Grey Scale

12/28 -

Last night was my last night at my brothers house in the D.C. metro area.  We had friends over and a nice family and friends dinner for thirteen.  After dinner we settled into a conversation, around the dining room table, about what we all thought the upcoming government was going to end up looking like.  As many Americans do, there were many of us around the table that saw the next administration in black or white terms, along with the Republican Congress.  I was one of those voices, although not the Congress as much as the future administration.  I still do not see the trump administration in any other way, other than the extremes of black or white.

My sister in-law is, I have found over the past thirty years, a very astute political observer and much of what she has foreseen as the future of our country's political structure has come to pass.  For instance, in the 1980's, she told me that what we now refer to as the 'Christian right' was going to grow to be a political power that needed to be paid attention to.  At the time I 'boo hooed' her and believed she was silly.  Well we all know how that has played out.  Last night she rightfully pointed out that nothing is black or white (or at least very little).  And I immediately recognized, within myself, that this was a basic tenet that I live by.  I often tell people that say words like 'never' or 'always' that superlatives are rarely true.  So, given my own core beliefs, my sister in-law's history with understanding Washington, D.C. and her admonition that rarely are things either black or white, I stepped back.

I still believe that trump and steve bannon, as well as a few other's that will be appointed to cabinet positions are characters that can be seen in stark black and white terms, with relation to their opinions on critical issues.  Characters, I believe, is an apt description for these people.  Certainly trump and bannon lack any complexity as human beings, as far as I'm concerned.  If they have well rounded and developed adult personalities, I see no evidence of it.  The others that I referred to, I really do not know enough about them to make that sort of decision.

I also feel that the women and men that comprise the Senate are reasonable people.  Even Mitch McConnell, who I do not hold much respect for, has shown himself to not be a rubber stamp for trump (at least on some issues), but time will tell.  The Senate may very well be a very strong ally in the fight to hold trump and bannon in check.  I am not forgetting about pence, who will preside over the Senate, but whose only true powers will be to be a tie breaking vote and of course to attempt to keep Republicans in line on any given vote.  pence is a person I believe to be a great threat to individual liberty, especially women's liberties.

The House of Representatives as a whole, again, has decent men and women.  There are smaller groups that will attempt to wreak havoc and therefore the House is a less dependable body.  So, the Senate will need to be a check on both the admin and the House.

We, Americans of decent moral values, whether Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, rich or poor need to be pragmatic.  We need to find common ground and stand on that turf to block bannon and trump when they attempt to act in immoral ways.  That pragmatism depends on not seeing each other with rigid labels, but recognizing each other as allies against immorality.  Not seeing each other as black or white characters.  Recognize the 'grey scale', find the common ground, use it to keep our country safe and to remain the United States  of America.