Lynne Stevens
Let’s end the hand-wringing, tears, finger-pointing, emotions, get to work and figure out what the heck happened to the Democratic message that was not heard.
Perhaps voters heard it and did not feel it addressed their concerns. I would say that is obvious. Over the next few months, there will be more data to look at. Polling exit interviews will be analyzed as the quest for voter motivation becomes increasingly crystallized.
The recent picks to run the government are difficult to comprehend, unless there is an understanding that our current government and its Constitution and Bill of Rights are going look very different. This is what the people voted for. The real question is, what are the consequences – unintended or otherwise – to such dramatic changes in the way courts try to interpret law with so many unknowns?
How will current law professors teach law students with the near elimination of reliance on foundational court cases such as Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, which had long been considered settled law? The very basis of our legal system appears on shaky ground with the loss of decades of law that guides the stability that holds the system together. The current nominee for attorney general, Matt Goetz, may or may not get in – but no matter. The mindset for this nomination is a blue print for any other.
Health and human services encompasses many sub-agencies, including the national agency of allergy and Infectious disease.
This was the former Trump administration’s much-maligned agency that existed under COVID. They have been sending out warnings about evolving pathogens and are the watchdogs when they see a new form of pathogen that could take hold.
These agencies employ highly-educated experts in how dangerous pathogens take hold. It is their lives’ work and these professionals take their work like millions of lives depend on them – and as we saw in COVID.
The head of this massive agency should have a background in managing an agency of this size and complexity. Health and human services fluently speaks the language of science. The current nominee – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – has no such background, nor an understanding of infectious disease or how a virus mutates into a dangerous health emergency.
It is difficult to understand how voters could put the rest of us who were paying attention to what Trump said at such risk.
The bi-partisan Chips and Science Act may be cut. We import twice as many hi-tech chips from (sometimes) not-friendly foreign sources than we produce here (Observatory of Economic Complexity). According to “Capacity Media,” Trump has threatened to cut the program. While on the Joe Rogan podcast, Trump said tariffs put on foreign chip makers would have them building their factories here for nothing (NetworkWorld.com).
There are many Republicans in Congress who hopefully have the integrity to take their oath of office to the Constitution and not one man.
A real leader does not look at what they can take, but what they can give.
Lynne Stevens writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. She can be reached via email, geminga@mailfence.com.