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Beschloss: On Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Humanity
https://america.substack.com/p/on-life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-ofReflecting on infrastructure investment and priorities, the "freedom" of anti-vaxxers, and the real target of the House Select committee—behind the tweets
. . .
We are talking about trillions. It’s hard to fathom numbers that high. But what if you refer to it as $350 billion a year for 10 years? What if you don’t talk about it in terms of dollars spent, but necessary changes that significantly improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans? There’s a reason why these proposals are so popular. Most Americans grasp that the ice is thin—that the haves are getting richer and everyone else can go eat cake—and there’s no good reason why America can’t offer more security and support. It’s good and well to have the most massive military the world has ever seen, but what if the price of this commitment is a nation increasingly unwilling to invest in the well-being of its citizens? That’s not a winning proposition, built for the long haul. Quite the contrary.
At a time when we all need to pull together to put this damned pandemic behind us—when we have the life-saving benefit of science that can keep us alive—we are faced with medical professionals who choose to reject the common good in service to self-serving ideas about freedom and individualism. It’s a tiny subsection of the population of nurses and health professionals battling heroically each day against this dreadful virus, but this selfish contingent helps sustain the larger population of anti-vaxxers who listen to exploitative politicians, ignore reality and tragically imagine they are wrapped up in a gallant struggle for liberty. There’s no pleasure in watching their numbers dwindle as they march to the grave.
On the one hand, as I’ve noted often here, we are faced with an Attorney General who has chosen to keep silent about any investigation the Department of Justice may be pursuing of the inciters, funders and organizers of the deadly insurrection and coup attempt. In my view, that’s a mistake, since it’s possible to signal that his original promise to pursue this heinous case at every level is operative without undermining his department’s work. That would go a long way in reducing (at least a little bit) a weary nation’s anxiety that this is more of the same old two systems of justice.
On the other hand, the House Select Committee launched to investigate January 6 has now issued a total of 15 subpoenas. And while not one of them is for Donald J. Trump, every one of them can yield more information about his actions of that day and the days leading up to the attack on our democracy. As I noted on Saturday, this includes the first four with particular proximity: former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Daniel Scavino, former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel and former Trump advisor Stephen Bannon.
And this new tranche is primarily comprised of organizers of the rally at the Ellipse that preceded the the Capitol attack. Among them: Caroline Wren, who was a Trump fundraiser and a deputy to Trump Jr’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle; Maggie Mulvaney, who was the director of finance operations for the Trump campaign and niece to Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Hannah Salem Stone, who was a special assistant to Trump and a White House press advance director; and Kylie Jane Kremer, who is executive director of Women for America First, was listed on the permit as the “person in charge” of the rally, and whose tweet promoting event was noted in the subpoena: “The calvary [sic] is coming, Mr. President!”
All this demonstrates that the House Select Committee is not messing around. They are not wasting time by focusing on a wide array of people disconnected from Trump. They are zeroing in on those who knew what was going on—and who have something to say about the role of the Inciter-in-Chief. We will see which of them choose to ignore the committee’s requests, but all signs point to Chairman Bennie Thompson and his colleagues genuinely ready to pursue criminal contempt charges if they are rebuffed. That gives me optimism that their number one target is Donald J. Trump, which is the critical pursuit to give America a fighting chance to overcome this tragic chapter of criminality and hostility to democracy.
We are talking about trillions. It’s hard to fathom numbers that high. But what if you refer to it as $350 billion a year for 10 years? What if you don’t talk about it in terms of dollars spent, but necessary changes that significantly improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans? There’s a reason why these proposals are so popular. Most Americans grasp that the ice is thin—that the haves are getting richer and everyone else can go eat cake—and there’s no good reason why America can’t offer more security and support. It’s good and well to have the most massive military the world has ever seen, but what if the price of this commitment is a nation increasingly unwilling to invest in the well-being of its citizens? That’s not a winning proposition, built for the long haul. Quite the contrary.
At a time when we all need to pull together to put this damned pandemic behind us—when we have the life-saving benefit of science that can keep us alive—we are faced with medical professionals who choose to reject the common good in service to self-serving ideas about freedom and individualism. It’s a tiny subsection of the population of nurses and health professionals battling heroically each day against this dreadful virus, but this selfish contingent helps sustain the larger population of anti-vaxxers who listen to exploitative politicians, ignore reality and tragically imagine they are wrapped up in a gallant struggle for liberty. There’s no pleasure in watching their numbers dwindle as they march to the grave.
On the one hand, as I’ve noted often here, we are faced with an Attorney General who has chosen to keep silent about any investigation the Department of Justice may be pursuing of the inciters, funders and organizers of the deadly insurrection and coup attempt. In my view, that’s a mistake, since it’s possible to signal that his original promise to pursue this heinous case at every level is operative without undermining his department’s work. That would go a long way in reducing (at least a little bit) a weary nation’s anxiety that this is more of the same old two systems of justice.
On the other hand, the House Select Committee launched to investigate January 6 has now issued a total of 15 subpoenas. And while not one of them is for Donald J. Trump, every one of them can yield more information about his actions of that day and the days leading up to the attack on our democracy. As I noted on Saturday, this includes the first four with particular proximity: former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Daniel Scavino, former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel and former Trump advisor Stephen Bannon.
And this new tranche is primarily comprised of organizers of the rally at the Ellipse that preceded the the Capitol attack. Among them: Caroline Wren, who was a Trump fundraiser and a deputy to Trump Jr’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle; Maggie Mulvaney, who was the director of finance operations for the Trump campaign and niece to Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Hannah Salem Stone, who was a special assistant to Trump and a White House press advance director; and Kylie Jane Kremer, who is executive director of Women for America First, was listed on the permit as the “person in charge” of the rally, and whose tweet promoting event was noted in the subpoena: “The calvary [sic] is coming, Mr. President!”
All this demonstrates that the House Select Committee is not messing around. They are not wasting time by focusing on a wide array of people disconnected from Trump. They are zeroing in on those who knew what was going on—and who have something to say about the role of the Inciter-in-Chief. We will see which of them choose to ignore the committee’s requests, but all signs point to Chairman Bennie Thompson and his colleagues genuinely ready to pursue criminal contempt charges if they are rebuffed. That gives me optimism that their number one target is Donald J. Trump, which is the critical pursuit to give America a fighting chance to overcome this tragic chapter of criminality and hostility to democracy.
