©2020 Sarah Becker The Lee-Jackson Debate At long last the New Year has arrived. Joe Biden (D-DE) is president-elect; COVID-19 continues its sinister spread, and Virginia no longer observes Robert E. Lee-Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson Day. Lee-Jackson Day was established in 1904. “It is past time that we stop honoring the Confederacy,” Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said in 2020. The times—the politics—are ‘changin.’ Last October Virginia judge W. Reilly Marchant ruled Richmond’s controversial 1890 statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee can be wholly removed—from Monument Avenue by order of the Governor. Virginia Military Institute’s 108 year-old statue of Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson was removed last month. Jackson was nicknamed “Stonewall” after his showing in the first Battle of Bull Run. Lee-Jackson Day—celebrated coincident with Martin Luther King’s birthday—included Confederate wreath-laying ceremonies, a Civil War parade and ball. The lore is “deeply entwined in the state’s self-image;” the related monuments “erected by propagandists pushing a Lost Cause.” In 2017 white supremacists and Neo-Nazis gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, to aggressively defend a 1924 statue of Confederate General Lee. Robert Edward Lee was born January 19, 1807, the fifth child of overspent Revolutionary War hero General Henry “Light-horse Harry” Lee and his second wife Ann Hill Carter, the great granddaughter of Virginia slaveholder Robert “King” Carter. Robert E. did not live the “legendary Victorian virtue” as “celebrated in a thousand marble statues across the South.” His sense of Duty, Duty before desire did not include the South’s “terrible hardening of the heart.” Lee emancipated his father-in-law George Washington Parke Custis’ slaves on December 29, 1862; approximately three months after President Lincoln’s September 23 Emancipation Proclamation was published in draft. Congress renamed Arlington’s historic Custis-Lee mansion—the Custis’ family home—Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial in 1972. The name change first discussed…
by Sarah Becker ©2020 Earth Day Celebrates 50 Years “The time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils shall have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation,” President Theodore Roosevelt—a progressive New York Republican—told State Governors in 1908. “Conservation of our natural resources, though the gravest problem of today, is yet but part of another and greater problem to which this Nation is not yet awake, but to which it will awake in time, and with which it must hereafter grapple if it is to live,” Roosevelt continued. On April 22 the country, the city of Alexandria celebrates Earth Day’s 50th anniversary. That said what exactly do we celebrate? “Rising sea surface temperatures and acidic waters could eliminate nearly all existing coral reef habitats by 2100,” the University of Hawaii Manoa explained on February 17, 2020, at the Ocean Sciences Meeting. Coral reefs harbor the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem globally and directly support over 500 million people worldwide. In fact, scientists “project 70 to 90 percent of coral reefs will disappear over the next 20 years as a result of climate change and pollution.” Although pollution poses numerous threats to ocean creatures, “the new research suggests corals are most at risk from emission driven changes in their environment.” “Much of the emissions spike is driven by the continued rise of transportation emissions, now the nation’s top source of emissions,” the Rhodium Group explained. Rather than develop mass transit competitively, plan and market its metro stations fittingly, the city of Alexandria, despite its multi-modal policy, mostly encourages auto-driven streets. Born in 1858, in New York City, Teddy Roosevelt…
Copyright ©2019 Sarah Becker Written by ©2019 Sarah Becker Executive Privilege and Impeachment “The President of the United States is impeachable at any time during his continuance in office,” James Madison wrote (Federalist Paper No. 39). The 2019 calendar is turning and still the country contemplates President Donald Trump’s (R-NY/FL) conduct in office. “If impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors, [the President will be] removed from office; and would afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law.” Last October the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats especially voted to further its impeachment inquiry. “The legislative, executive, and judiciary departments ought to be separate and distinct,” Alexander Hamilton concluded. “Power being almost always the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations….” Power: the ability or capacity to perform effectively; to control. President Donald Trump and, in turn, the Executive branch have repeatedly refused to respond to Congressional subpoenas; requests for information related to the un-redacted Robert Mueller report, citizenship and the 2020 census, Ukraine and an acknowledged Executive quid pro quo. Quid pro quo: thing given as compensation; return made for a gift or favor. Trump’s failure to reply to the latter may result in obstruction of Congress charges. Executive privilege is an implied power, “derived from the concept of ‘process privilege.’” It allows the president and other high officials of the Executive branch to keep “sensitive” communications private should the disclosure of such prove disruptive to the Executive branch. Executive privilege was not legally explained until 1974—United States v. Richard M. Nixon—and mostly applies to matters of foreign policy, national security, and or national defense. President George Washington first exerted his Executive prerogative in 1795. President…
by ©2018 Sarah Becker The Earth is getting Hot… …the politics even hotter. Do Americans adapt to climate change—as President Donald Trump’s environmental policies suggest—or do local, state and federal governments mitigate? Most U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are human roused—the result of burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) for heat, electricity and transportation. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (84%), methane (10%), nitrous oxide (4%) and fluorinated gases (2%). The most abundant greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the product of burning fossil fuels. “We must look back at history to understand our energy problem, the transition from wood to coal to oil and natural gas,” President Jimmy Carter (Democrat, 1977-1981) said. Carter, the alleged father of alternative fuels, was the first U.S. President to openly criticize America’s dependence on foreign oil; to install solar panels in the White House. “One distinguishing characteristic of really civilized men is foresight; we have to, as a nation, exercise foresight for this nation in the future; and if we do not exercise that foresight, dark will be the future!” President and conservationist Theodore Roosevelt (Republican, 1901-1909) said in 1908. “Let us remember that the conservation of our natural resources, though the gravest problem of today, is yet but part of another and greater problem to which this Nation is not yet awake, but to which it will awake in time, and with which it must hereafter grapple if it is to live.” In October 2018 the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that “greenhouse gases have been rising steadily and mean global temperatures along with it.” The scientists’ warnings are dire. From 1880 to 2012 the average global temperature increased by 0.850 C. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the greenhouse gas produced in the largest quantities and the United States is the…
by ©2018 Sarah Becker Tariffs – Then & Now “On 6 July, the U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on $34bn in Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to hit back with levies on the same amount of U.S. exports to China,” London’s The Guardian reported. “In response, the White House released a wide-ranging list of Chinese goods, from tobacco to pet food, worth $200bn it would target with a 10% tariffs.” Beijing said it would “fight back as usual” then filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization. Still Trump’s trade war continues. A tariff is a tax imposed on imports. In 1827 one hundred delegates met in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to promote protectionist policies; to “shelter” the American wool industry, as well as producers of such products as hemp, flax, hammered bar iron and steel. On May 19, 1828, President John Quincy Adams (MA-DR) signed the later known Tariff of Abominations into law. He did so over the objections of congressional Jackson-ians; his Vice President, former U.S. Representative and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun (SC-DR, Nullifier). Father of the Constitution and former President James Madison (VA-DR) spoke “on the constitutionality of the power of Congress to impose a tariff for the encouragement of manufactures.” The Constitution was approved “in Convention by unanimous consent of the States present” on September 17, 1787. “The Constitution vests in Congress, expressly, ‘the power to lay & collect taxes, duties imposts & excises’; and ‘the power to regulate trade,’” Madison wrote Joseph C. Cabell on September 18, 1828. “The present question is…a simple question under the Constitution of the U.S. whether ‘the power to regulate trade with foreign nations’ as a distinct & substantive item in the enumerated powers embraces the object of encouraging by duties, restrictions and prohibitions the manufactures & products of the…
A Higher Loyalty By Miriam R. Kramer In his fascinating memoir and treatise on leadership, A Higher Loyalty, former FBI Director James Comey discusses his trajectory in government service up until he unwillingly became a political lightning rod during and after the most bitterly contested and partisan presidential election in modern American politics. This work is provocative, substantial, and well worth a reader’s time. She/He gets to know him personally on a philosophical level. Comey became one of the best-known names in America before the 2016 elections, when he announced in late October that the FBI was re-opening an investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server for classified documents. Incurring the wrath of Democrats for potentially swinging the election towards President Donald Trump, Comey then appeared before Congress in June 2017 after Trump sacked him to repudiate Trump’s leadership and call many of his statements false. He testified that the President lied in saying that he was fired because of low morale at the FBI. Comey responded that Trump most likely sacked him because he refused to profess his loyalty to Trump and exert his influence to change the way the FBI was investigating Trump campaign officials’ potential collusion with Russia. Comey also stated that he hoped his testimony would help lead to an independent prosecutor who could investigate those possible ties, understanding that it would be highly difficult for the current Department of Justice to conduct a nonpartisan investigation under the warping influence of any leaders President Trump has endeavored to make loyal only to himself. As a long-time DC-area resident reading A Higher Loyalty, I agreed wholeheartedly with many of Comey’s observations. His difficulties have been intrinsically interwoven with the very nature of our partisan political culture, which is now concentrated to…
Presidential Elections by ©2016 Sarah Becker “Differences in political opinions are as unavoidable as, to a certain point, they may perhaps be necessary,” President George Washington wrote Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton on August 26, 1792, “but it is to be regretted, exceedingly, that subjects cannot be discussed with temper [calmness] on the one hand, or decisions submitted to without having the motives which led to them, improperly implicated on the other….” Pundits now describe the Presidential campaign of 2016 as the “nastiest in our lifetime.” According to Republican President-elect Donald J. Trump’s campaign rhetoric he won “a rigged election.” His campaign strategy, reminiscent of Republican Richard Nixon’s 1968 conservative southern strategy, was ingenious. On November 8, 2016 Trump became America’s fifth President-elect to lose the popular vote—to Democrat Hillary Clinton by more than 2.7 million votes—and win the Electoral College. Trump may play fast and loose with the facts, but his appeal—especially to the undereducated, rural white male—is real. He is Mr. Brexit, an alleged nationalist opposed to globalization. A billionaire real estate developer disposed to improving the country’s infrastructure. A climate denier: Trump “Digs Coal,” was until recently invested in the Dakota Access oil pipeline and supports fracking. Windmills are unsightly and he opposes the 2015 Paris Agreement. Full-fledged parties, with national platforms, campaigns, and conventions, did not emerge until the 1830s. Andrew Jackson’s Democrats, the ongoing Democratic Party is the result of an 1825 split in Thomas Jefferson’s 1791 Democratic-Republican Party. The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln formed independently in 1854. President elect Lincoln’s November 6, 1860 victory so upset the State of South Carolina it held a secession convention on December 20, 1860 and seceded from the Union; Mississippi on January 9, 1861. America’s Civil War began in South Carolina on April 12, 1861….