote Pollack. 

McCarthy worked Copland over for two hours in his Un-American Activities quest. It was futile, as many of his inquiries were; they had little more effect than to ruin lives with negative publicity. That Copland not only survived the attacks but thrived afterwards was remarkable, but was the man who also went out of his way to compose pieces that glorified the American plains and the simple people who lived on them: "Rodeo," "Fanfare for the Common Man," and "Appalachian Spring," among others. A more genuine American musician could not be found, and maybe still can't. HUAC tried to pin subversiveness on him with their lies and innuendoes, with trying to brand him as "subversive," and they couldn't do it. Copland remains one of our best composers despite attempts to cast him into shadows.

Today's demogoguery is far worse, for it is led by a person with ultimate, overriding (Thanks to the Supreme Court) power, which allows 47 to do what he pleases without accountability. Reference to a president's "core duties" made by John Roberts in the fateful decision is a gossamer thin covering allowing the monster to roam as he pleases, with no logic or precedent applied, to satisfy only him in vengeance against real or pretended political foes. He has the pulpit, too, and we know how much he is manipulating it with lies. His words will be remembered, too, as signposts to others to be aware of how, if you don't do your homework, you can be taken in by all this nonsense.

There will be no relent of this, either. The right wing doesn't stop until their goals are met to their satisfaction, not anyone else's. They will stop at nothing. The Congressional Republicans use the deity to justify their support, too, though no deity would possibly support this. This, I believe, will take much longer to overcome because the attitudes that formed it will not disappear when 47 does. An appreciation of democracy, when it diminishes, does not spring back up like someone does out of bed after the flu passes. This national illness will linger.

I am waiting for Heather Cox Richardson, who writes and nationally publishes a history-based blog almost daily, done with impeccable research, to come into 47's crosshairs. She is one of the few unfettered foes of 47 left who has not been attacked with utter abandon. But 47 has all the time he needs now, and plenty of advisors who will pick her out the rest of the crowd for ugly attention. He will accuse her of treason, mock her findings, and make up lies and innuendoes that will be impossible to refute. He will mount the pulpit and try to humiliate her, in response to facts she has included in her writings that he cannot deny--though as we know, he doubtless will.

We should anticipate this. Copland and Richardson are great Americans; McCarthy and 47 are not. We need to keep them in proper channels. We will need to remember Richardson as one of those still brave, still determined, still believing enough in the promise of America rather than the cynicism of those who ply it only for their own gain. 

She will defend herself, I'm sure, but a public outcry will be necessary. She has done so much for us to clarify the impact of the past. We should be the wind at her back when these awful people come after her. He will try to smear a great American; he must not succeed. Let me continue Lincoln's comments above featured in "Lincoln Portrait": "We, we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility."

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark