American Homesick Blues

“The pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handle” is from Dylan's “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and, like many of his lyrics, can be retrofitted to make current sense.

The pump is the American Constitution and the rule of law, the hearts of  American democracy. The thieving vandals are Trump and his gang of soulless accomplices in congress and his so-called “administration.”

We are stuck in the grasp of this maniac. He is at once patient and impulsive. He has waited out America and now controls the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the Department of Justice. It is a trifecta of tragedy. He has found his Roy Cohn in this triumvirate of treason. He has the handle to the pump of democracy and it sure isn't working right now, compared to the short and long term deep damage he is doing while the pump is out of commission.

Who knew the pump was so fragile? But nonetheless the Trump opposition in the House of Representatives continues to thrash about, issuing subpoenas that are routinely ignored or mocked in testimony. Trump has basically neutered these Democratic traditionalists by simply commanding that no person will cooperate and no documents will be given, no matter how many subpoenas these committees issue. His answer to oversight is “fuck you.” And if he is taken to court in any manner, he sues back ASAP. On and on. These are far from traditional times, and traditional political remedies have become meaningless, it would seem.

And then there are those voices clamoring for impeachment proceedings to begin. Judiciary chairman Gerry Nadler's first witness in the so-called “impeachment inquiries,” Corey Lewandowski, arrogantly laughed in the committee's collective and individual faces. Why shouldn't all the witnesses? There is no accountability if chairs like Nadler are going to sit and take contempt of congress without making a move. There was a time when Lewandowski would be in jail. This is not that time.

Turns out that the wisdom of Nancy Pelosi might lead to the restoration of the handle of democracy. She has been hesitant right along about impeaching Trump. Her reasoning, as I understand it, is that even if an impeachment trial reached the Senate, Trump would be found innocent. And he would take his exoneration as complete vindication of anything he has ever done in office and crow about it all the way to November 2020. She sees impeachment as ammo for Trump's presidential campaign.

Significantly, there has not been a great deal of impeachment talk from the Democratic candidates either on the stump or at the debates. That could change with the current Whistleblower revelations, but currently they see getting elected as more important an issue than impeachment. And Pelosi sees getting totally behind  whichever candidate emerges as a more important issue than a failed impeachment attempt, in both a tactical and a strategic sense. She sees the ballot box as the equalizer, the handle restored to the pump.

Yes, Trump seems to be bullet-proof right now, waving the handle to the pump in America's face and telling the country to come and get it if we can. Another folk singer, Woody Guthrie, has an answer for him: “This land is our land.”