Longer Nights

It’s been a week since Halloween when everyone is supposed to be a little frightened of ghosts and kids pulling pranks. But this week should scare the hell out of all of us. Let’s see, on Halloween night Trump was hosting a “Gatsby” themed dinner party at Mar-a-Logo while forty-two million Americans were facing losing their SNAP benefits which they rely on to eat. They still aren’t getting them today even after a federal judge told the administration to restore the full benefits in total today. Trump is appealing. Apparently, the hungry can wait. A real “let them eat cake” moment. French history says it was spoken by a great princess when told peasants had no bread. It’s been attributed to Marie Antoinette, but never proven she said it. We know what happened to her.

The government shutdown is also grounding air travel. There are now ten percent cuts in flights at forty of the biggest airports. Airports are jammed with hours long lines because air traffic controllers and TSA agents aren’t getting paid. There was a shortage of controllers before the shutdown. Many are calling in sick because they can’t take the pressure of the responsibility of thousands of lives as their own lives are falling apart.

Let’s not forget, congress is getting paid to stay home. The House has been out of session since the shutdown started. Republican Speaker Mike Johnson thinks the tactic will force Democrats to cave on their demand to extend benefits for Obamacare. The people we elected to serve us have abandoned all responsibility. They think they are going to win political points. Trump is pressuring the Senate to drop the filibuster which requires sixty votes in the Senate to pass legislation. Republican senators won’t do it because they are afraid it will be used against them when Democrats are in control.

Lightning struck on Tuesday, Election Day. A blue wave has overwhelmed Trump and his cult of MAGA nuts. Democrats had a clean sweep in the governor’s races in New Jersey, Virginia, and for mayor of New York. Trump, of course, blames everyone else for the loses. He says it wouldn’t have happened if he was on the ballot.

Trump and the congress have sat back and done nothing to solve this crisis they have created. They are allowing people to go hungry, not get paid and be held hostage at airports. We are a dysfunctional mess. Voters were sending a message with their votes on Election Day. We can’t keep going down this road. While there was a sliver of blue sky this week, the next year will be critical as we get ready for the midterm elections in 2026. Flipping the House from Republican to Democrat will finally allow us some control over a president who is out of control and dangerous.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby’ was written is 1925. It was a depiction of the wealth and class divisions in the country in the 1920’s. A hundred years later we are seeing it played out for real. In the fifteen years after the novel was published we experienced the Great Depression and World War II. There is much we can learn from history.

The turning back of the clocks last week makes for longer nights. Let’s hope we can see our way through the darkness of the American winter.