The Secret Service guarding Laura Bush in 2006 (Image: Chuck Patch)
It’s totally understandable that many people find politics distasteful and pay as little attention to it as possible. Indeed, there is a strong case to be made that it’s the “right” response. Politicians are natural born liars, after all. They tell you one thing and do another, often while their hand is in your pocket looking for your wallet.
There is some level of truth to that. Politicians lie. It’s part of the system, a feature not a bug. You cannot be a successful politician without distorting the truth because people are far more likely to vote for people who tell them what they want to hear than the truth. People who enjoy politics see it as a bit of a game. To them, the intrinsic dishonesty of the system is not disqualifying. We’re all grownups, they say, and that’s how the game is played. Grow up.
The goal of the revamped Daily Music Break is to convince folks who are never or rarely vote to get off the sidelines for at least the next three years. There is a special reason to put up with the artful dodges and clever deflections that have annoyed you in the past.
The assumption is that people should vote for one candidate or the other based on policies. It’s a no-brainer, after all. But not now. Donald Trump and the coalition he has built is not primarily about policy. It is about grievance, cruelty, rewriting history and incivility.
Consider this Associated Press item from late last week:
President Donald Trump has revoked former Vice President Kamala Harris’ Secret Service protection that otherwise would have ended next summer, senior Trump administration officials said Friday.
Former vice presidents typically get federal government protection for six months after leaving office, while ex-presidents do so for life. But then-President Joe Biden quietly signed a directive, at Harris’ request, that had extended protection for her beyond the traditional six months, according to another person familiar with the matter. The people insisted on anonymity to discuss a matter not made public.
A one-off against a particularly bitter foe? Perhaps not:
President Donald Trump said Monday he was ending “immediately” the Secret Service protection details assigned to Democrat Joe Biden’s adult children, which the former president had extended to July shortly before leaving office in January.
The Republican president on social media objected to what he said were 18 agents assigned to Hunter Biden’s protective detail while in South Africa this week. He said Ashley Biden has 13 agents assigned to her detail and that she too “will be taken off the list.”
Not to beat a dead horse, but John Bolton also is facing the world alone or with the level of security he can pay for out of his own pocket. And this is a guy who was the victim of an assassination plot:
U.S. Secret Service protection from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, who became a critic of the president after Bolton’s ouster from the first Trump administration in 2019. Multiple sources told CBS News the decision was made in the past 24 hours.
In case you are wondering, ex-presidents get lifelong protection by law. Otherwise, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama also would be on their own.
Continue reading after the music break…
“White House Blues” is a traditional acoustic blues about the assassination of President William McKinley by an anarchist in Buffalo in 1901. The song has been performed by many artists. This masterful and melancholy version is by John Renbourn, a founding member the legendary British folk band Pentangle. It’s on the great solo album “Faro Annie.”
My favorite verses: “The people they came a running round to see what had been done/You have shot the president down with your Iver Johnson gun/Hard times, hard times” and “The train, well the train, running on down the line/blowing at every station, McKinley is a dyin’ / Hard times, hard times.” Check it out. It’s interesting that a Brit would be able to make such a moving version of a song that so deeply American.
We live in a violent country in a very dangerous world. To run for office in such times demands a level of personal bravery and sacrifice that is beyond most of us. The physical risk to candidates is real, though rarely spoken about. The president himself was attacked twice during the campaign. To increase the danger for these folks once they exit public service is a form of intimidation that is unconscionable.
Nonvoters should consider this. When folks on the left decry the administration for doing such things as cutting nutritional support to children (SNAP), funding for disease research or FEMA, it is possible for supporters to say that such moves are necessary to balance the budget. It’s an extraordinarily weak argument, but an argument nonetheless.
However, there is absolutely no rationale or argument on purposely putting people in danger simply because they ran against or disagreed with you. The word “petty” comes up a lot in the coverage of this topic. It indeed may be petty. But it is far more. It is extraordinarily cruel. It also is the action of somebody acting as a crime boss, not a statesman.
Donald Trump will never run for office. That does not make this point moot, however. Most Republican candidates during the next three years will position themselves as Trump acolytes, confidantes and proteges. Whether they share Trump’s cruel streak personally is irrelevant. Republicans supported it for one of three reasons: they lacked guts to object, speaking out would hurt their electoral prospects – or they are cruel themselves. None of the reasons are acceptable. Not speaking out is deeply un-American. It should be enough to bring you off the sidelines to vote.
