We have one week before everything changes. We had the last late gasp of summer over the weekend when the temperature hit 80 degrees. The leaves were at their peak of red, orange and yellow. But they will be joining the dry, brown, dying leaves that have been crunching under foot for weeks. This last week before we give up Daylight Saving Time and go back to Standard Time feels like a curtain is coming down on the warmth of summer and cool sunshine of autumn. The kids all hope it will stay warm one last day so they don’t have to wear layers under their Halloween costumes. It will be dark by five o’clock and by December 21st, it will closer to four-thirty. The world will feel smaller and darker.
The state of the world and the country will also grow darker in the months ahead. The Israeli-Hamas war and the massacre of civilians on both sides could explode into a war that could consume the Middle East with dangerous consequences for the rest of the world. This is drawing attention away from the war in Ukraine that could determine the future of Europe. The rest of the world looks to the United States for leadership. What are they seeing? They saw the House of Representatives paralyzed for three weeks because the dysfunctional Republicans acted like a cult that was at war with itself. They decided to hand over the job of Speaker to an unknown, extreme right wing, congressman from Louisiana who is one of Trump’s strongest election deniers. Mike Johnson is already making threats of withholding money for Ukraine.
The biggest immediate threat to all of us is the potential of a government shutdown. The House Republicans let a small band of extremists vote Kevin McCarthy out the Speaker’s chair when he made a deal with the Democrats to avoid a shutdown several weeks ago. Johnson owes his job to these extremists and has no experience dealing with a crisis this consequential. This is the time for leaders to step up. Compromise for the good of the country even if it costs them their jobs.
The darkness that will start to fall upon us next week happens every year. We will have to deal with the freezing cold and the snow storms. Thanksgiving and Christmas will give some relief and enjoyment and help push us through the dreariness of January and February. Spring will revive us as it does every year. Nature will take care of the seasons. It will be up to us and our leaders to get us through the darkness ahead.
Correct on all accounts. At this point we can only hope that the Republican Party dysfunction continues to get worse so that there is a crash and burn and the birth of a new, legitimate party that is actually interested in our framework of government and governing. I really don’t see any other outcome.