As an antidote to Halloween's political ghouls, here is The Resistant Grandmother's (TRG) celebration of "All Saints Day" (Week) and the people, places, and things that can get us through the night.
A tip of the hat to another holiday with a penchant for the dead...interesting!
Happy All Saints Day Week to TRG’s loyal readers.
TRG was still working on this posting Nov. 1 (“All Saints Day”), so I’m extending our recognition of that Nov. 1 “holy day” over the next seven days!
As many of you know, but for those who don’t, the feast of All Saints comes to us courtesy of the Christian Church. The early Church understood that its recent Celtic converts were not about to give up their very, very awesome pagan feast of Halloween. So, allowing its pagan-to-Christian parishioners to still have their fun while focusing now on their new Christian teachings, the Church created a holy day antidote, “All Saints Day,” strategically placed immediately after Halloween. And it added clout to the occasion by deeming it a holy day of obligation, meaning Christians had to attend mass on that day upon penalty of sin.
Both holidays were similar in that they fixated on the dead. But the Christian version focused on the (somewhat) more upbeat notion of the Christian dead now being with God in heaven, instead of roaming around two-four times a year during the spring and autumn equinoxes and summer and winter solstices. Equinoxes and solstices, as Celtic pagans saw them, were transition periods when dead spirits could shake off their deathly chains and revisit the earth, scaring people or just plain ticking them off (see Dickens’
A Christmas Carol, informed from these traditional Celtic beliefs).
So TRG is going to use All Saints Day in its canonical sense of being something happy and good for society. But instead of celebrating the dead, TRG is using this posting to pay tribute to the living--people, places, or things among us that provide happiness and hope for the future. And, boy, do we need that…
Unlike my list of political ghouls, fiends, and goblins from a few days ago, I have listed the following items alphabetically, not ranking them from good to very best. Who or which of the following is very best in your life remains up to you. I also invite you to share your choices in the comments section
of this post.
BLUE STATES: Hats off to reliably blue California, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine! And welcome back to the fold Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania--states that faithfully had been Blue but then went over to the Dark Side, voting for Trump in 2016 and too often for Republican governors in the last 20 years.
At this point I must say a fond farewell to Virginia, as it seems to have fallen for the Republican Party’s latest fraud scheme about “critical race theory.” Typically, like the “caravans of immigrants barreling toward the southern border” until they didn’t and never had, the GOP has manufactured another hoax to distract voters from its non-agenda or real agenda that would scare them if it were known. Unfortunately, enough Virginia suburbanites swallowed the GOP’s snake oil to give Youngkin the win.
(The Resistant Grandmother, a now-retired high school literature teacher of nearly 15 years, has begun working on a “critical race theory” posting to be out sometime soon. The reliably dishonest GOP, devoid of policy agendas that actually help people, has latched on to “critical race” as a centerpiece for bamboozling future voters. So, stay tuned.)
Personal wealth: In addition to collectively having many of the largest population centers (NYC, LA, San Fran, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, Denver, Minneapolis, Baltimore, etc.) Blue States possess on average the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person--$58,194--compared to $48,725 per person in Red States. According to the Washington political news publication The Hill, “The economic divergence between red and blue states is staggering--and growing rapidly. While income and education levels are increasing at a swift rate, they are stagnant or declining in red states, which is a recipe for disaster.”
Blue states give; Red states receive. According to a May 12, 2020 report in Forbes magazine:
“Red states have been long standing recipients of federal dollars. A report published by the Rockefeller Institute of Government estimates the distribution of federal receipts and expenditures across all fifty states...
“New York State had a balance of payments deficit of close to $22 billion,
meaning it sent more in tax payments than it got back in federal spending in
2017; this equates to getting back only 90 cents for every dollar it gives.
Kentucky, on the other hand, had a balance of payments surplus of over $45
billion; this equates to taking $2.41 for every dollar it gave to the
federal government.”
If crime is your barometer, Blue States do better here, too, in spite of the
bad rap big cities like NYC and Chicago have with Red state diehards,
according to applied science.com. The same site says crime dips nationally
during Democratic presidents such as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
Conversely, crime rates rise under the harsh economic philosophies of
GOP presidents.
Murder’s the worst crime, and of the highest murder per capita
rate, all five are Red States, in order of occurrence: Louisiana,
Alaska, Mississippi, Missouri, and Alabama. (Strange, Trump never
threatened to send federal troops to those states.)
How about the next most heinous crime--rape? Of the top states with
the highest rape statistics, the majority are reliably red: Alaska,
Arkansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and Oklahoma. The
three Blue States on the list were Michigan, Nevada, and Colorado.
And crimes against property--Burglary, for one?
Seven of the top ten states with the highest burglary rates are Red:
Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Blue States New Mexico,
Washington, and Nevada were also on the list--all statistics
from WorldPopulationReview.com.
And education? According to Business Insider as quoted on
medium.com, the following most highly educated states voted for
Joe Biden:
Most Educated States in U.S.--all voting for Biden:
California
Washington
Oregon
Colorado
Illinois
Virginia
New Jersey
Connecticut
Rhode Island
Delaware
Conversely, the following lowest-educated states voted for Trump:
Arkansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Alabama
Kentucky
West Virginia
Interestingly, West Virginia gave Trump the highest vote margin in 2020--38.9 percent—and has the lowest higher education rate in the country at 20.6 percent.
TRG Summary: In comparison to Red states, Blues enjoy greater wealth, more people with college educations, and lower crime. Plus, Blue states give more money to the federal government, which the U.S. uses to help (some would say “bail out”) Red states.
LIZ CHENEY: TRG has never been a big fan of Dick (see Iraq War) and Lynne Cheney. But they must have done something right in raising their eldest daughter. (I don’t know much about her sister Mary other than she is a married gay mother of two and involved in Republican PACs.)
By rights, the Cheney family’s deep roots in Republican politics could have earned Liz the option, as Wyoming’s only Congressional representative, of just going along to get along during the entire stretch of Trump’s presidency. But I’m guessing Lynne Cheney’s outspoken nature groomed Liz to believe she not only had the right, but the obligation to stand up to Trump’s brand of BS. For a Cheney, the expectation of having to bend a knee to a lying, clown-like, and yet incandescently dangerous brute was probably just a bridge too far for Republican royalty like Cheney, even though as a loyal Republican she supported most of his policies. But his attempted coup d’etat…well, that was the last straw.
Whatever her motives, Cheney and Republican colleague Adam Kinzinger from Illinois were the only GOP representatives refusing to abet Trump’s insurrection, such as denying it ever happened, and agree to serve on the House select committee to investigate it.
As such, Cheney is fearlessly peeling back the rotten onion of her party’s complicity in Trump’s sedition. Think of it: she could have devolved into liars like California’s McCarthy and Steve Scalise from Louisiana who refuse to say Joe Biden won the presidency and to this day stand by Trump in supporting all the ex-president’s lies, present and past.
But in every public statement, Cheney does not hold back from speaking the truth: that Joe Biden won, the 2020 election was the most fair and honest in recent history, and that Trump was inches away from overturning democracy and so should be investigated. And for the rarity and bravery of that simple conduct, Cheney sits high on TRG’s all saints list.
STEPHEN COLBERT: TRG could not have survived the last five years without Colbert’s live, then virtual, then live again late-night shows. His competition--Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon--are funny pros, too, and capable of sending up excellent barbs against the 45th president. But what I most related to is a sense of satiric humor which is also anchored in a deep-seated patriotism: Colbert demonstrated a genuine effrontery over how Trump was ruining the country.
When in November 2020 Trump refused to accept election results and made a sneering, snarling, lying on-camera claim from the White House that the election was rigged, Colbert, as I, was deeply saddened and insulted. Here Trump was, president of the United States, telling his country and the world that America’s election results were crooked--a system fought and died for by millions both at home and abroad over the last 240+ years. It was a stain on a country that’s looked up to by most current and would-be democracies as a beacon of hope.
Colbert’s commentary was scathing, but also emotional--tearing up while saying that, while he had expected Trump to pull a stunt like that, he had not realized it would “hurt so much.” TRG could and did relate.
And Colbert’s opening skits can knock your socks off for their astute political assessments shrouded within their finely honed lunacy In June 2020 when TRG and the rest of us were subjected to Trump rally after Trump rally reminiscent of Nuremberg, rural American style, Colbert’s opening bit on the failure of the rally in Tulsa, OK. was life-saving. Using footage from the film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s iconic “Oklahoma”--a happy scene just after the marriage of the Shirley Jones and Gordon Macrae characters, Colbert’s people dubbed in some new lyrics celebrating Trump’s Tulsa rally flop, sung to the play/movie’s signature song:
“O-kla-hom-a where the crowd turnout was really lame,
And the empty seats were there to greet
a man who’s probably insane!
O-kla-hom-a where the speech went horribly awry,
But thanks to Tik-Tok fans and K-Pop stans
the upper decks were bluer than the sky!”
After that episode, I began to feel more hopeful...if Trump could be skewered that expertly and side-splittingly well, the tide must turn or be turning. Who among Trump’s circle of lying PR types could combat something like that?
During the pandemic, Colbert managed to keep the laughs rolling, in spite of the absence of a live audience. And his 28-year marriage to the same lovely woman, Evelyn, who served as co-host; his three intelligent children, some of whom filled in as production team members; his sharp, creative staff who can write with an eye and ear for the news like seasoned reporters, but also with a cutting, bizarre sense of humor—all worked together like a uniquely entertaining, well-oiled machine. Even his out-of-control dog Benny whose various appearances featured his never obeying a single command of his guardian/owner, whatsoever, gave viewers an intimate sense of Colbert’s humanity in a way that could only make me, for one, depend on his special brand of healing humor all the more.
TRG is not the only one who appreciates the former Chicago resident of 11 years who went through Northwestern University’s theater program and was a member of Chicago’s Second City troop. This year, Colbert’s show won the prestigious Peabody award for “powerful, enlightening, and invigorating” contributions to entertainment programming. And last month Colbert’s 2020 election night coverage earned the late-night comic and his team an Emmy for outstanding variety special.
So, a big year for Stephen Colbert--all that and now the All Saints Day award…as well as a sincere, personal thank you from TRG.
AMY KLOBUCHAR: Klobuchar is as different from Kyrsten Sinema as Arizona is to Minnesota. One state is blazing hot; the other extravagantly cold in the winter months …and sometimes other seasons.
One Senator functions as a roadblock to her party; the other is an agent for getting things done. And, while Sinema seems focused on herself above all others, Klobuchar takes risks, no questions asked, to help the people of Minnesota, the U.S.—and her party.
Coincidentally, both became valedictorians of their high school classes--or, in Sinema’s case, co-valedictorian. Sinema went on to study at Brigham Young University and Arizona State University, not top schools academically, but not at the bottom of the list, either. Klobuchar attended Yale as an undergrad, graduating magna cum laude, then attended the University of Chicago for
her J.D.
Sinema faced the problem of near-poverty in her youth; Klobuchar has described the challenges of growing up with an alcoholic father. Sinema is currently the anathema of her party as she’s spent more time fund-raising lately than tackling the job early on of determining her positions and actively taking part in negotiations over the Biden legislative package...a stance cited by some Virginia voters as contributing to their loss of confidence in the President. It wasn’t until she was strongly urged to meet recently with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, one of the most knowledgeable lawmakers on all aspects of the package, that Sinema came forth with her (limited) go/no go list. And that was during what Neal described as the ”ninth inning”--not the first, second, or even seventh, as she should have, if Sinema were truly dedicated to the job.
In contrast, Klobuchar is someone fellow Democrats respect and depend on. She’s the Democrats’ go-to person by virtue of her willingness to work hard to achieve the Party’s most critical needs. For example, the Minnesota senator joined forces with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, the other obstacle to the Democratic agenda, to craft a new voting rights package after Manchin famously refused to sign on to the John Lewis voting protection bill. Manchin believed a differently-worded law could garner 10 Republican Senate votes, despite assurances to the contrary from his fellow Democrats who calculated (rightly) such an expectation was a fool’s errand.
But rather than disrespect Manchin’s hopes, Klobuchar joined forces with her West Virginia colleague and with him co-authored an alternate voting rights bill, the “Freedom to Vote Act” that contained provisions expected to be more palatable to Republican colleagues. True to all expectations except Manchin’s, the rewritten version failed to attract any Republican votes, so the next chapter in voting rights protection has yet to be determined. But Klobuchar calculated rightly that to preserve any hope of moving voting protection down the field required Democratic teamwork with Manchin.
Contrast Klobuchar’s team spirit with Sinema’s go-it-alone mindset. Instead of moving the ball forward, Sinema, after receiving the pigskin from the quarterback, runs off the field into the box seats to get money, and then bad-mouths her fellow team members and fans counting on the Arizona Senator to play by game rules.
LOCAL LIBRARIES The whole notion of a place that buys books so you don’t have to and shares them around with other people in your community to make them smarter, help develop new skills, or just add to their enjoyment of life sounds socialistic. But in 1743 this happened with the opening of the first “community library” in Darby, N.H. The first urban library opened in Boston in 1852. Then Andrew Carnegie seeded a crop of nation-wide libraries
from 1881-1919.
As described in the mission statement of the Sturgis Library on Cape Cod, in existence since 1863 in the town of Barnstable, Mass., a library’s purpose is to “support a lifelong pursuit of vocational, cultural, and intellectual enrichment; foster literacy, curiosity, and creativity; and provide a gateway to emerging technologies.” And my local Illinois library follows in those same
proud footsteps.
As a self-employed writer in the “passion economy,” I do not have unlimited access to researchers, interns, tech help, extensive databases, magazines, and newspapers, or human contact. My local library offers all that.
Oh, yes, there’s the internet, of which the TRG makes maximum use. But there are limitations. Scientific research is not easily available through Google, Bing, etc. Case studies are published under the aegis of search engines that university and local libraries have access to, and I don’t. Moreover, if I’m having technical problems either in the library or at home, I can ask a library tech for help.
As a little girl who used to walk to the local library after school and wait for my mother to pick me up after work, I discovered a love of reading and learning. Now my local library helps this much older version of me use her curiosity, love of learning--and writing--and need to better understand the world we’ve created or been handed, and still gives me the tools to succeed.
REP. KATIE PORTER: Where Sinema abandons her party in the 11th hour for high-end fundraisers, believes she must buck her president and party to appeal to red-leaning people in her purple if not blue state, and hangs back to determine a negotiating position until the very last minute, Katie Porter is just the opposite. Coming from California’s 45th district, the storied Orange County--home of Ronald Reagan and birthplace of the conservative party in the Golden State--Porter like Sinema must appeal not just to liberal Democrats but also to always-wavering Independents.
She must address many of the same issues that Kyrsten Sinema must as a senator from Arizona, but does so cognizant of her unique role in the lives of ordinary Americans she serves. Porter’s habits of mind and action inspire her to understand the various options in all of their complexity, meet with her constituents to further fine-tune her positions, and then become their voice in the process of forging them into law.
Porter is a hard worker, relishing and showing passion for legislating’s arts and sciences. In contrast, Sinema appears to fear her position in the legislative process, taking inordinate amounts of time to accomplish a minimal amount of work—and doing so in secret. When confronted by colleagues, the news media, or her constituents begging her to share her thinking, Sinema dismisses them contemptuously, as if only she deserves
to know where she stands.
In short, Congresswoman Katie Porter works rings around Kyrsten Sinema and other less dedicated members of Congress both in the House and Senate. To become effective, Sinema should shadow Porter—follow her around, take notes, and try to learn something. But Sinema being Sinema, she won’t.
JENNIFER RUBIN: This popular Washington Post columnist begins my day and talks me down over each and every tumultuous event that’s been happening in politics over the last five years. Every time I panic about some outrageous Republican attempt to destroy the country, Rubin breaks the issue down specifically and rationally, explaining both sides but coming out always with a point of view about its importance in saving or threatening the country we love.
A lawyer (J.D. U-Cal Berkeley), former Republican, and union negotiator, Rubin brings her varied background to the job, but also the commitment and passion of someone who used to be one way politically, but has since awakened and become dedicated to reporting on events through her new lens. Her columns, alone, make subscribing to the Post essential, but once on the site you’ll find many other reasons to be there--including Eugene Robinson, Philip Rucker, Bob Acosta, Bob Woodward, Ashley Parker, George Conway, Dana Milbank, and scores of other smart columnists and reporters. Because of Rubin and the others, TRG suggests you check out the Washington Post and subscribe, as I did happily about five years ago.
