JAZZMAN CHRONICLES: THE LONG WAY HOME
BEYOND
IMPEACHMENT:
THE NEXT PRESIDENT
By Jack Random
In some ways
impeaching a president is easy.
Convicting a president is not.
My answer to that fact is simple and direct: It does not matter whether the president is removed from
office by a two-thirds vote of the United States Senate. What matters is that the case is laid
out in painstaking detail before the American public. We cannot expect the same senate that has summarily
discarded all evidence of the chief executive’s misdeeds to somehow find its
way to do the right thing in the end.
Absent a tsunami of public protest, it will not. But that is no reason for not
undertaking the action.
Let majority
leader and Moscow’s second best friend, Mitch McConnell, wrinkle his face with
that sly grin that tells us all: I
know I’m lying and I’m lying anyway.
Let him tell us it’s a witch-hunt.
Let him face the cameras and proclaim his undying loyalty to the most
corrupt and anti-democratic president in modern history. It will only help us to accomplish the
next step in reclaiming America.
The second
step – an absolute imperative – is electing a new president and one that is not
timid in his or her desire to fundamentally change the political system. We are at a critical time in our
history. We are facing challenges
that will fundamentally alter the way people live not only in America but also
in the world. We do not need and
cannot settle for half way measures and leaders whose greatest ambition is to compromise
and get along. We need a president
who will embrace the challenge and inspire the people to demand necessary
change.
As I write
these words the current crop of presidential challengers is led by Joe Biden,
Barrack Obama’s vice president and a man who behind closed doors promised his
wealthy contributors there would be no fundamental changes under his
presidency. [1] Biden once told
“America’s mayor” Rudy Giuliani his every sentence was a noun, a verb and
9-11. Now it seems Biden’s every
sentence is a noun, a verb and Barrack Obama. Old Joe would easily become the oldest US president at 78 on
Inauguration Day. With all
respect, Biden was prone to gaffs the last time he ran for president – over a
decade ago. Now he has difficult
formulating a cohesive thought.
Even in his
prime Old Joe was a get-along moderate.
There may have been a time for such a leader but that time is not
now. Biden is compromised on
issues of war and foreign policy.
He supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden is compromised on civil rights, civil liberties and
environmental protection. When
you’ve been in politics as long as Biden has and you’ve played the game as he
has done, you look back and realize he’s turn around on virtually every
controversial issue: gun control,
abortion rights, women’s rights, the crime bill, on and on.
No one wants
to attack Old Joe but he left his opportunity on the table when he allowed an
even more compromised candidate in Hillary Clinton to take hold of the party
nomination last time around. It is
too late now. He needs to step
aside even if it takes an attack dog to accomplish it. Be assured Donald Trump, his team of
hacks and his Russian allies would not go easy on him in the general
election.
The country is
in critical condition. Our
democracy is under siege. We have
more weapons of war on our streets than in a war zone. Innocent people are being slaughtered
in churches, taverns, schools and retail outlets. We just experienced the hottest month in recorded history. While the president orders mass
deportations our country is being battered by extreme storms from coast to
coast. While the president locks
kids in cages and laughs at family separations, Greenland is melting and
Florida is sinking into the sea.
We cannot
afford a moderate – aka corporate – Democrat any more than we can afford
another term of Trump. The market
is finally beginning to recognize the utter ineptitude of the Trump
administration. It took George W.
Bush eight years to push the global economy to the precipice of collapse with
his policies of extreme deregulation and tax cuts for the rich. Now it seems Trump may trigger a global
recession in short order. If that
happens we will not need to worry about defeating Trump. Our only concern will be: What comes next?
We need
someone who recognizes the critical nature of the problems we face – not
someone who buries his head in the sand.
We need someone who will reapportion our resources from the military and
corporate profits to the people and their protection. We need someone who recognizes that the earth’s air and
water are being poisoned – not someone who destroys the Environmental
Protection Agency. We need someone
who foresees the future of labor in this country and moves swiftly to a transition
that allows the middle class to exist and expand – not someone who scapegoats
Latin American immigrants.
We need
someone who acknowledges the reality of America’s broken promises and moves to
reclaim the America of our dreams.
We need an America that stands at the forefront of world leadership –
not an America that yields to Vladimir Putin and every other dictator who
either kisses the president’s butt or helps him win an election.
We should be
ashamed of this president. No
doubt. But it is not enough just
to get rid of him. We must replace
him with a president of bold and decisive vision. It is not enough to stop the policies of division and
destruction. We must build new
alliances and rebuild the institutions that fortify and protect our
democracy.
The power of
the presidency is such that the holder of that office can do a great deal of
harm without the consent and support of congress. The president can do very little good, however, without
congress. We must have control of
both houses of congress and the presidency to accomplish what desperately needs
to be accomplished.
Tragically, we
are stuck with a two-party system that has consistently failed the interests of
the people. Most of us realize
that neither party represents our interests – the interests of the working
people, the retired people, the people with medical needs, and all the people
who simply cannot make it on our own.
We have learned to sell out.
We have learned to cast our ballots for the lesser of evils. We know that it is a bargain with the
devil. We know better than to
believe that anyone who gains elective office in this corrupt system will be
beholden to us.
Tragically, it
is not the time to take on the two-party system. That time will come.
But the critical issues of the times – literally life and death,
existence and extinction – force us to work within the system for now. We are fortunate in that there are
candidates who feel very much as we do but also accept the demands of the
times. There are candidates who
refuse to take corporate money.
There are candidates who will not sell out. They have initiated a new method of fundraising that defies
the old method. They rely solely
on individual contributions and absolute transparency.
Bernie Sanders
began the movement in the last election cycle. He went up against the Democratic Party machine and had more
success than anyone imagined possible.
If he had relied on corporate money he would not have been able to
advocate universal healthcare as a fundamental right. He would not have proposed repurposing funds from the
military to the needs of the people.
He would not have been able to pledge Fair Trade in a new era of
international relations. He would
not have demanded living wages for all workers.
These
candidates have begun to have success.
The famed four members of congress whom Trump invited to leave the
country – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna
Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – all adopted the
progressive positions of Sanders, all refused to take corporate money and all
won congressional races against traditional Democrats.
We can only
hope the Squad as they are called represents a movement. We can only hope that all candidates
will be called upon to refuse corporate funds and open up the books on campaign
contributions. For now we must
demand these things of our next president.
Let each of us
decide on our own which candidates to support in the battle to replace Donald
Trump. But let us agree that the
candidate to go up against the most corrupt, vile and inept president in memory
must meet certain prerequisite conditions:
1. The chosen candidate must refuse to
accept corporate contributions. Corporations are not benevolent societies. They do not finance political campaigns
because they believe in democratic principles. They invest in politicians because they expect a return on
their investment. Any candidate
who accepts corporate funding from any source will be beholden to corporate
interests. A candidate who accepts
Wall Street money will fall short when it comes to imposing restrictions on the
recklessness of capital. A
candidate who accepts industrial money will be bound to industrial interests
and that spells doom to climate change initiatives. Any candidate who accepts technology money will hold a debt
to Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook. They will be unable to enact essential controls to protect
privacy and prevent foreign propaganda campaigns from subverting the electoral
process.
2. The next president must support a Green
New Deal. This is no longer an afterthought. It is an imperative. Anyone who belittles the ideas and
idealism of the Green New Deal does not belong in the next government. The Green New Deal is not a legislative
proposal. It is the product of a
brainstorming session. It is a
collection of ideas to forward environmental interests and ultimately save our
species and countless others from extinction. Some of those ideas may seem abstract but overall they
represent a positive vision. The
next president must make it a top priority to transform the fossil fuel economy
into a green economy as quickly as humanly possible. The next president must be dedicated to making America the
global leader in green technology.
The next president must be willing to impose a penalty on any nation
that chooses to ignore the environmental imperative.
3. The candidate must support universal
healthcare as a fundamental human right.
Reforming Obamacare is simply not
adequate. This former Republican
idea – an alternative to universal healthcare – is doomed to death by a million
cuts. It will be challenged in the
courts over and over until it can no longer be sustained. We need an uncompromised approach, a
straightforward application of healthcare without the middleman. Full and free healthcare will eliminate
a multi-billion dollar industry that contributes nothing to the health and
well-being of real people. We can
accept a phase in over five to ten years but we cannot accept another
compromise that leaves the profit motivated insurance industry intact.
4. The next president must have a plan for
rebuilding the middle class. At a time of virtual full employment,
record profits by industry, technology, finance and international
conglomerates, the working middle class is diminishing at an astonishing
rate. Looking backward we can
blame a trade policy that sold out American labor for cheap products made by
cheap labor in China, India, Indonesia and other nations that do not value
labor rights and do not pay fair wages.
All along, the defenders of Free Trade have deflected criticism by
pointing to technology as the real enemy of the working force. Finally, after decades of constant
attack on the wages and benefits of industrial workers, their prediction is
coming true. It is no longer
sufficient to propose Fair Trade without addressing the problem of
robotics. Technology entrepreneur
Andrew Yang has gained traction in the presidential race because people
instinctively recognize that he’s right.
Robots do not demand a living wage. Robots do not care about working conditions or healthcare
benefits. Robots are what
corporations consider perfect workers.
Whomever we elect president must have a plan not only for a new trade
policy that reflects the interests of labor and the environment but also for
the inevitable transition when robots take over the workforce. That would include retraining, relocation
and very possibly a minimum income.
5. The next president must enact a policy
of non-military intervention in foreign affairs. We can no longer afford
these misguided, destructive and counter-productive wars on foreign lands. Past presidents on both sides of the
divide have yielded to the pressure for military intervention. Because we have a military ten times
stronger than anyone else on the planet we have sought to enforce our will with
shock and awe in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Even if we do not consider the horrors of war, the utter
destruction and the loss of life, the resources we have wasted on these
colossal failures is needed to combat climate change and to rebuild
infrastructure. We need a new era
of international cooperation. When
conflicts arise they must be settled through mediation and economic
sanctions. All American presidents
pay lip service to the cause of peace.
All presidents claim war is a last resort. Let the next president finally mean it.
6. The candidate must propose a policy of
humane immigration. At a time of full employment the dirty
little secret is that corporate farmers and meat processing plants, such as
those raided in Mississippi, need migrant workers more than ever. Those are by no means jobs that
citizens are lining up to fill. It’s
hard physical labor. The ugly
rumor is that plants employ the undocumented regularly and encourage periodic
immigration raids so that they don’t have to pay deported workers. Regardless of the circumstances in the
Mississippi raid, the mass deportations, the family separations, the caging and
abuse of children must end. People
seeking asylum in the United States must be treated with respect. Those who have established lives here
and are productive members of our society should be protected and
embraced. They are as much a part
of America as the immigrants that preceded them.
7. The next president must usher in a new
era of civil rights. The current president has done more to
damage race relations in this country than any president since Andrew Johnson. He has appointed judges dedicated to
the proposition that the most pressing civil rights issue is discrimination
against white males. These same
self-perceived victims too often join Neo-Nazi organizations and purchase
caches of automatic weapons. The president
has encouraged their collective sense of victimhood and given them someone to
blame: everyone whose skin is darker than theirs. The Trump administration has refused to enforce voting
rights laws, attempted to use the census to discriminate against Hispanics,
defended partisan gerrymandering and refused to investigate cases of police
bias and abuse. It will take
decades to reverse the damage this administration had done. It must begin on Inauguration Day.
8. The next president must be dedicated to
rebuilding our infrastructure. This president promised to rebuild
America’s infrastructure but his proposal came down to selling our bridges,
parks, highways and energy systems to private interests. No, Mr. President, we don’t want to
sell America. We want to rebuild
it. Our bridges are still
crumbling. Our roads and highways
are in disrepair. Our airports and
energy grid are substandard. Our
mass transit is woefully inadequate.
Many of our workers spend hours daily commuting to jobs in cities where
they cannot afford to live. We can
employ tens of thousands in good union jobs but we must have a president who is
willing and able to lead the effort.
We must be willing to tax Wall Street investors and the corporate elite
to finance a massive undertaking.
9. The next president must enact gun
control. Let it be known once and for all that the National Rifle
Association’s reign over Washington is over. The once all-powerful organization allowed itself to be used
by Russian agents to launder money and channel it to the Republican Party. Just ask Moscow Mitch. The NRA must lose its tax-exempt status
and congress must pass universal background checks, end the gun show and other
loopholes and re-enact the assault weapons ban. The next administration should initiate a buy-back program
so that eventually we can reduce the incredible number of weapons of war
available to whomever wants them.
10. The next president must bring honor,
dignity and strength of character to the office of the presidency. The
current inhabitant of the White House is to honor and dignity what Mozart is to
Rock and Roll. The president of
the United States cannot be someone who invites members of congress to go back
to where they came from. The
president cannot be someone who finds moral equivalence between Neo-Nazis and
those who protest against white nationalism. The president should not be someone who labels a free press
the enemy of the people. The
president should be someone who can be trusted at least generally to speak the
truth. The president should not be
someone who refers to African nations as “shit-hole” countries. It should not be difficult for a
president to act presidential.
It has often
been said that the citizens of this nation do not have much of a choice, that
all the candidates are beholden to big money interests and that both parties
answer to the same corporate masters.
I have said as much myself.
But this time we do have candidates that fulfill all ten criteria. This time there is a choice. Donald Trump is a unique individual and
a uniquely dangerous president.
Whether you believe he is beholden to Russian and Saudi interests or
not, whether you believe he is in the pocket of the wealthy, he is a president
who does not value science or knowledge.
He is a president who is wildly unpredictable. He is a president who praises dictators and autocrats. He is a president who is deliberately
sabotaging any chance of containing the damage from global climate change. He is a president who is deliberately
dividing the people.
Nothing can be
accomplished in a positive direction until this presidency is ended. Little can be accomplished if the next
president’s boldest promise is a return to normalcy. A great deal can be accomplished if the next president
represents a bold vision of change.
Jazz.
1. “Joe Biden to rich donors: ‘Nothing
would fundamentally change’ if he’s elected.” By Igor Derysh.
Salon. June 19, 2019.
Jack Random
is a novelist, sometime playwright and poet, and political essayist. His works include the Jazzman
Chronicles, Wasichu: The Killing Spirit and Pawns to Players: The Chess
Trilogy. He is currently writing a
political guidebook, The Long Way Home: Reclaiming America (Crow Dog
Press).
