The Capitol Under Siege

I live six blocks from the Capitol and stroll through its grounds several times a week as part of my goal to log in 10,000 steps a day. Inevitably, I pause to gaze at the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol and reflect on what it means to be an American. I love this building and our National Mall—the great boulevard of monuments and Smithsonian museums that stretches before the Capitol-with a passion only exceeded by my love for my family. Every time I step on the Capitol grounds I am filled with awe and appreciation for the fact that I was born an American. This last week has been unbearably sad for me and I want to share a few thoughts with you about just how terrible what happened at the Capitol was.

For most of our lives my husband and I served our country with great pride, spending most of our time in countries in crisis. As a reporter, I covered coups, insurrections, and civil wars. I learned that maintaining a democracy is every bit as difficult as achieving it in the first place. Experience taught me that culture—be it in Middle East or America—evolves slowly. I always had faith, however, that no matter how much strain we Americans put on our institutions, they would hold us together. 

Over the last few days, I have been taking my usual walks. Tall cyclone fences surround the Capitol grounds. National Guardsmen have deployed and are stationed every 100 feet throughout the area around the House and Senate office buildings. I give them a thumbs up and stop occasionally to thank them for being here. These men and women from all across America are defending America from… Americans. 

The security cannot mask the cold, hard truth: The People’s House is now behind barricades as if it were the American Embassy in Baghdad or Beirut. As we are learning, a well-armed mob of White Supremacists (with Confederate flags and Nazi tattoos) swarmed the Capitol, erected a gallows complete with a noose to hang Mike Pence, and broke into Senate and House offices with the intent to “capture” members and assassinate some, including Nancy Pelosi. They were well-armed with weapons and had maps of the Capitol complex. They killed a Capitol Hill Policeman. Another policeman has committed suicide. Four others died. More than two dozen police sustained injuries. Some are still in the hospital. With each day we learn a new horror of what these so-called Americans, heads filled with extremist propaganda, tried to do and, according to the FBI, have plans to do again. 

Historians, in tracing the roots of this insurrection, will offer lots of explanations and spread the blame. But, make no mistake: this is what Trump and Trumpism have done to our country. This is what happens when GOP politicians lie to Americans and business leaders turn a blind eye to the lie because they like deregulation or a climbing stock market. Having lived most of my adult life overseas in countries in crisis, I knew exactly what Donald Trump represented. I knew exactly what the right-wing media was doing to our country, stoking white grievance, pretending that white supremacist militias were not a real problem, stifling serious debate in the House and the Senate, and telling their followers the really big lie that America could magically go back seven decades and become a mystical land dominated by white people. I tried to warn friends and family about just how dangerous this all was, but only a few could imagine how bad it would all get. And, even after everything that has happened, too many still seem to be in denial.  

In January 1945, my Republican grandfather gave a speech as president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to several hundred writers who had been supporting the war effort. In what I have come to see as a very prescient address, he warned them, “Let’s not underestimate the threat. There is a tendency to soft-pedal the spread of alien doctrines of intolerance. The theory, I suppose, is that the best way to treat a disease is to pretend that it doesn’t exist. That is a cowardly theory and worse, a futile one.” He added, “It seems to me that honest diagnosis is the first and indispensable measure in meeting the challenges of propaganda and whispering campaigns directed against foreigners, against Jews, against Negroes.” He warned, “The thing that needs emphasizing, day in and day out, is that the spread of intolerance is not primarily a threat to the intended victims but to the whole country. Once the poison enters a nation’s bloodstream, the entire population is doomed…If the day ever comes in this country when tolerance gives way to internal enmities and persecutions and discriminations, it will be the end of American civilization…should intolerance triumph, it will mean, as a matter of course, that free government is stamped out.” 

We have come perilously close to witnessing free government being stamped out. I woke up this morning to the spectacle of a bunch of Republican representatives and senators whining about how if Joe Biden wants national unity, we must just let this go. These people do not want national unity. They want to slither away without having to accept responsibility for the miserable roles they played in bringing us to this awful place. There can be no national unity until the GOP leadership accepts responsibility (isn’t “personal responsibility” what Republicans are always talking about?) for their big lie that brought us to this point. As Mitt Romney said, his fellow Republicans must tell Americans the truth:  Joe Biden won this election and the election was free and fair. There was no significant fraud. They must apologize to the 81 million Americans whose votes they tried to overturn. And, they must remove Trump from office and hold him to account.

There’s been a lot of right-wing moaning over Twitter and social media platforms kicking Trump and others who are inciting violence off their platforms. It’s amusing to see all these men and women, who think they have some inherent right to incite violence on privately-owned platforms, attack the private sector.  I find it somewhat fitting that, for this moment at least, it is private enterprise that is stepping up to help save our country from the mob. The major business groups—the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable all called for the recognition of Biden’s victory. Individual companies have since announced they will not contribute to the campaigns of any member of Congress who voted to object to the Electoral College. Some titans of capitalism are calling the Republicans into account. They know what we should all know: neither the business community nor individual citizens can flourish without a stable legal system in which the rule of law applies to all of us equally.  

This is the question before us: Are we going to embrace our diversity and work to create more opportunity for all Americans or are we going to be part of a cabal that has been fired up by propaganda and conspiracy theories? We are in a very perilous situation and it is up to each of us to decide the kind of country we want to leave to our children and grandchildren. 

Trump Opens Door to Corruption of Taxpayer Dollars

The IG community has been an effective bulwark against corruption for the last four decades. Republicans, who were once their greatest champions, have not only deserted them, they have also abandoned any pretense of serving the larger public good.

Photo Illustration By Lesley Becker/Globe Staff; Adobe; Globe File

By Victoria Butler

Since the passage of the Inspector General Act in 1978, inspectors general have borne the front-line responsibility of determining not only that taxpayer money is spent efficiently and effectively, as Congress intended, but also that the public servants implementing programs follow all laws and regulations and conduct their work according to ethical standards.

 Congress put several procedural protections in the law to ensure IG independence. The IG Act requires that all IGs be selected without regard to political affiliation and based solely on “integrity and demonstrated ability in accounting, auditing, financial analysis, law, management analysis, public administration, or investigations.” It also prohibits agency management officials from supervising the IG, which is why neither Secretary of State Mike Pompeo nor Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao has the ability to direct the audit or investigative work undertaken by their agency’s office of inspector general. Moreover, IGs report jointly to their agency heads and the Congress. While the president has the authority to remove or transfer an IG, under the law he must provide his rationale in writing to Congress at least 30 days before the removal or transfer. In the spirit of the law, the president would have to explain why he had lost confidence in an IG.

 I had the privilege to work for three different IGs — the special inspector general for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), the special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction, and the lead inspector general for Contingency Operations — all charged with overseeing the billions of dollars spent on rebuilding efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria during the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Congress established these IGs to oversee US spending across all federal agencies on these reconstruction efforts. I can tell you from personal experience that whether Republican or Democratic, neither administration had any fondness for them.

 I have little doubt that senior officials in both administrations would have been delighted to get rid of those IGs for the simple reason that the audits, inspections, evaluations, and investigations they carried out embarrassed those administrations. However, no senior official in either administration tried to have those IGs removed from office for one reason: Congress would not have tolerated it. Members of Congress — Republicans and Democrats — have valued oversight and depended on the IG network to identify problems and inform policy.

Thanks to the relentless and determined work of the IGs whom I worked for, there is a clear record — warts and all — of how our government spent taxpayer dollars on reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as on contingency operations to combat Islamic terrorism. Auditors and investigators — motivated solely by an effort to protect our tax dollars — maintained rigorous standards. Never once did I detect any political bias. This quiet and largely unsung cadre of public servants in the IG community has been an effective bulwark against corruption for the last four decades. Republicans, including Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa and Susan Collins of Maine, who were once their greatest champions, have not only deserted them, they have also abandoned any pretense of serving the larger public good.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/26/opinion/trump-opens-door-unbridled-corruption-your-tax-dollars/

Looking Over the Horizon: Joe Biden's Podcasts

Joe Biden’s “Here’s the Deal” podcasts surprised me.  I expected the decency and the optimism. I expected the folksy and courteous grandpa who stumbles over words, digresses mid-sentence, and serves up solace as effortlessly as my grandmother dished out apple pie.  What I didn’t expect was his insight and his foresight. The podcasts show that Biden has thought deeply about the environmental, economic, social, and political crises facing America. More importantly, that he has a vision--rooted in America’s founding documents and broadened by his own education, experience, and faith in the American people—to shepherd us through it.

In conversation with Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Biden focused on two issues: defeating the virus and tackling climate change.  Due in large measure to Inslee’s leadership on COVID 19, the state which had been the epicenter of the virus, now has it pretty well under control.  The two men discussed the virus as a metaphor for climate change. In tackling existential threats, leaders need to act early and boldly. They need to make decisions based on scientific and technical information, not ideology. They have got to be able to look over the horizon and bring people with them.  Inslee reminded listeners that Biden has always had foresight. In the 1980s Biden introduced the first climate change bill in the Senate. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in 1986.  The Global Climate Protection Act directed the government to research and develop a strategy to deal with global warming.  

Biden turned the conversation to the future, telling Inslee that whoever wins in November is going to face big challenges, including high domestic unemployment and diminished international standing. At the same time, the 77-year old former Vice President said he saw an opportunity—a word Biden uses a lot—to rescue the economy by building a greener infrastructure, “turning it into the very thing that helps us get through this existential threat to our economy.”  Biden then took us on a little tour of that future: “I think we can become a net exporter of climate change technology. I think we can become the leader in the world of electric vehicles. I think we can become the leader in the world for wind and solar energy. I think there are so many opportunities.  And not just for minimum wage jobs. Good paying jobs.” Biden wants to put electric charging stations on our highways as well as expand solar, wind, and battery technology. He sees investing in new technologies as one of the ways to help rebuild the middle class.

In a completely different discussion with Senator Amy Klobuchar, Biden not only talked about the isolation people currently feel, but also the urgent need for good governance and building a national consensus on priorities. The so-called progressive wing of the party may not like it, but Biden is determined to work with political foes. Klobuchar described how she forged a relationship with the late John McCain, who had always treated her with respect.  Biden said he misses McCain, and with a chuckle recalled, “He used to say to me, ‘you’ve never seen a problem you don’t think you can solve,’ and I would say, ‘you never saw a war you didn’t want to fight.’” Biden likes to fix things. 

Biden asks a lot of questions in these podcasts and he listens to the answers. He asked Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmore what she needed most to battle the Coronavirus.  She told him the thing that would help most was a national strategy and consistent message from the White House. She said the mixed messages from the federal government have made it more difficult for states to take action and have made it harder for citizens to know what to believe.  She added that the states also need access to federal buying power, “so it’s not states bidding against each other for N95 masks.”  

The conversations with Sen. Klobuchar and Gov. Whitmer show that Biden is much more concerned with how we pull our country together than he is in scoring political points. His criticisms of President Trump—refusal to take the virus seriously, ignorance about science, failure to deliver tests, and lack of coordination of desperately needed federal assistance—are slipped into the conversations but are not a feature of these conversations. Biden believes you have to be able to bring the majority of the people with if you want to solve problems and he is looking for a partner who can build relationships across the political divides and help him do that.  

Biden chose to speak with Rev Barber for his Easter weekend podcast.  I knew Biden was practicing Catholic, but learned in his conversation with Rev. William Barber, a prominent Protestant minister and political activist, that one of Biden’s passions is comparative theology.  “Let’s talk about faith,” said Biden.  Rev. Barber, who has served as pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, in Goldsboro, North Carolina and leads the Poor People’s Campaign, quoted his grandmother, “Faith without works is dead.” You can feel Biden smiling. His grandfather used to say, “Keep the faith; his grandmother said, “No, spread the faith.”

Biden summarizes his faith in one Biblical quote: “What you do unto the least of my brethren you do unto me.” For Biden that boils down to treating people with respect and dignity and taking care of each other. “All religions,” said Biden, “have at their core this notion that there is something beyond you.” He adds, “What gives me hope is when I see somebody do just the little things they didn’t have to do.” It could be carrying someone’s grocery bag, cutting a neighbor’s grass, picking up a piece of litter from the road. “Little acts of kindness,” said Biden.  “a million little things. Not one big thing.” 

Biden often quotes Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish theologian, who wrote that “Faith sees best in the dark.” He sees this virus—as horrible as it is—as having two saving graces: it is eliciting acts of kindness that Biden hopes will be as contagious as the virus is and it is showing Americans the essential value of low wage earners actually on the frontlines fighting this pandemic.  Biden believes we have an opportunity to address systemic inequality, to provide health care for all Americans, expand access to higher education, invest in research and create new jobs. Above all, Biden wants to restore the middle class and resume our work of building that more perfect union imagined by our founding fathers. 

In his discussion with historian Jon Meacham, Biden lets us know what kind of president he would want to be.  He will surround himself with knowledgeable people because of the rapidly evolving technology. He’s going to repair international relations. “America First, in my view,” Biden said, “has made America last.” He will celebrate our diversity. “You can’t define an American by anything other than an idea. We are uniquely the product of an idea…that we hold these truths to be self-evident.”

It is in the back and forth between Biden and Meacham about their favorite presidents that you get an idea of how Biden sees the presidency.  Meacham awarded high marks to Franklin Roosevelt’s sense of hope, Lyndon Johnson’s doggedness, and Barack Obama’s brain power on science. Biden, in turn, said he admired many presidents from Washington to Obama, but he highlighted three for their ability to envision the future. He said Lincoln’s presidency, in light of the country’s situation at the time and his own family circumstances, is a study in courage, insight, and foresight.  He said no one generated a sense of hope and willingness to try new approaches more than Roosevelt, but he pointed to John F. Kennedy for being able to cut through the noise and articulate a vision. “He believed,” said Biden, “that if we worked hard enough, everything beyond the Horizon was possible. We could change history. We could mold it. We could move it.” Biden added, “But it’s a real close call. It takes having a bit of foresight, having some experience in knowing what is likely to come, preparing for what is likely to come.”

Grandpa Knew Best

Spokane has produced more than its fair share of famous business leaders, artists, professionals and politicians. Two — one a Democrat and the other a Republican — earned national acclaim for the critical roles they played in maintaining the post-World War II institutions that laid the foundation for the "American Century." 

Tom Foley did that in Congress and as speaker of the House from 1965-95, while my late grandfather, Eric Allen Johnston, did the same through a variety of posts. In writing a biography of the man I remember most vividly for giving Christmas its sparkle, a fuller picture is emerging. I see his passion for America, but also his deep concerns for our country. 

I unearthed a long-forgotten keynote address he gave in January of 1945 to the Writers' War Board — an organization that coordinated some 4,000 American writers to support the war effort. In this speech, I hear my grandfather speaking to me, and to our times.

For the full story:

A prominent Spokanite speaks from beyond the grave, with an important message for our time