Neither Democrats Nor Republicans Can Afford To Be Sheep,Louise Annarino,1-14-2013
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
Edward R. Murrow
My first foray into political activism began when I read about apartheid in Rhodesia and South Africa. My eight year old mind was stunned at the racism which was stamped “approved” by the Rhodesian government. Even more shocking was its apparent acceptance by the United States. I had heard about boycotts,and their use to end segregation. Thus,I could not understand why we were a willing trade partner spending millions of dollars in Rhodesia. My father suggested I ask his childhood friend and our congressman, Rep.John Ashbrook (R-OH) about this when he held his next week-end office hours. I made an appointment for the following saturday. At 10 a.m. I found myself dressed in my sunday best outside the door to his office at the Licking County Court House, nervous but serious about getting answers.
Congressman Ashbrook respectuflly overlooked my awkward effort to hoist my short self up into a chair placed before his desk. He did not even smile at the picture of my legs sticking straight out,too short to even bend over the edge of the seat. He took my concerns seriously and respectfully explained the realities of global politics. At that time Rhodesia was the largest producer of chromium, which we sorely needed for miltary and defense industries. He explained why we needed it and what we had to overlook to get it. He agreed that it was a deal with the devil and not to be taken lightly. He promised to put pressure on Rhodesia and South Africa to end apartheid, to seek alternative sources of chromium and other trade items with countries practicing apartheid, and to look for other ways to address the issue of racism.
Every time anyone in Congress discussed an issue realted to my concerns or new related legislation was introduced he mailed me copies of the legislation and or discussion printed in the congressional record. Over the years,until his sudden death while running for the U.S. Senate, we corresponded on a variety of issues. Few of which we took similar positions on. By then I had become a registered Democrat,but remained an appreciative constituent of the ultra-conservative John Ashbrook. I was starting to love politics.
When Sen.John F. Kennedy ran for president I was ten years old. All of my friends,and the nuns at school,swooned over his good looks and were thrilled to support a Catholic candidate. Our religion and patriotism was under attack by democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey during the primary,and I decided to set the record straight. I researched American history,looking for Catholics who had served in government as patriots to illustrate the ill-considered attacks made against Sen.Kennedy’s ability to lead the country without allowing Catholism or the papacy guide his decisions. By the time I was finished I had ten pages of Catholic patriots on my list.
I learned that the father of the U.S. Navy John Barry,the first captain commissioned by the Continental Congress refused 100,000 British pounds to dessert the American navy and captain any British ship of his choosing. He was outraged. John Fitzgerald was General George Washington’s private secretary during the Revolutionary War. The treasurer who held and disbursed funds during the revolution was Catholic as well as two signers of the U.S. Constitution one who a signed the Declaration of Independence. Lafayette and Pulaski were Catholic. Page after page I listed individuals entrusted by fellow patriots to serve and protect the cause of revolution and the establishment of the new government. I mailed the list to Sen. Kennedy and asked him to use it to put Humphrey and others in their place when they used Catholicism to cast a cloud over Kennedy’s ability to lead the nation. I still have the letter Sen. Kenndy sent in response,thanking me for the information. Imagine my surprise a year later when he quoted from my list during the general election debate, when Vice-President Richard Nixon brought up the issue. My Republican Dad was cheering on Kennedy and patting me on the back for a job well done. I was hooked on politics.
It was years later,while an intern at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office the summer between my second and third year of law school that I really began to understand the inner workings of political institutions, and the people who run them. I did not expect politics to intercept law so easily. The tension between the two is a strong undercurrent. Fortunately,most individuals handle it deftly,appropriately, and ethically. Those who don’t are called to account. What amazes me is not that some try to manipulate government institutions,including courts,for political and economic gain;but that so few do so. Also, the ready aceptance of bi-partisan cooperation,until recently,has been quite impressive.
I recall a case in which the state of Ohio hoped for an outcome which would protect the state and state coffers. However, Ohio law dictated a different outcome, unless we could find strong precedent which would allow the Ohio Supreme Court to oveturn Ohio law on the issue before it. The Democratic AG and the Republican-led Supreme Court each knew that the failure of the legislature to change the law earlier had brought the state to this unfortunate impasse. Several interns worked around the clock to find a case strong enough for the court to hang its hat on. They succeeded and the state’s interest,and taxpayer’s interest was served by the court’s final decision. Politics and law at a crossroads is an exciting intersection for a legal intern.
What I abhorred was the quiet assumption that government workers would donate to political parties,increasing their chances of retaining their positions. This was not stated outright. No such request was ever made. But one could see that attending political events,fund-raisers and showing party support bolstered one’s professional standing whether democratic or republican. I decided I wanted no part of politics. I just wanted to practice law and rise or fall on my merits,not on my political contributions.
After law school,I worked for the non-profit Legal Aid Society of Columbus where my focus was on my clients and the law,without the subtle pressure of financing candidates or political parties. I continued to volunteer for candidates,make contributions to their campaigns, knock on doors, stuff envelopes,do lit drops etc. But these efforts were unrelated to my practice of law. When I left the Legal Aid Society five years later to become Associate Director Of Legal Affairs at Ohio University I made sure during my interview that the position would not be a political appointment, and that I would never be asked to contribute to a specific candidate or party. I was assured that was the case.
However, when the next Attorney General was elected he realized Ohio law had not been strictly followed by his predecessors and announced he would do so. Ohio law stated that only the Attorney General could represent a state agency or institution in any hearing or court,before any agency or commission. The hiring of each attorney by state universities would require approval by the Attorney General, and each attorney would be appointed his Assistant Attorney General. I was right back where I had started!
When I met with the Attorney General he agreed that no one from his staff would ever request my political participation in,nor contribution to any political event or campaign. And, he never disappointed me. Nor did he allow my failure to attend such events to color his view of my professional performance and standing with his office. Other attorneys were appalled at my unwillingness to mingle politics and my legal practice. But,I refused to be a sheep and follow the flock. It would be too easy to be eaten by the wolves which surely would appear. It only takes a few wolves to decimate a flock.
When I see what is happening in republican political circles I worry about all those republicans who are fair and reasonable,who seek consensus, who prefer bi-partisan discussion, and who understand that legislation can be improved by listening and learning from the other side of the aisle. They have allowed wolves to come among them in sheeps clothing. Democrats are not immune from such an incursion,especially if they act like sheep. We are watching too many republicans being eaten alive not to understand it can happen to democrats as well. No one in either party can afford to act like sheep.
annarino writes 
TRADING TRUTH FOR POWER DURING WAR
We have been at war a long time. Those who predict we will have a second civil war miss the mark. We have been in a second civil war awhile already. I hesitate to write these words. It too easily will invite comparison to other wars than the one we are in. Just as references to a holocaust always reminds us of the worst one we can remember, which killed millions of innocents selected by a small group within a larger group of those who considered themselves superior beings, while others stood by and watched. We know the details differ from that Holocaust and others before and after. Just as the details of this Civil War differ from the first. But, the strategy of war is clearly present; and we would see it, if we would start noticing what is truly going on.
Wars start with lies. Propaganda machines must be put in place to name an enemy in derogatory terms so vile we can convince ourselves killing the other is not only justified but ordained. Religious leaders must be brought round, lest they stand in the way of those who would destroy other human beings, or deny them their right to live unmolested. All those who would seek to protect the innocents from attack must be corrupted and rewarded for standing aside while war proceeds. The more people who slide into deception, the easier it is to win a war. Once the state approves the action through legislation and courts, it is nearly impossible to turn the tide away from war.
Newt Gingrich enhanced the lies. Media constraints were removed under President Reagan allowing propaganda networks like FOX News and others to assert lie after lie until truth was no longer a cornerstone of journalism. Even FOX newscasters argue in court they are not journalists but entertainers. Of course. More than a decade ago television news was removed from control of a Vice-President for news and placed under the Vice-president for entertainment. Overseas news bureaus were dismantled. These changes allowed for the consolidation of propaganda as news. The New York Times and the Washington Post journalists, old-school journalism, still require three sources to validate stories. How can they compete with an un-regulated internet of algorithm-base-profitability news releases? The Big Lie is not the first lie. It is the one we noticed. The big lie started a long time ago. And after Trump is gone, and the party of lies disbanded the lies will continue unless we stop them by restoring the regulations which insisted on truth-telling. Our democracy flourished when free speech, like other freedoms, were fairly and reasonably regulated to assure freedom for all of us. Autocrats do not want us to have free minds. They want us to have controlled minds.
Think this Civil War we are in has caused no deaths? Tell that to the 800,000 and still counting Americans who have died from Covid. Tell that to Ahmaud Arbery, and to the Native American women on tribal lands who are America’s “missing”, and to Asian-American women fearful of walking alone, and for all women afraid of walking alone at night, and for those whose sexual identity is under attack. There is a commonality to such attacks…those under attack are not white males who believe themselves superior. The attacks are done by white males who believe themselves superior. The number of attacks are increasing exponentially with the increase in the lies sanctioned by certain media outlets and social networks, including comments by members of Congress. The amount of money funding these congressional leaders, secessionist groups, white supremacist groups and social media influencers is staggering. Yet, we are told we are a nation in economic crisis caused by immigrants and refugees, unions, people of color, women in the workforce etc. There is plenty of money in this country. But as part of the new civil war we have continually enacted legislation to channel money to the already rich through our tax code, and bleed dry the middle class. The big lie continues to blame the poor for our economic failures. How can the poor lose money they never had? How can their inability to purchase goods and stimulate the economy be blamed on them? Big lies make us stupid. Big lies make us illogical.
When did secession become acceptable? Or has it always been so? Was it when Sarah Palin whose husband at the time, a known secessionist, was selected to run as Vice-President by the Republican Party? Those statues and monuments to secessionists are Big Lies, too. We have honored the Big Lie for a very long time. We have enshrined it.
Gingrich did not create it. He did see its value in promoting a Republican Party which continues to push white male supremacy as its core belief. It no longer has any other platform. It has become, quite openly, the secessionist party. Donald trump is merely the poster boy for misogynist, racist, wealthy white supremacy. The rest of America, including poor white men of good will are the victims of this Civil War. There is no culture war because America has no culture separate from its diversity of cultures. The American tapestry has served us well. It created a strong middle-class capable of supporting a democratic republic. But, a democratic and culturally diverse America stands in the way of autocrats and oligarchs seeking to consolidate their wealth and power.
Money bought legislative power and blocked political funding laws to stop this corrupting influence on legislators. Money bought candidates and blocked transparency in political ads. Money bought judges and blocked voting rights enforcement. While Democratic candidates, for the most part, rely on single low value donors, Republican candidates raise billions of dollars at home and abroad. Money floats across boundaries through multi-national banks and corporations. Trump, the money-launderer understands this.The great con man has always been a great liar. The republican Party thinks he is perfect for the job of continuing its assault on truth. Because trading truth for power is an acceptable value during war.
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