As I watched portions of the Pete Hegseth confirmation hearings today, felt some very strong feelings about what I was seeing and hearing. Hegseth himself is a decorated combat veteran who achieved the rank of Major. He is President Trumps' nominee for Secretary of Defense. Several of the senators who questioned him are veterans themselves. I hold the utmost and supreme respect and admiration for veterans. All veterans, and especially those who were combat veterans as well as those who are deceased. They gave us their best and we owe them our best. The questioning senators who are veterans represented both sides of the aisle. It is with disdain and lament that I even mention "both sides of the aisle" but after listening to the confirmation hearings today I feel it necessary and appropriate.
When I first began to take notice of an incipient partisan divide in the country and politics in particular was during the Obama administration. If you recall the incident early in Obama's presidency when a white police officer arrested a black Harvard professor attempting to gain entry into a Washington residence, his own, by the way. This caused a tremendous uproar at the time, no doubt in large part owing to the fact that a white policeman arrested a black man. That, and many of the events that followed only served to deepen the racial divide in the country. One of those 'events' came directly from the constrained intellect of Obama himself. When the president was asked his opinion on the matter in a press conference a few days later, he remarked that he thought the Cambridge Mass. police had acted "stupidly". Obviously, a US president does not need to involve himself in local police matters, nor does he have any business doing so. The pivotal point in the entire incident and the only 'stupid act' was Obama's birdbrained public statement that 'the police acted stupidly. For a US president and leader of the free world to make such a statement without thinking what the impact of such might be on black youth, white youth, impressionable minds who might harbor contempt for the police, was immoral, unethical, unconscionable, and yes, damn stupid. The racial divide just got deeper.
The racial divide isn't the only breakdown in civility we are suffering. There are others, there are many. As a civilized society we seem to be regressing in our ability to solve our differences. We are too quick to choose sides and do battle. Probably the most prolific and notable of these are those associated with ideological political issues. The country is more politically divided now than at any point in the last twenty years. Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals are less inclined to collaborate and reach mutual understanding on issues. But the underpinning root of the dilemma is this; the perception and view that each party has of the other continues to grow more extremely negative. And the lengths that some are prepared to go to to undermine the other are becoming seriously depraved. Just a couple of examples if I may. The recent episodes of lawfare. Not just one but three of them. The Bible verse 'The truth shall set you free' doesn't always apply in a court of law. The FBI lying on a FISA application, Hillary Clinton's campaign paying a rogue British agent to fabricate a false dossier on Trump, suggesting Russian election interference. Democratic operatives knowingly and intentionally concealing Joe Biden's failing capacities (and abilities to carry out his duties...).
Was the reason and motivation for these acts to affect the outcome of an election? (And to win?) If it were, such can never be proven. But to even the most casual observer the motivation is as clear as a Montana sky. We simply accept it and move on. After watching the Hegseth confirmation hearings today, it's apparent some Democratic Senators are having problems with accepting and moving on. Their petulant, partisan behavior indicates that their motivation to undermine 'the other side' is still firmly in place. Even if Joe Biden isn't...
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