We had our first really major snowstorm of this season. True, we had one smaller snowstorm, which actually brought with it measurable amounts of snow along with it. But that was just an inch or two at most.
By contrast, yesterday's winter storm really dumped serious amounts of snow across the region.
Worse, the temperatures plummeted overnight, which turned that snow icy. That means that road conditions are likely treacherous as I write this. There will be black ice and slick conditions for this Monday morning commute.
Fortunately, I disciplined myself enough to go out last evening and clear the snow from both cars. Also, I made sure to pull out of each spot and then go back in, so that it would require minimal of effort this morning (hopefully) to pull out of the spaces. So my girlfriend's car was cleared off, and I also made a point of making sure that I moved my car into a spot that was cleared during the overnight hours, to give them a chance to clear out the spot which I was in.
The snow was quite beautiful, aesthetically speaking. As nervous as I was driving in it after work yesterday, there were times when I looked at the snow-draped trees and woods on the sides of the road, and admired just how beautiful it was.
Like a winter wonderland.
But with the absolutely frigid temperatures this morning - we are right now in a deep freeze that is supposed to last pretty much the week, at least - the storybook romance of the winter storm was pretty much done. I had to force my car door open, as it had frozen overnight. Then, I had to do the same with my girlfriend's car door when starting that up.
Also, since I put out my back about two weeks ago, I had to walk carefully to be careful not to slip and fall, and make matters worse.
All of this is part of what makes winter stressful, and which can be annoying after a while, and make people long for the spring, and for milder temperatures.
A couple of weeks ago, some people were suggesting that that particular Monday - which would have been January 6th - was the Mondayest Monday of the year.
Maybe.
But this one has my particular vote.
It's not just the winter storm, because of course, today is Inauguration Day. These are the final hours of the Joe Biden presidency. And while I admittedly was not a huge fan of Biden for many years - decades, even - before his presidency, I will say that he was a better president in some ways than my expectations had me believe. In particular, he was more pro-union than any president that I can remember, dating back to Ronald Reagan's presidency. Also, he was forthright about the threat to democracy posed by the neo-fascist movement which has obviously gained strength in this country, and indeed around the world, in recent years.
It seems that a lot of people think that I am crazy when suggesting that the incoming president might be in office for longer than just the four allotted years. Truth be told, I hope that they are right. Four years from now, I hope that I can laugh at my seeming paranoia at the prospect that this particular presidency might last many, many years to come. But the truth is that I am nervous that there will be momentum to change the laws and eliminate term limits, and that we might see this administration try and extend itself, one way or the other, beyond this four year term.
Call me crazy, but I do believe that this anti-democratic spirit which has prevailed presents an existential threat to our obviously fragile American democracy. We have already seen serious erosions of that democracy in recent years and even decades. It extended through numerous presidential administrations, and continued it's advance with the seal of approval by both of the major political parties that dominate politics in the United States. It might have started before I was born, when Nixon tried to grab more power and go beyond the traditionally recognized limits of power of presidents which had come before him. It continued under Reagan, who was then known as the "Teflon president" because he kept getting away with major scandals that could - and probably should - have ended his presidency, like the Savings & Loan scandal and especially the Iran-Contragate scandal. Reagan also began the whole momentum for "deregulation" which, to me, represents a disastrous turn for this country, in terms of worker's rights, environmental standards, and corruption in both corporate and government culture in the United States. Reagan also got rid of the Fairness Doctrine, thus opening the doorway for the slanted, opinion-based information from official news source which has turned into such a shitshow, frankly, in this country in the decades since. This deterioration continued through the administration of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who advanced the deterioration of the Fairness Doctrine. Clinton also expanded NATO, which contributed to tensions in eastern Europe which helped lead to the rise of Putin and the war in Ukraine which is currently still ongoing. Also, it was under Clinton that the prison system was privatized, which was horrific for human rights and gave the United States the dubious distinction of having more people behind bars in this "land of the free" than any other country in the world. And blatant corruption in government and corporate culture also gained momentum under Clinton, with him promoting deregulation measures, including the disastrous repeal of Glass-Steagall. Of course, we should note that many observed at the time that Clinton had replaced Reagan as the "real Teflon president." That should have been a warning to Americans, but it wasn't, because the next president, George W. Bush, was then considered "the real Teflon president," marking an obvious trend of deterioration of accountability and a lack of effectiveness on the system of checks and balances which is supposed to keep abuses of power from growing. Bush also expanded the powers of the presidency and the PATRIOT Act was an attack on civil liberties. Of course, deregulation and blatant corruption in government and corporate culture boldly made still more advances under Bush Jr., which was why we had numerous corporate scandals, from Enron and Blackwater and Halliburton to the "Great Recession" at the tail end of his presidency which nearly collapsed the economy altogether. Oh, and let's not forget torture and his illegal and immoral war in Iraq based on false premises. Then came Obama, who many celebrate. But Obama's first term continued Bush's economic policies for at least the first four years. Also, Obama liked drone killings overseas, as well as spying on nations which we traditionally identified as allies, like Germany. And let's not forget to give credit where credit is due, as far as Obama is concerned, because he eliminated habeas corpus, a constitutional right, in certain cases. So while others celebrate the Obama presidency, I look at these kinds of things as a measure of weakness. Then, in the years which followed, we learned that the term "Teflon president" would sink to even new depths, as we had a certain president who seemed to relentlessly challenge the nation with new lows and scandals. At some point, it seemed like he took these as a personal challenge, records to try and beat, as we never seemed to get a break from awful news headlines and new marks of lows in terms of arrogance and entitlement and attacks on the Constitution, as well as staggering levels of corruption in both government and corporate culture in the United States. Through all of this, an era which has now spanned more than half a century, the divide between rich and poor, between the haves and have-nots, just kept growing and growing, until it has now reached crisis levels.
And we outright elected that same president back into office for him to pursue still more astonishing lows, and for even more blatant corruption in both government and corporate culture to not only go unabated, but to outright be celebrated. We likely will see the same tireless, relentless assault on the Constitution and the rights of American citizens. Surely, we will have headlines which will embarrass and shame the country before the entire world, as we did during the first term, when outright Nazis and white supremacists were considered "good people," and when dozens of countries were described by the sitting president as "shithole nations," and when a video of a supporter shouting "white power" was briefly posted on his official website, before being taken down after a few hours. Already, there have been embarrassing headlines about him being in a mindset of imperialism and expansionism that dominated the 19th and early 20th century, as he has openly expressed a desire to expand America's border by making Canada the 51st state, by possibly putting boots on the ground in Mexico, and by refusing to rule out the possibility of militarily taking over the Panama Canal and Greenland.
Sigh.
All of that is bad enough. What makes it worse is the knowledge that the country was not forced into all of this. I have voiced my opinion in the past that January 6th was nothing short of an attempted coup d'état, and have seen and heard nothing since to change my mind. However, the fact of the matter is that this country voted for this circus act twice. Maybe he did not get an outright majority in any election that he ran for, and maybe he lost the popular vote twice, including the first time that he officially won. But this last time around, more people voted for him than any other candidate, including Kamala Harris, the main opposition. This time, there was no controversy, really. He won the election. Which means that after all of the nonsense, the American people opted to go through the shitshow for a second time. Many enthusiastically, at that. I heard fireworks going off that night and the next day, literally. Presumably in celebration of putting this con artist in the Oval Office for a second time.
In reflecting on all of this, I cannot help but think about a very different time in the nation's history. We just lost the late Jimmy Carter, who surely was the most respectable and decent president in my lifetime. He actually cared enough about the country and it's future to try and seriously address problems which he saw threatening the nation's future in the decades to come. In other words, he wanted to address these problems which went well beyond his term of office, and which would not benefit his hopes to win another term in office. There were two speeches, the energy speech, and the "Crisis in Confidence," or "Malaise" speech. In the energy crisis, he tried to lay out a plan to make the country energy independent and self-sufficient in the relatively near future, which would likely have eliminated out getting involved in some of the foreign wars we have gotten involved in since. But the so-called Malaise speech addressed something no less relevant, and possibly far more relevant. He talked about the growing threat of excessive greed and narrow self-interest in the country, and how that was leading us down a dark path.
All of this proved prophetic. If anything, the decades since have proven that Carter was well ahead of his times. Had we collectively listened to him and, more importantly, taken him seriously enough to follow up on his recommendations (and perhaps given him another four years in office), I think that we would be in far better shape as a country, both morally and realistically. But we chose a very different path, one which he warned of. Now, we are paying the price for opting for the easy way out, and getting too used to politicians putting in pretty smiles and telling us what we want to hear, instead of giving us the truth and telling us what we need to hear. What we are about to endure for the next four years - at least the next four years - might be just the beginning, I am sorry to say.
So I am trying to savor these final hours of the Biden presidency, much as I tried to savor the final hours of the Obama presidency eight years ago. Because even though I have differences with both of those men and their presidential administrations (which I have already expressed), the fact of the matter is that they had some standards, and feel infinitely preferable to what we now face ahead.
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