D-DAY January 3rd 2019

 

I was twelve years old at UCS school in Hampstead, just outside the center of London. on June 6^th 1944, when Dr Lake, our headmaster, called the school together and announced that allied troops had landed on the beaches of Normandy and the campaign to recapture France and defeat Hitler’s Germany had begun. It was D-Day. I will never forget the cheer that arose and the joy we all felt – that the war, which had so badly damaged our city, killed some of our relatives and friends and been central to our lives, had finally reached a turning point.

Now, seventy five years later, we know it had even more significance, It began a series of events that not only saved European Democracy from a tyrannical dictator bent on imposing his Aryan racialism on the world, but it also thrust America into the role of leadership of the free world, expanding that democracy and ushering in an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity..

On January 3^rd 2019, in Washington, the House of Representatives will reconvene with a large Democratic majority – another potential turning point and another D Day that could result in the saving of another Democracy – the American democratic system of government. Please understand that I am not equating Donald Trump and the first two years of Trumpism with Adolph Hitler and a war in which 50 million people died. However, the result of the recent mid-term elections, by curbing Trump’s continuing diminution of America’s norms, freedoms and values, could well begin to preserve and restore American democracy.

Yesterday I watched a CNN program “The End – Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House” (which I urge you to watch if you can find it) The stark contrast between then and now is a reminder of what it is like to have a president of all the people in the White House. It was striking to see and remember that we took it as normal that the members of Obama’s team were dedicated to their work, loyal to and respectful of the president and the presidency and dedicated to his values and goals – and to each other.

I have also just read Michael Lewis’s book “The Fifth Risk”, which describes how the current administration is dismantling the fabric of our government and the  systems that make it  work. The book describes the difference between the unsung  brilliant and dedicated public servants who are being ignored or driven out, and the unqualified political appointees now running the agencies, as  “A rift between people in it for the passion and people in it for the money”. Their actions are both deliberate and the result of ignorance stemming from Trump’s refusal to have his people participate in the orderly transition that Obama had had his team work on for a year. Most of the Trump appointees, to this day . do not understand – and have little interest in finding out – what the cabinet agencies they are supposedly running actually do.

In Chicago on January 10^th 2017, in his farewell address, President Obama outlined some of the highlights that his team had achieved:

If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history — if I had told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, take out the mastermind of 9/11 – if I had told you that we would win marriage equality, and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens — if I had told you all that, you might have said our sights were set a little too high.  But that’s what we did.

He went on to say:

In 10 days, the world will witness a hallmark of our democracy:  the peaceful transfer of power from one freely elected president to the next.  I committed to President-elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me.  Because it’s up to all of us to make sure our government can help us meet the many challenges we still face.

President Obama, in the tradition of the presidency,  both praised his predecessor and refrained from criticizing Trump for what was then clear – that he had deliberately rejected the use of the work the Obama transition team had done. Let’s  compare this to what Trump said one month later, at his press conference on February 16^th 2017,:

As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It’s a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country; you see what’s going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places, low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas, no matter where you look. The Middle East is a disaster. North Korea — we’ll take care of it folks. We’re going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know, I inherited a mess.

The contrast speaks for itself. But we must not – as some are  beginning to do – accept the aberration of the Trump presidency: the lies; the attacks on the media; the racism; the nepotism; the self-dealing; and the berating of our allies and loving of dictators, as the new normal. We cannot sit back and  hope that the end of Trump Party autocracy – through a newly Democrat-controlled House – will start us back on the road to the real normal. We must continue the activism that brought it about to ensure that the job is completed in the 2020 elections.

I will leave it to Barack Obama to describe what the real normal is:

For 240 years, our nation’s call to citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation.  It’s what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom.  It’s what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande. It’s what pushed women to reach for the ballot.  It’s what powered workers to organize.  It’s why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima, Iraq and Afghanistan.  And why men and women from Selma to Stonewall were prepared to give theirs, as well.  So that’s what we mean when we say America is exceptional — not that our nation has been flawless from the start, but that we have shown the capacity to change and make life better for those who follow.