The government of the
greatest country the world has ever known, the wealthiest, most powerful nation
on the planet: closed until further notice.
This shutdown – hundreds
of thousands of our fellow Americans working without pay during the holidays,
basic government functions no longer available to the taxpayers who fund them –
didn’t have to happen. The Senate passed a compromise government funding bill
two days ago, 100–0. The men and women who can’t agree on what to name a post
office were able to unite and unanimously agree on how to fund the entire
government.
But maybe it was
intended to happen.
Maybe in the face of an
investigation that seeks the facts surrounding allegations of collusion with a
foreign government and obstruction of justice within our own government… as one
aide after another pleads guilty… as the stock market tumbles… as men and women
intent on keeping their dignity and their conscience flee his administration…
perhaps the President calculates that by adding to the blizzard of bizarre
behavior over the last two years and shutting down the government at Christmas,
while his own party still controls each branch of it, the institutions that we
need for our democracy to function (and to ensure no man is above the law) will
be overwhelmed.
From a President who
promised action, we got distraction.
But my concern for the
country goes beyond the immediate pain and dysfunction that this shutdown will
cause. Beyond even ensuring that this President is held accountable. What’s
happening now is part of a larger threat to us all.
If our institutions no
longer work, if we no longer have faith in them, if there’s no way to count on
government even functioning (three shutdowns this year alone), then perhaps
ultimately we become open to something else. Whatever we choose to call it,
whether we openly acknowledge it at all, my fear is that we will choose
certainty, strength and predictability over this constant dysfunction, even if
it comes at the price of our democracy (the press; the ballot box; the courts;
congress and representative government).
If there were ever a man
to exploit this precarious moment for our country and our form of government,
it’s Trump. Sending 5,400 troops to U.S. border communities during the midterm
elections. Organizing Border Patrol “crowd control” exercises in El Paso on
election day. Defying our laws by taking children from their parents, keeping
kids in tent camps, turning back refugees at our ports. Calling the press “the
enemy of the people” and celebrating violence against members of the media.
Pitting Americans against each other based on race and religion and immigration
status. Inviting us to hate openly, to call Mexican immigrants rapists and
criminals, to call asylum seekers animals, to describe Klansmen and neo-Nazis
as very fine people. Seeking to disenfranchise fellow Americans with made up
fears of voter fraud. Isolating us from the other great democracies as he
cozies up to dictators and thugs. Lying again and again. Making a mockery of
the United States – once the indispensable nation, the hope of mankind.
So we can engage in the
immediate fights about blame for this latest shutdown… fall into his arguments
about a wall, or steel slats, at a time of record border security and in the
face of asylum seekers – our neighbors – fleeing the deadliest countries in the
world… we can respond to his name-calling and grotesque, bizarre behavior… or
we can pull up, look back at this moment from the future and see exactly what
is happening to our country.
We are at risk of losing
those things that make us special, unique, exceptional, those things that make
us the destination for people the world over, looking for a better life and
fleeing countries who lack our institutions, our rule of law, our stability.
If ever there was a time
to put country over party it is now. This is not about a wall, it’s not about
border security, it’s not about Democrats and Republicans. It’s about the
future of our country – whether our children and grandchildren will thank us or
blame us. Whether we will lose what was fought for, made more perfect, by the
men and women who risked and lost their lives at Antietam, on Omaha beach, in
Jackson, Mississippi… whether we will be defined by greatness and ambition or
pettiness and fear. Whether we will continue to live in the world’s greatest
democracy, or something else.
In the short term –
let’s pass the funding bill that was agreed to by the Senate 100–0 just a few
days ago. Send it to the President with the confidence that we represent the
people of this country and that we are willing to override his veto if he
cannot respect their will. Show that government can work, that we can see past
our immediate differences to serve the greater good. To put country over party.
To put country over one man. To do what we were sent here to do.
In the longer term – we
must strengthen all of our institutions at the very moment they are called into
question. Some clear opportunities for Congress: Ensure that our
representatives in government reject PAC money, corporate and special interest
influence. Demand that they hold town halls in our communities, listen to and
respond to their constituents. Show America that they are working for us and
for no one else.
Take action on the most
urgent issues of our day: climate change, healthcare, endless war, income
inequality, immigration, the vibrancy of rural communities and inner cities,
education and criminal justice reform. Define the goal in each area, build the
coalition to achieve it, find the common ground (between parties, between
branches of government), and move forward. Prove that our system of government
– whatever its problems – is still the best thing under the sun.
It’s action vs.
distraction. One will save our democracy, the other will lead to its end.
- Beto
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