Politics & Rule
Congress was once the proud equal of the executive and judicial branches of our government. Now it stands drained of both power and respect, partly through abdication of its responsibilities and partly through the eager gathering of power by a burgeoning presidency. That phenomenon started with Franklin Roosevelt, and every President since has been unable to resist taking more decision-making responsibility on himself. The power to make war and to decide how our money is spent is no longer the unquestioned province of Congress …
– “Fresh Blood for a Sick Congress,” Life, November 17, 1972, p. 42.
📽️ The last time I saw “Three Days of the Condor,” dir. Sydney Pollack (Paramount, 1975), was long enough ago that I didn’t get as much out of its mid-seventies paranoia about the CIA as I did this time around. Or maybe it just didn’t gnaw away at me like it’s doing now. I grew up in a small rural town, but the grit in that movie pervaded a lot of popular television culture. I also heard my fair share of conspiracy-theory talk during my teens. Besides, the CIA was in the news.
I’m still not sure what to make of the mentality expressed in this film. It’s interesting, in any case, to speculate about how anti-establishment images and paranoia from the period have mapped onto both ends of our political spectrum.
I forgot how many things can be on a NH town and school election ballot. Still more boning up to do, and not a deep enough media scene to lean on endorsements.
Local clergy and faith leaders posted A Call to Justice, Mercy, and Peace (PDF) in our local newspaper yesterday. Its themes have been prominent in the sermons at my mother’s church this year.
This is the kind of messaging that I, an otherwise nonobservant, unbelieving Christian can get behind. I sometimes think that I should get over my own church issues and seek out community there. We certainly share many of the same values and concerns.
💰 I’m old enough to have experienced both stagflation and recession, but never depression. I guess that 🤬🍊💩 is going to give me the opportunity to experience that too. 📉
If Congress doesn’t resurrect itself as a coequal, independent branch of government that doesn’t delegate crucial decisions to the presidency and the judiciary, there will always be another demagogue to tear it all down. This is not a time for legislators who are easily intimidated.
Congress needs to revoke Trump’s tariff authorities NOW.
I’ve been watching a lot of Cory Booker on the Senate floor since yesterday evening (but getting some sleep myself). Good to see the fire in him. I needed this. 🇺🇸🗽
Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes!…
Galileo: No. Unhappy the land where heroes are needed.
– Bertolt Brecht, “Life of Galileo,” in Collected Plays: Five, trans. John Willet (Bloomsbury, 1995), scene 13.
There will be a nation-wide protest on April 5 called Hands Off! Check out the map on handsoff2025.com for a town or city near you. I’m excited because even my town has one. I’ll get to meet locally engaged people. HT Alexander Kern.