November 26, 2019--Schmoozing At Camp David

The consensus is that the reason all Republican members of Congress are so willing to follow Trump to the edge of the cliff and perhaps over it is because he continues to hold onto the support of his base (perhaps as much as 90 percent of it) in spite of the daily drumbeat of scandals, any one of which would in the case of a "normal" president bring about his impeachment in the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate. 

And if they found the backbone to chide him he would remember their "disloyalty" and support one of their opponents when it comes to primary time. For these members of Congress, plain and simple, it's all about keeping their seats.

This does explain much of their craven behavior, but in many cases other, more profound forces are at work.

Unlike Barack Obama who hated this part of the job, Trump makes a conscious to invite congressmen to share the perks of his presidency.

He never fails to ask members to fly with him on Air Force One when he is going to a rally in their district. In Washington, he uses access to the Oval Office as an emolument (sorry) with (sorry) quid pro quo implications. He even invites them to the residential floors of the White House for meetings, one of the most private places of any presidency. He also never fails to invite a member or two to join him in (frequent) rounds of golf, including using Mar-a-Lago and one or more of the universe of Trump residences and golf courses as political catnip.

And it has recently been reported that he invites people he is courting for political favors (for example, their votes) to spend a weekend of schmoozing at Camp David, the holiest of holies of presidential hideaways.

Most members of Congress come from middle class lives and have never known anyone like Trump much less had so much access to the gilded presidential life style. 

One can almost see Lindsey Graham salivating as he hangs out with Trump on the second floor of the White House, catching glimpses of the Lincoln Bedroom, or flies around with the president after a round of golf at one of Trump's "international" courses. 

As is evident Graham has lost whatever independence he had during the McCain years and is now fully committed to responding to all of Trump whims no matter how outrageous or humiliating. 

More than anything else, Trump makes him and his colleagues feel important as a result of this political courtship.

For the sake of full discloser I need to confess my own experiences with the Clinton and, later, the Bush presidencies. There may be a few useful takeaways. 

During my Ford Foundation years I worked with senior members of the White House staff (including Clinton himself) on a joint venture designed to help low-income students graduate from high school and enter college. It eventually came to be known as the Gear Up Program.

As part of their efforts to get Ford behind what they were proposing, I was invited to a number of White House sponsored events, including some that were more social than professional. 

I need to admit that I felt more important than I in fact was when I participated in meetings in the Roosevelt Room, the East Room, and even the Cabinet Room. I ate in the White House Mess and was even allowed a peek at the Situation Room. 

More than anything else, I was thrilled to have had a few meetings in the Oval Office where I was encouraged to play with Buddy, Clinton's dog.

I never got to the Residence or Camp David but would have been thrilled to have been invited.

I share this not so much for gossip purposes but to suggest how powerful the presidency in all its aspects is. Not just because he is Commander in Chief but because of the aura, history, and accoutrements of the presidency itself and how easy it is to come under their sway.

As a parvenu, like me born and raised in the outer boroughs of New York City, not in Manhattan, Trump on a gut level understands how wielding this soft, cultural and psychological power can be and he is playing it with perverse brilliance.

January 13, 2017--A Fine Bromance

On an unseasonably warm day I was out on the terrace helping Rona secure some of her trees and plants for when the worst of winter will arrive.

When my part of the work was done, I collapsed on the bed and turned on MSBC to see if the world still existed.

At the bottom of the screen there was a shot of the White House State Dining Room. A graphic indicated they were waiting for the President and Vice President to arrive for a brief ceremony to honor Joe Biden's remarkable political career.

They were running late but I sensed it might be worth waiting. Maybe Biden would unleash a few valedictory Bidenisms. Like when he was caught on an open mic nearly eight years ago at another formal ceremony, Obama's signing the Affordable Care Act. Biden hugged Obama and whispered for all the world to hear, "This is a big fucking deal." It turned out to be just that.

Yesterday's was a wonderful occasion. The president struck the perfect balance between honoring Biden for his nearly 50 years of service and as is traditional in male-male bromances (and they clearly have an intense one) there was lots of affectionate joshing, including a smattering from the opus of the best Bidenisms. The "big deal" one very much featured with the f-word deleted (many grandchildren were present) but clearly hanging in the air.

When it was Biden's turn he didn't disappoint. He told stories from his life, a life of love and death and then more love and yet more death. But much of what he had to say was about Obama. All heartfelt and full of tears for what had been and what might have been.

"You have a heart as big as your head," Biden said, "And with it you entered my heart." It felt like a defining moment in both of their lives. These unlikely brothers. Not their political lives but their larger lives of family and commitment and integrity and resilient optimism even though, for Biden particularly, his life could have easily been one of cynicism and loss.

As it ended, I couldn't help but think about what was underway literally in other rooms beyond the true emotion and simple beauty of that White House ceremony.

The news channels could not wait to get back to it. One could feel that, as if there were digital emanations from the TV screen reaching out to pull us back into another version of reality, of what the media have opted to present as most important--the "unsubstantiated" CIA document, leaked by BuzzFeed, that alleges, in regard to Russia, that Donald Trump participated in many financial and personal indiscretions.

The reputable news outlets have known about this since August but did not write about it because they could not verify any of the accusations. But all the while, and this is what the networks and and papers such as the New York Times do when there is the hint of a scandal--as with Monica Lewinsky--pretending to be above matters of these kind, they cover the coverage.

That way they do not have to get down in the muck but instead write about what other sources that thrive in that muck are leaking. Journalistic ju jitsu at its most hypocritical. Having it both ways, the elite media remain clean while reporting about the reporting about the dirt.

In the current case that involves revealing, "unverifiably," that once when in Russia Trump asked to stay in the same suite in the same hotel that earlier had accommodated the Obamas and then hired Russian prostitutes to preform "golden showers" on the Obama bed.

Sad to say, though not verified, I'm almost inclined to believe this. This is where America is at. Where I am at. This is to where Donald Trump has helped to bring us.

And, I also thought, what will things be like, what will our country be like when the Obamas and Bidens are no longer in the White House and the Trumps next Friday arrive to check in.

                                       

July 28, 2015--The Way We Were

Just the other day the New York Times reported about a survey of Americans' racial views. In spite of having an African-American president, about 60 percent of whites and blacks indicated that they feel relations between the races is not good and 40 percent said in recent years it has gotten worse.

In contrast, shortly after Barack Obama was elected, two-thirds felt that race relations were "generally good."

The title of the article says it all--"Poll Finds Most in U.S. Hold Dim View of Race Relations."

The shift in numbers may, sadly, be a reflection of the fact that we do have a black president. He has been so demonologized that that would not be a surprise.

By coincidence I was finishing H.W. Brands' excellent American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism 1865-1900 in which he reported about a dinner hosted by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 shortly after he assumed the presidency because of the assassination of William McKinley, a small dinner party for Negro educator Booker T. Washington. This was the first time in history that a black person had dinner with an American president in the White House.

The dinner, attended by Roosevelt's wife, four of his children, and one close friend of TR's was, in Brands' phrase "objectively innocuous." But there was a firestorm of outrage, all of it deeply and openly racist.

One example--

The Raleigh Post put its outrage in doggerel:

Booker Washington holds the boards--

The President dines a nigger.

Precedents are cast aside--

Put aside with vigor.

Black and white sit side by side,

As Roosevelt dines a nigger.

We may have our racial problems, but looking back suggests that we've come a long way.