Hold on

I’ve been thinking about it all week, and I just don’t know what to tell you on this, the 249^th anniversary of our national birthday.

Pretty sure the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence would side-eye each other and go down the tavern for a gill of brandy if they caught wind of how their bold gamble was turning out. They were ready to risk everything—“our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor”—to break away from Mother England; they were overwhelmingly men of property, so they had a lot to lose.

And the men who carefully put together the Constitution, with its first ten amendments, would be equally gobsmacked. Like the Declaration, the Constitution was a response to a failed government (in this case, the confederation) and it was constructed to “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. (Liberty figured in both documents, but the concern was lawfulness as a basis for all government actions.) They crafted a form of government that they intended to live and grow; one that would be immune to feckless rulers, corrupt judges or petty legislators because of the built-in checks and balances.

They just didn’t anticipate a circumstance when we would have all three at the same time.

This administration has committed many of the crimes in the Declaration’s indictment of George III, in addition to many others no English king could have imagined. The Kleptocrat is manipulating global stock markets with his tariff declarations; building an armed secret police that can be turned against anyone in the country, citizen or not; declaring war on states, governors, mayors and anyone who doesn’t sufficiently bend the knee to him; breaking international treaties; violating constitutional provisions; ignoring actual laws; selling off national lands; enriching his family and friends; and generally behaving more despotically than anyone since Ivan the Terrible.

Congress—more specifically, Republicans in Congress—have utterly abrogated their constitutional power because they’re terrified that TACOman will sic his followers on them either politically or physically. They’re willing to kiss the ring just to hold the title (and those sweet, sweet lobbying contributions and insider trading opportunities), as they tug their forelocks and murmur, “Yas, boss” whenever he makes another demand on them. They’re about to take away healthcare from millions of Americans, throw billions of dollars at ICE, gut environmental protections and give billionaires and corporations more billions, hustling to get the job done in time to get home for July 4^th fireworks and barbecues with the constituents they’re fucking over.

And the courts—God bless them, the frontline judges and even most of the Circuit judges are doing their damned jobs like Trojans, but the most corrupt SCOTUS in history is in hog heaven, using their court-of-last-appeal power to cut out the constitutional support for decades of progress on civil rights. They’re barely cloaking their intent (or their glee) in their rulings. I’m pretty sure they write “because we can” in all of them and some clerk removes it before they’re released.

So—that’s where we are.

As that abomination of a bill moved back to the House this week, I had no Representative to contact: I live in the Virginia 11th, whose incumbent died a few weeks ago, unable to give up his position even as he was diagnosed with cancer. Because of that, and because our Republican governor is slow-walking the special election to replace him as long as he can, Democrats are down one vote in the House, and I’m the embodiment of taxation without representation. So I called the offices of two Representatives in adjacent districts: Don Beyer (10 years in) and Eugene Vindman (elected last year). The phones were answered (not going to voicemail or even to a “this mailbox is full” message, which happens when I call either of my senators) by actual humans. I thanked them for working through what is really a ratty week, and also asked them to urge their bosses to use their influence to stop this. It was the best I could do in the circumstances, and it’s what I believe the Founders and the Framers intended.

But, fuck—it’s so debilitating to be swimming against the tide in the cesspool that is our government, the creation of those men 249 years ago.

In honor of the congressional staff doing their jobs as diligently and as efficiently as possible, my anthem for Independence Day is “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”. An old folk song, it became one of the mainstays of the Civil Rights movement. And right now, some days it’s all we can do to just hold on. I'm giving you Mavis Staples singing it.

(YouTube puts an "unsuitable for some viewers" warning on it. WTF?)

©2025 Bas Bleu