When the "s" is all that remains

Aye, but we live in turbulent times. 

There is really no other way of saying it: turbulent.  

I have to admit I have watched with a great deal of sadness, and, frankly, anger over the last few weeks with America's foray into invading (bombing?) Iran. I don't even know what you call this latest series of strikes on Iran. The sad thing is that I do not think anyone else does either exactly. 

I try not to get into politics too much on this blog because politics makes otherwise rational people go crazy. That is pretty much across the political spectrum these days: Right, Left, Center, whatever. People have all kinds of excuses. They blame Trump. They blame "libtards" (I really hate that term). They blame Socialism. They blame Capitalism. They blame any one or any thing really, except themselves of course. 

More's the pity. If 'all politics is local,' as the aphorism goes, the most local one can go is to one's own self and behavior. Everyone in this world needs a whole lot more self examination, particularly in the political realm. Speaking as an American, I most certainly include myself in that indictment because we are all carrying the disease that affects the entire body politick of the American Empire.

Yes, I said Empire.  

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines "empire" in this way:

"An empire is defined as a large political unit where a single sovereign authority exercises control over multiple territories or peoples, often through formal annexation or informal domination. It typically consists of a central governing authority and various subordinate regions or populations that may have different rights and governance structures."

By that definition, America is certainly an Empire. We don't like to think of ourselves as Imperial, but we have been for a very long time. The United States used to be referred with plural verbs. For example, it was quite common well into the late 1800s to say something like "the United States are a country founded on _______."  States is, in fact, plural. 

In de facto parlance, particularly after the Civil War, the United States became a singular word. 'The United States is a world superpower' replaced the grammar that would (rightly) have said The United States are a world superpower." I won't go into a history of how that parlance came to be standard American grammar, but the idea of the United States as a Republic of Republics where one's first allegiance is to your sovereign State and not the Federal center has largely been beaten out of the consciousness of most Americans since Reconstruction.  

Like a vestigial organ of the human appendix that one time in human evolution served a biological purpose but no longer serves any modern anatomical purpose, the "s" at the end of United States is all that remains of the American ideal of a Republic. We might as well drop the "s" and simply refer to our country as the United State of the America, with the State being the Federal government and not the sovereign (now subordinate) States that make up the Union.

Thus, our turbulent times. We have an Imperial President, and have had one for generations. One honest thing that Donald Trump has done is simply remove the fig leg. We have had imperial executive government for decades, but heretofore Presidents put on a facade of appealing to Congress or at the least "We, the people" before launching off into various wars and foreign entanglements. They were largely going to do such actions anyway, but at least made the public show of some Constitutional fig leaf covering their naked aggression. 

All Trump has done is simply take away the fig leaf. He has gone full stop into the realm of "Caesar can do what he wants because Caesar can do no wrong." I have long said that Trump would carry out a serial murder on the White House lawn and his followers would completely be fine with it as long as he murdered liberals, perverts, or illegal immigrants. Trump is simply doing what generations of Presidents have done, sans Constitutional fig leaf. Woodrow Wilson and FDR unilaterally got whatever he wanted in terms of war powers. LBJ pretty much fabricated an incident to get his Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and Nixon pretty much further escalated the Vietnam War in Cambodia and Laos despite his campaign promises to the contrary. 

No President has ever been held accountable for abusing his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Occasionally, there have been attempts to do so, but no President has ever actually been thrown out of office. Constitutional scholars are actually not sure how that would even work exactly. I mean, do the police show up and evict Caesar if he doesn't go voluntarily? If he was a deeply unpopular President, perhaps, but imagine if a popular President like an Obama or a Reagan had been impeached and convicted by a Congress of the opposing party? Could you imagine the photo op of a President being escorted out of the White House with a box and standing on the sidewalk looking in, like some poor family from a Dickensian novel? And what if that ex-President claimed racism or polarization and set up and alternate shadow White House and was popular enough abroad that foreign governments who actually went along with his charade? The US would descend into absolute political chaos.

 Let us return to my main theme here: turbulent times. I can't solve America's problems. I take that back...yes, I could solve America's problems if we actually went back to actual Federalism with the Federal Government rightly being the agent of the States, and not vice versa, but that is neither here nor there. Perhaps it is better to as I have not the power to solve America's problems. All I can do is point to the way, and the way is not of this world. 

All I can offer today is a prayer from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which I dub the Prayer for when the "s" is all that remains:

Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed: Kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all people the true love of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility your kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.