How Is It Possible? By Maria Grant

Lately I wake up in the middle of the night worried about the future of our country. I find myself wondering, “How is it possible?”  Here are some reasons I lie awake at 3 a.m. 

How is it possible?

Some people in the U.S. do not believe in climate change. A casual acquaintance told me the other day that she thought it was all “poppycock.” But wait, I said. “Glaciers are melting. Sea levels are rising. The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is melting at a faster rate. Droughts are longer. Temperatures are rising worldwide because greenhouse gases are trapping more heat in the atmosphere.” Still, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “It’s just weather.”

The Supreme Court has no guardrails. A once-respected institution has become a political pawn. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flies an American flag upside down at his house around January 6th, blames his wife, and there seem to be no repercussions. Both he and Justice Clarence Thomas have accepted lavish gifts from donors and suffer no consequences. And how is it possible that the Supreme Court has yet to render an opinion on whether presidents have total immunity while in office, when every legal scholar predicted that this would be a slam-dunk decision and the case would be decided within a few days. 

Abortion rights have effectively been eliminated in many states despite a strong majority of Americans supporting women’s rights to control their own bodies. 

Trump supporters blame Biden for gun crimes committed during his presidency when almost every Republican has declined to endorse more stringent gun regulations. At his speech to the NRA last weekend, Trump railed against Biden’s restrictions on gun ownership and promised to roll back gun safety provisions passed by the Biden administration. What? Does anyone think that lifting such restrictions would make America safe again? 

 Congress, a once revered institution around the world—remember the likes of Sam Rayburn, Sam Ervin, Howard Baker, Everett Dirksen, Daniel Webster, Margaret Chase Smith, Henry Jackson, and Henry Cabot Lodge–has turned into a laughingstock around the globe. Last week a meeting of the House Oversight Committee turned into a cat fight between Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Jasmine Crockett (D-TX). “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” announced Greene to Crockett. AOC (D-NY) then entered the mix, saying, “How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person.” Then Crockett fired back asking Chair, James Comer (R-KY), “If someone on this Committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?” If only I were making this stuff up. Let’s just admit how far we have fallen.

In some kind of bizarre twist of The Handmaid’s Tale, Trump sycophants show up in Court to support him during his hush money trial, including, at the height of irony, House Speaker Mike Johnson,  the guy who has an app on his phone so that he and his son can ensure that neither of them is indulging in  pornography—you know, like watching a Stormy Daniels film.  And call me crazy, but shouldn’t these people be in Congress doing the work we pay them to do? 

And finally, how is it possible that some Republicans, including some readers of The Spy, claim that things were so much better during the Trump administration? Do they suffer from acute amnesia? Do they not remember Trump’s pathetically slow response to Covid? How Trump touted wild theories suggesting cures such as ultraviolet light, hydroxychloroquine, and Ivermectin? When Trump had Covid and was in Walter Reed Hospital, he asked Secret Service drivers to chauffer him around the hospital so that he could wave to supporters. Or how about trying to buy Greenland? Or wanting to nuke hurricanes? Or ordering peaceful protesters to be tear-gassed and then posing for photographs with an upside-down Bible? And then there is putting Kushner in charge of Middle East peace—a guy who could not get a top-secret security clearance. He stared directly at the sun during a partial solar eclipse. He doctored up a hurricane forecast with a Sharpie. He launched paper towels to Puerto Ricans affected by Hurricane Maria (no relation). He called Ukrainian President Zelensky and asked him to dig up dirt on the Bidens—threatening to withhold much-needed aid if he did not. He went on wild tirades about windmills causing cancer and whales to die. 

And then, of course, there is January 6th, a tragedy of historic proportions. Folks, give me a break. These were not better days. We were the laughingstock of the world. And if you do not believe me, remember when Trump addressed the UN in 2018 and said his administration “had accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country?” The entire room erupted in laughter. 

If Trump is reelected, his authoritarian agenda includes indicting his political enemies, rounding up and deporting undocumented immigrants (he seems to have forgotten that two of his wives were immigrants), sending the military to the border, rolling back all Biden’s climate-related legislation,  taxing all imported goods, reevaluating America’s participation in NATO, invading Mexico,  bringing back the death penalty, turning over the issue of abortion to the States, asking Congress to pass a bill establishing that only two genders, as determined by birth, are recognized in the US, ramping up oil drilling on public lands and offering tax breaks to oil, gas and coal producers, terminating the Department of Education, and sending out the National Guard to deal with the homeless. And that, folks, is just the beginning. 

I am not a student of the Bible, but I remember a quote from the King James Bible, Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” It is every American’s responsibility to do their homework, understand issues and ramifications of various stances and actions, sort out the wheat from the chaff and vote thoughtfully, intelligently, and in good conscience. 

I hope with all my heart that people will wake up and take note of the situation at hand. Our democracy depends on it. 

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the Federal Human Capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, gardening, piano, kayaking, biking, and nature.