I’m writing this just after the 25th anniversary of 9/11, a day when most of us are caught up in our memories of that time in American history, reflecting on the very worst parts of that day but reminded that the day brought out our best moments. The worst parts of this year’s observance was the use of a solemn ceremony at the Pentagon to beat the war drums on Iran and to lie to the American people that we are winning. The best moments were seeing and hearing people read the names of their dead relatives, sometimes with personal comments as well. It is the one day of the year that we are reminded of the everyday, practical instances of the first responders’ courage and willingness to do their job, and also of the commitment of those who cleared the site afterward, sacrificing their own long-term health after being told that the “air was safe.” This was the first time that the reading of names was used to cite the inability of four living (and present) presidents to release classified documents on the role Saudi Arabia played in the attack. Though our current president chose to speak at the Pentagon rather than Ground Zero because no speeches are allowed at Ground Zero, the pressure on him to release documents is now stronger than ever, in part because of the close family business ties with the Saudi government.
I’ve written about 9/11 and the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission since this newsletter first published. This year, two converging issues struck me as reason enough to vote this fall in the midterms, no matter how hard the Trump administration makes it. The first is the ongoing destruction of what you might call our cultural institutions, which to me includes our free press, public media like PBS and NPR, and universities as well as museums and libraries. Not only have these institutions been significantly defunded, but there is also a concerted administrative effort to rewrite history. The president has been effective at removing leadership in most of these places, most recently at the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
His efforts to create new cultural symbols or to refresh old ones are mixed. Though the East Wing Ballroom project continues, there are still more battles to be waged along the way. His proposed triumphal arch sited between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial is scheduled to start, though it is still mired in the courts. He wants to paint the gray granite Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), a 19th-century French Second Empire-style landmark located next to the West Wing of the White House. He has built and rebuilt a helipad on the White House lawn and decorated the interior with gaudy gold ornamentation and signage. His efforts to fix up the Reflecting Pool on the Mall have failed, with a full cycle of explanations and finger-pointing.
You would think he had enough to do to oversee our mounting financial challenges and wars in both Iran and Ukraine, but his defense secretary has been so busy firing or retiring military leaders with actual experience that even Republicans have begun to ask for the strategy being followed. Military enrollments are down, and no trespassing signs are up for gays and trans people, and scores of female officers with real experience are being ignored or removed from service.
Like our cultural institutions, the military is being hollowed out and the story is being rewritten. Stockpiles of military supplies and weapons are dangerously low, affecting our readiness to deal with other threats (no longer considered threats by Trump) like North Korea and Russia. Historic alliances and supply chain protocols are caught up in trade wars that the official leader of a once undeniably great nation has made no coherent explanation for to the citizens he represents.
There is significant and widespread destabilization in this country, as Trump plays with the military and our cultural institutions. The midterm elections offer an opportunity to strengthen Congressional checks and balances on Trump. He is currently back at the Supreme Court, arguing for a range of restrictions on mail-in ballots. From painful recent experience, I learned that my mailed vote was not counted because it was not postmarked in a timely fashion. (New postal efficiencies here send your mail to a centralized posting machine that is not in your local post office.) I urge those of you who vote by mail to drop your ballot into a voting box rather than put it in Trump’s hands to disappear.
We’ve been urging people to exercise their Constitutional right to vote for years. The president’s decision to go to the Pentagon, evidently only so he could make a speech, was then punctuated by a fake Republican “convention” where the most memorable marker was a gross attempt to effectively buy votes for Republicans in the approaching midterm elections in the form of a promise of $5,000 to every voter if the Republicans won. It is not just a grotesque violation of the Constitution, but a confirmation that this president recognizes only the principle of self-dealing and grift. The one remaining remedy is to vote.