Growing Together Again - Picking Winners and Losers threatens to Further Divide the Nation

 The View From Rattlesnake Ridge

Ruminations from an Unabashed Optimist, an Environmental Patriot and a Radical Centrist

 

Despite the Climate Emergency wreaking havoc throughout the nation and the world, and the Covid 19 pandemic still plaguing us, autumn here in the valleys between the Rattlesnake Ridge and the Sandwich Range has been just about picture-perfect this year. Welcome periods of warm sunny days, punctuated with mostly gentle soaking rains, beckoning to hikers and climbers and leg-stretchers like Kodi and I. Inviting us to partake of the autumn colors. 

It has also been a banner year for mushrooms and fungi. In fact, I have never in my life seen the forest floor covered by so many mushrooms. Even now as their presence is beginning to wane people are still commenting on the abundance and speculating on the reasons. 

Mushrooms are the gloriously emerging fruiting bodies of a fungus that is growing underground (mostly) from what are called mycelium, nerve-like tendrils that can spread for many miles without ever being seen. 

Now I know just enough about mushrooms to be dangerous, which is why I am very cautious about gathering them to consume. Most of the time I rely on my son Zach who is far more experienced at partaking of wild edible mushrooms. But there are certain mushrooms, like the Morel family, that are quite distinctive and even I can safely gather them for dinner. Problem is, they are usually pretty rare around these parts. But this year I have found them growing in an old abandoned apple orchard that Kodi and I enjoy often on our rambles. 

All these mushrooms aren’t new to the northeast or wherever they can be found; the mycelium has been here underground all along, just waiting for the ideal temperatures and rain we had this summer and fall. In theory they could go for hundreds of years without ever popping their fruiting bodies above ground.

The natural wonder of all this is a balm for the souls of the wanderers, but, to quote Tolkein, “not all those who wander are lost.” For the past 30 years scientists have turned increasingly to the hidden miracles of mycelium and what they have discovered - as well as what they continue to discover - is likely to hold an entire world of revolutionary changes to both our understanding of the natural world and our ability to rebuild our own species into a sustainable cohabitant of the planet.

Deep Roots Poster

When most of us walk through a forest or a park we see only the trees, shrubs, and plants above ground. We know from experience and education that these plants have root systems but what has only recently been discovered is that the entire ecosystem in which we are wandering communicates through the mycelial network below ground in what scientists have come to dub the “Wood-Wide-Web”; weaving in and out and through root systems and creating a biological neural network - sharing information, nutrients, water and carbon across distance, species and ecosystems.

A Fusion of Magic Mushrooms

Moreover, far broader implications are being discovered from the wonders of what is called the ​​mycorrhizal network. According to Scientific American: “​​mycelium can be coaxed to build predictable structures by controlling temperature, CO2, humidity and airflow to influence the growth of tissue. This is a rapid process: the accumulation of fibers becomes a visible speck after a few hours, a visible sheet after a day or two, and an 18-by-2-by-12-inch sheet weighing a couple of pounds within the course of a week.” All powered by simple and relatively inexpensive nutrients like wood waste or sugars. “ 

The possibilities are mind-bending. Mycelium's fast-growing fibers that produce materials used for packaging, clothing, food and construction - again according to SA “everything from leather to plant-based steak to scaffolding for growing organs. Mycelium, when harnessed as a technology, helps replace plastics that are rapidly accumulating in the environment.”

“All these benefits come with little environmental cost: the process of growing mycelium results in limited waste (mostly compostable) and requires minimal energy consumption.” Already bio-degradable packaging is being created in the US and Europe using this technology.

Now you may be wondering, if you read this column now and then, how I am going to turn this all into a discussion of current political and policy questions. 

Painted Fungus

Start with the fact that much of the research being done in this area is under the research umbrella of DARPA; The very same government entity that developed the World Wide Web is doing research - based on the “Wood-wide Web” that will unleash a new massive wave of economic and environmental benefits.  

Unfortunately, if the past is prologue, the billions of dollars of taxpayer money used for research to create this revolution will ultimately accrue to a few select companies and individuals who will capture and patent technologies based on the work of these government research institutes and affiliates. The economic benefits to average taxpayers will be crumbs by comparison. But it need not be that way. 

Shouldn’t the revolution created by this amazing research also lead to a revolution in the public policies by which we employ and enjoy the benefits - sharing the wealth with those who have paid for that research - the American people? 

Congress is currently deadlocked over a 3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” bill which has deteriorated into a food fight over numbers, with very little attention paid to what lies behind the spending. As much as the Democrats have tried to refocus the conversation to the content of the bill, they have been unable to so do. Those opposed, even the Republicans, refuse to specify what they would choose to remove, largely because they know if they pinpoint anything it will affect the outcome of their next election. Face it, people are hurting and 50 years of growing disparity of wealth in America has opened up a hole in the hearts of too many of our fellow Americans. In 2016 Donald Trump walked through that hole and quite nearly destroyed the Republic. 

Flying into a Gathering Storm

It isn’t just the Republicans who willingly and knowingly followed Donald Trump down that rabbit hole who are responsible.

The Democrats, including Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, bear some responsibility as well. But Manchin and Sinema are only nominally more responsible than many others who simply see the opportunity to feather the nests of their own pet issues. When faced with the opportunity to really do something different, many of the Democrats fell right back on their old playbook: Picking winners and losers and leaving the status quo essentially unchanged.  In the process, leaving a whole lot of our fellow citizens feeling abandoned in their desperation, and leaving that hole in their hearts equally vulnerable to a second Trump candidacy - or a Trump surrogate - in 2024.

If we really want to bring Americans together again, and it will not be easy,  we need to abandon the status quo; the additive process of increased spending based on winners and losers.  Our focus must be more on change that benefits everyone and - on the other side of the ledger - requires joint sacrifice to confront our most important challenges. 

Aspen Central

Doing this might just cause some of the moderate Republicans, hiding in the tall grass, to show the backbone needed to save their party from oblivion or their country from a descent into totalitarianism.

It might just be, in fact, it is highly likely, if we sincerely reformed the existing system, we could do more with less. A Universal Basic Income for every American citizen, supported by many conservative and progressive economists, would not favor community colleges over great small private or public colleges or quality certification programs in dozens of fields. Those who chose to spend some or all of their UBI on continuing education would be able to make their own personal choice. A UBI would not prioritize care of a dying parent over care of a newborn or vice versa; it would not prioritize dental care over other healthcare needs or personal needs. It would give every American the freedom to choose how their benefit would most effectively enhance their life and the life of their family. It would allow us to take a serious look at the massive social service bureaucracy that we have built over the years in the name of protecting citizens from themselves or punishing those we felt were less deserving for whatever reason. Unleashing real freedom of choice for low-income and working and middle-class Americans.

Exempt from Public Haunt

While a UBI would be the most effective and revolutionary change it would not be without it’s notable advocates. First proposed by Thomas Paine it was also supported by Richard Nixon who successfully shepherded it through the U.S.House only to have it killed in the Senate by Democrats and Nixon’s own personal failings. Supporting Nixon’s UBI back then was the conservative Economist Milton Freidman to whom Republicans, even today, continue to pledge fealty. 2020 Presidential candidate Andrew Yang is even now indicating that he expects to create a third political party with a UBI as a central tenet. If you think this represents an existential threat to the two-party system, you’re right. But if you think that Trump would be the beneficiary you have missed the reason he won to begin with altogether.  

While we are at it, it's high time we had national service in this country. One or two years of service in either the military or civilian corps would go a long way to bridging the differences that continue to manifest themselves in tribalism among our citizens. It need not be absolutely mandatory. For example we could create an opt-out similar to the conscious objector exception during the Vietnam era, or we could simply tie national service to qualification for the UBI. Interestingly, a good deal of research suggests that a “gap year” (or two) following High School would be dramatically beneficial to post-high school educational performance for most students.

Of course, not every priority requires the same treatment. The Climate Emergency initiatives - or at the very least equivalent effort built on other ideas - will benefit everyone and address our most urgent, existential crisis. The unity required of the effort is built into the nature of the challenge. 

A scientific revolution, brought on by breakthroughs like those chronicled above - perhaps equal to the birth of the Internet, has a power of its own and creates radical change defined by its possibilities, not by status quo politics and self-interested politicians; Limited only by our imagination and dedication to the premise outlined in our constitution: 

 

"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.”

 

Democracy is not a static state, nor is capitalism.  They are operating systems, requiring leadership that fearlessly embraces change to achieve its optimum outcome on an ongoing basis . . . that is how we achieve a more perfect union . . . and perhaps how we come together again.

Apples in a Jefferson Wind Row

Links

Scientific American
The Mycelium Revolution Is upon Us

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-mycelium-revolution-is-upon-us/

The National Forest Foundation

Underground Networking: The Amazing Connections Beneath Your Feet

https://www.nationalforests.org/blog/underground-mycorrhizal-network

About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor; he is  the former publisher of Heart of New Hampshire Magazine and CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., and now a columnist for the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism (inDepthNH.org) where he writes “The View from Rattlesnake Ridge” and hosts two Podcasts: The Radical Centrist (www.theradicalcentrist.us) and NH Secrets, Legends and Lore (www.nhsecrets.blogspot.com). His art (www.waynedking.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published four books of his images and a novel "Sacred Trust"  a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline - all available on Amazon.com. His art website is: www.waynedking.com , and his writing site:  http://bit.ly/WayneDKing . He lives in Thornton, New Hampshire at the base of Welch Mountain where he proudly flies both the American and Iroquois Flags.

Neap Tide for Planet Earth

Supercalifragalistic Dreams

Toward A Fairer Distribution of Wealth

Toward A Fairer Distribution of Wealth
After 50 Years of Backsliding, the Opportunity for Americans to Share the Wealth of our Economy Lies within Reach.

Some days as I ramble the fields and hills of the White Mountains I find myself pondering all the mistakes we have made as a nation in what we have always hoped would be the path to a “more perfect union”. It can be a most discouraging exercise. Slavery, genocide, religious intolerance and exclusion, all of these tragedies, and more, have made the path to the Founder’s dreams of a land where talent, ambition and ideas allow any citizen to rise - to succeed - more daunting.

Let’s face it, we can never truly make up for the wrongs that have been done monetarily.

Two thirds or more of the landmass of the United States alone was in the “possession” of Native American people for millennia before and during the 200 years following Columbus’ wrong turn. That’s a lot of real estate.

We can never fully atone for the grievous wrongs against African Americans perpetrated by Slave Traders and internecine kidnapping by warring tribes and factions on the African continent or the years of slavery that followed as well as the Jim Crow era, and the overt and institutional racism that has characterized the years since.

The mistreatment of generations of immigrants, the Irish of course, but particularly those from outside of Northern Europe, set back their advancement within the American Dreamscape by decades, if not centuries.

The treatment of Japanese Americans during the second world war and the confiscation of much of their existing wealth as well as ongoing racism that impacts those of asian descent.

The marginalization of women since the beginning of it all.

All of these and more original - and ongoing sins - of the Republic amount to far more money than we could possibly account for - no less tax for or pay out.

Add to all this the - now fifty year - downward spiral of incomes of the majority of Americans and you have a problem so daunting that no one quite believes we can truly address it.

But we can begin and, at least as a start, we could do so relatively painlessly with some real and sustainable benefits to all our citizens.

First the why…

1973. That is the year that many economists and historians point to as the turning point of the (modern) wealth disparity in this nation. In 1900 the gilded age of robber barons, was beginning to pass. Reforms by Republican Teddy Roosevelt’s administration began to reverse an earlier wealth disparity. The Progressive era brought more reforms driven by a golden age of journalism that helped expose the dark underbelly of the previous wealth disparity brought on largely by the Railroad interests, the oil and timber interests and other industrial age monopolies that had dominated the economic landscape of the country in the latter half of the 19th century.

With the obvious exception of the Great Depression, much of the 20th century - and especially the mid-century - was a time when the great middle class began to flourish. Even the wages and wealth of the sub-middle classes (sometimes referred to today as the “Precariat”) saw gains.

But in 1973 those gains hit a wall.

It was the first year when American wages declined in what would become a long pattern of decline; fifty years long as of today.

Until that time many of the reforms of the New Deal including tax policy and changes in the law to encourage the growth of labor unions had kept wages for the middle class, the working class and poor on an upward trajectory. In other words, their percentage of the wealth generated in the country was growing.

1973 was also the beginning of another phenomenon that is rarely noticed or mentioned by economists and historians and certainly not by politicians at any place on the political spectrum . . . a declining personal and economic freedom among these very same people.

As declining wealth and growing disparity began their slow rending of the American fabric, efforts were made to plug the holes in the dike of American prosperity. Put simplistically, these efforts were intended to deal with social and economic problems created by the growing disparity of wealth. These problems were widely acknowledged. Eisenhower, a moderate by today’s standards, acknowledged that the welfare system was “necessary to reconcile the masses with the capitalist system.” But there were wildly different interpretations of the solutions that created an uncomfortable alliance between those who would prefer to ignore the problems, or, worse, punish those who were lower income Americans, and those who saw their role as “protecting” them. That alliance came in the form of more and more onerous restrictions on those who received any form of “welfare” transfer payments. This made the “protectors” complicit in the denial of freedoms, particularly economic freedoms. It was during these years that America saw the construction of the welfare bureaucracy.

There were - in fact - plenty of transfer payments to the wealthy and the upper middle class that were not accompanied by such punitive action - for example the mortgage tax deduction and the deductibility of real estate taxes from the Federal income tax. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than income derived from work, a completely absurd notion. But few politicians batted an eye when it came to those transfers of wealth.

Later critics would, cynically, refer to this as the “welfare state” or, more derogatorily, the “nanny state” where every low income family found themselves being micromanaged by both the right and the left. The irony of course is that these same critics were equally complicit in creating this state.

So for fifty years not only have incomes diminished as well as the share of wealth within the overall economy, but personal and economic freedoms have diminished as well. A single mother might take a second job but often she would run headlong into a provision in the law that required another payment to be decreased because of her added income, creating not only an economic disincentive to improve her economic standing but effectively diminishing that standing. Ironically, this “welfare” system not only treated those among the Precariate classes as second class citizens with respect to their personal and economic freedoms, it also became a bureaucratic monster consuming vast amounts of wealth to “police” the punitive restrictions on the economic gains of lower income Americans.

Efforts made to try and correct the inequities were subject to a “wrinkle in the rug” reality in this new welfare system. Addressing one wrinkle would simply create a new one that popped up in response to the onerous penalties assessed on the Precariat classes for the mere act of attempting to improve their economic condition.

The sad fact was, and remains, that those earning the most were encouraged and rewarded for seeking ways to enhance their prosperity while those earning the least were punished and disincentivized for doing the very same thing. Over time the gap has widened and today even the vaunted middle class is shrinking, sliding inexorably into the precariat at its lower margins.

Aside from the obvious moral and ethical reasons we should be concerned about this there is a very practical, political reason that lies at the heart of our current political woes. The strength and stability of a democratic political system - we have learned over time - is tied to the strength and vibrancy of its middle class. When Americans (or any people) are invested in their future - when they see their place in that future and feel that they can count on the system to give them a fair shake - they will support, defend, and sustain it. When they begin to doubt that system all bets are off.

Additionally, from an economic point of view, the real engine of economic growth was being choked off. Despite the dogma of the right that businesses create jobs and wealth, the fact is that people, and specifically consumers, create jobs and wealth. As middle class and precariate consumers see their income dwindle they are able to spend less of their wealth on anything except necessities.

For 50 years now we have seen the glue holding us together slowly dissolve. To the ranks of the already-marginalized we have added untold millions of Americans of every color, creed, religion. From coal miners to pensioners who have seen their retirement disappear in a blue haze of bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions; from homeowners caught up in Wall Street’s sub-prime mortgage fiasco to families bankrupted by crippling healthcare costs; each with a different story, each subject to their own unique sadness and vulnerable to the swirling miasma of finger-pointing, retribution, blame, and conspiracy theories. Caught up in the same general whirlpool we have divided into a tribal morass, each with its own boogiemen and culprits further dividing us at the very moment when we should be coming together.

I have to admit to being totally caught off-guard by the QAnon conspiracy theories. After all, they are so nutty as to completely strain credulity but they are a sure measure of how far we have fallen. Only the Salem witch trials provide some historical context but even now we realize how insane they were.

The How

Over the course of our history Americans have paid taxes that have created and maintained our roads, bridges, air and seaports. We have funded the cost of education - producing a ready made workforce. We have funded research that has produced untold innovations and staggering wealth. The US Department of Defense spends more annually on R&D than any other entity on the planet.

Every time you open your smartphone you see examples of the fruits of that research. Many of those applications represent companies that have turned that government-funded research into billions of dollars of private wealth, all thanks to the research efforts funded by EVERY AMERICAN.

In effect making the American people the large investors in their success. Yet when the dividends are paid out John and Jane Q Public are not among the shareholders receiving a check.

Instead we watch as politicians play divide and conquer over meager tax revenues. Will we fund paid family leave or tax credits? Will we fund affordable day care or tuition assistance? Will we fund . . . The list goes on and on. Many of these programs are terrific ideas that would certainly serve to improve the quality of life for American citizens but often they benefit only a segment of the population. A system for allowing Americans to share in the wealth of an expanding economy while having the freedom to decide how their piece of the pie was used would make far more sense, especially if, at the same time, we were able to deconstruct the welfare bureaucracy and add those funds to offset its costs.

Call it what you want: A Freedom Dividend, a Sovereign Wealth Fund, an American Dividend. A mechanism for sharing the wealth of our economic growth is within our reach. It is not a lack of wealth that holds us back, it is a lack of will and imagination. Furthermore, it is an ideal that has currency across the political spectrum. Richard Nixon, for all his many faults, proposed just such a system during his presidency, conservative economists like Milton Friedman supported the idea. Many of America’s billionaires, recognizing the value of the R&D investments that undergird their company’s success, and fully cognizant of the dangers of the growing disparity of wealth, have expressed support and a willingness to see both taxes and research proceeds used to help fund such a system.

A Painless and Progressive Start

It is unlikely that this shift to some kind of Universal Basic Income could happen quickly. Developing the political will and the public support will take time and a concerted effort to educate the American people - helping them to understand that such a change would not represent a handout but the natural evolution of capitalism to reward every citizen for the economic growth in the American economy derived from the investments made by each of them.

Now is the ideal time to begin that process for several compelling reasons.

A serious body of research is now available and developing rapidly to determine how such a dividend might be calculated and paid for. This includes some ground-breaking research on using blockchain technology that might allow a UBI provided completely outside of any government bureaucracy.

Several current legislative initiatives present a way to test-drive both the idea of dividends as well as linking benefits of the economy from research and development to the distribution of wealth in our society.

The Carbon Fee and Dividend Act, (now the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2021 HR 2307) initially proposed by Republican statesmen James Baker and George Schultz, and now supported by a broad coalition of Republican and Democratic legislators as well as environmental, and business leaders and their organizations and companies with the Citizen’s Climate Lobby leading the effort. HR 2307 holds the promise of lowering carbon levels and putting the revenues generated by the fees imposed directly into the pockets of all citizens. While this measure only addresses revenues from a fee on carbon it would provide a working model of such a dividend to the American people and at the same time help us to bring our economy into a net-zero carbon future by 2050.

President Biden has proposed more than 350 billion dollars in new research and development in the rescue and infrastructure packages. These research projects are sure to generate huge economic spinoffs. Biden should appoint a special commission to study potential spinoffs and ways in which those spinoffs might be shared with the American people who are - in fact - funding them. Research and development are essential components of sustaining a growing economy. If the United States is to maintain its economic dominance, and present a viable alternative to the efforts of China to dominate the world’s economic infrastructure. What better way could there be to build public support for ongoing investments in R&D and Infrastructure than to make the American people shareholders in the wealth that they generate?

Finally, there is a growing call for reigning in America’s “Tech Sector” from all points along the political spectrum. Recognizing that mechanisms for making every American citizen an “investor” in these tech sector businesses opens up a whole new set of possibilities for new ideas that allow us to address the issues that concern Americans while adding some nuance into the process. In other words, it adds a series of options that permit the problems to be addressed with a scalpel instead of the traditional all-or-nothing approaches that we have taken in the past. When the question facing us is more than simply “do we break up Google or Facebook or Amazon?” or whatever new mega-company emerges in the future; but, rather, how do we make changes that invest our citizens in the future of our economic growth and encourage entrepreneurial opportunities in a dynamic and competitive economy? The options for innovative ideas are endless, as are the opportunities for finding common ground between people of widely different viewpoints.

We could use a bit of common ground these days.



Links:


Welfare Programs Promote Bureaucracy Rather Than Self-Sufficiency
Damon Dunn: Pacific Research Institute.
https://www.pacificresearch.org/welfare-programs-promote-bureaucracy-rather-than-self-sufficiency

Universal basic income, blockchain and more: Reimagining the next decade
Marketplace
David Brancaccio and Candace Manriquez Wrenn
https://www.marketplace.org/2020/08/18/africas-economies-universal-basic-income-blockchain-mauro-guillen//

Energy Innovation AND Carbon Dividend Act
https://energyinnovationact.org/how-it-works/
Citizens’ Climate Lobby

The Sweep of Autumn

Exempt from Public Haunt

We the People: Re-defining Bi-Partisan in the Post-Trump Era

Storm Over Lupine

We the People
Re-defining Bi-Partisan in the Post-Trump Era


My morning ramble in the valley between Rattlesnake Ridge and the Waterville Range today was a troubling cascade of thoughts and revelations.


In the first month, following the election of a new president, it felt as if we had turned a corner. Of course, we knew that there would be some post-Trump hangover but the almost immediate sense of a pending return to normalcy gave us a false sense of security.


Today it is all beginning to feel like the calm before the storm.


I, like many others, had hoped that Joe Biden’s election would empower the saner minds among elected Republican leaders to quickly return to some level of normal. The events leading up to and following January 6, 2021 quickly demonstrated that was not to be.


Remembering that the JFK library gave an annual “Profiles in Courage Award” I took a quick look at their website this morning and noted - with some satisfaction - that they had given it recently to Mitt Romney. I’m hoping that Liz Cheney will be added to that list soon. But the number of elected Republican leaders who have stepped forward to attempt to right our ship of state has been thoroughly discouraging and reflects not only the level of fear of Donald Trump among Republican elected officials but also a growing disconnect between the people of this country and their elected officials in both parties.


Now I’m no Pollyanna when it comes to politics. I’ve been there and endured the slings and arrows from both my own party and those of the other, especially when elected “leaders” see an opportunity to take advantage of a perceived weakness in the other party, this despite the fact that - at least until recently - 95% of the work that actually takes place legislatively at every level is generally without any hint of partisanship at all. However, until now even that final 5% usually represented genuine, honest disagreement, more commonly over means not ends. Republicans and Democrats saw one another as the “loyal opposition” not the enemy.

 

Storm Over a Woodstock Beaver Pond

All this has not happened overnight of course and Donald Trump is more a symptom of a growing problem than a cause, though he has unquestionably driven it into hyperdrive. The roots really reach back to 1994 with the election featuring Newt Gingrich and his brainchild “The Contract with America”. The document itself was not the problem, though there was plenty in it that many found disagreeable. It was the philosophy and the spirit behind it that began this spiral. Gingrich urged his partisans to use language, not only in their campaign rhetoric but beyond that in their day-to-day interactions with members of the media and especially with members of the opposite party that abandoned the great American notion that we were all in this together. In effect, that the process for moving the country forward, toward “a more perfect union” should be abandoned for an “us versus them” brand of politics.


Hearkening back even further Benjamin Franklin’s admonition, back in those turbulent days of the late 1770s and the 1780s, that we must “all hang together” for the good of the republic - the very notion that brought together a group of Founders with exceedingly different views of the future around the bold experiment that we now refer to as America, has been abandoned by the elected representatives of one party for a Neo-French revolution intended to eliminate the opposition rather than to collaborate with them to find common ground.


American politics has always been a messy business, but with some notable exceptions that messy business has been conducted around what Jefferson called “the marketplace of ideas”; what Lincoln referred to as the “battle of ballots not bullets”.


Sharp differences have always characterized that process, made possible by the most sacrosanct amendment to our constitution, the First.


Even in the best of times there has been a small minority of people who embrace the extremes and excesses of the poles of the political spectrum, while the majority of the people see, or come to see, the benefits of hard-earned and, for many, all-too-gradual movement toward that more perfect union.


Most of us can sense that a new world is emerging - pregnant with possibility and fraught with peril.


We can, with little hesitation, name those perils: climate change, ending the pandemic and restoring the American and world economies; ending a 50 year slide into an income disparity that has shrunken the middle class, existentially imperils the working class and poor and threatens to permanently unravel the American vision of opportunity for all;

 

Chocorua Pond Impressions

The international perils, beginning with China and Russia and spiraling down to a host of countries that are moving ever deeper into the morass of totalitarian governance, are unlikely to follow our lead into the future if there is no sense that the United States has its own act together enough to set the standard.


This will not happen as long as the question remains whether the US is committed to Republican Democracy, the rule of law, and the fundamental imperative that all government’s power is derived from the people. As James Madison wrote so eloquently in this - at the time - radical statement:


"All power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty and the right of acquiring property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purpose of its institution." - James Madison

Maple Ablaze at Sunset - Stinson Mountain

The rise of Trumpism - and particularly the allegiance to this aberration among elected Republican representatives, even after the events of January 6, 2021 - presents the greatest domestic threat to the continuation of our Republic ever - and consequently to world order. Even the Civil War presented less of a threat because, albeit simplistically, an adverse outcome would have simply divided the country in two, leaving the Union’s allegiance to Democratic Republicanism intact.


The threat of Trumpism is an existential threat to Democracy that could ultimately destroy the Republic if not checked. Yet, it has become abundantly clear that it will not be checked by the majority of Republicans currently holding elected office. It has also become clear that we are locked in a battle for our Democracy that will not be quick or easy if we are to succeed.


Ironically, one election cycle could bring about the success of the autocrats, resurrecting their anti-democratic agenda and perhaps ending the grand American experiment permanently - or for many generations. History and experience demonstrate that - as painful as it may be to fight to maintain freedom and democracy - it is much harder to resurrect it once the autocrats have gained the upper hand. The cost in lives and treasure from the Second World War alone provide ample evidence of that.


It’s up to us now.

Milkweed Whisper

 


If polling shows us anything today it is that the vast majority of Americans support many of the initiatives proposed by the Biden administration - even those who are Republicans and Independents. Beyond that, and more importantly, they oppose a return to the chaos and authoritarianism represented by Trumpism.


Mitch McConnell may have declared that the “era of bi-partisanship is over”, but not among the people of our country. In fact, bi-partisanship is flourishing among the sovereign - “we the people”. The rise of non-partisan and bi-partisan organizations during the past three years is a dramatic testament to that: The Lincoln Project, Braver Angels, No Labels, 350.org, just to name a few, are demonstrating that the American people are exercising their sovereignty and constantly seeking ways to move beyond the chaos of the last few years.


In the wake of this wave of change, a new definition of the term bi-partisan has begun to emerge. One that will either drag the Republican Party leadership - kicking and screaming - into the future or signal the beginning of the end of the Grand Old Party. Driven by organizations like these, as well as more informal and heterodox groups of citizens. The intent of these organizations is to reinvigorate the sovereignty of “we the people”.


Much of that activity has grown from the connectedness created by technology. For all of ills we bemoan in our deeply connected world the opportunity to re-establish “we the people” as the ultimate arbiter of the aims of governance has broadly redefined Jefferson’s marketplace of ideas. When, ultimately, connected to Democratic ideals, ideas and initiatives like statewide initiative and referendum petitions, ranked-choice voting and reforms focused on the elimination of partisan gerrymandering and expanded voting rights, those who are intent on denying the rights of citizens to exercise their control over the aims of government can be overcome.

Hellebore Passion

 


A two-party system is not enshrined in the constitution. In fact, neither the Democratic Party or the Republican Party can claim any franchise within our constitutional system, except that which history has - in its vagaries - created.


A multiparty system may be the outcome of this re-emergence of the sovereignty of the people or the Republican party (or even the Democrats) may go the way of the Whigs. There would be no great loss from these possible outcomes because a better and stronger, more democratic system would most likely emerge.


The simple, yet challenging, task before us is to reclaim our Republic one citizen at a time. Listening to one another, respecting our differences yet seeking common ground wherever possible; and using our vote to ensure that those who represent us still believe in the dream our founders - in all their glory and failings - designed and countless Americans since them have struggled to make “more perfect”.


We the people must push the boulder of hope we call America back to the top of the hill again.


"Our Constitution is the oldest written constitution in the world. As you grow older, you will have the right under the Constitution to vote, to serve on juries, to run for political office and to participate in government in other ways. So get ready: Study the Constitution. Remember, the Framers designed the Constitution for you -- but you have to make it work."

~ Chief Justice John Roberts



About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, and 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor; he is the former publisher of Heart of New Hampshire Magazine and CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., and now a columnist for the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism (inDepthNH.org) where he writes “The View from Rattlesnake Ridge” and hosts two Podcasts: The Radical Centrist (www.theradicalcentrist.us) and NH Secrets, Legends & Lore (www.nhsecrets.blogspot.com). His art (www.waynedking.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published four books of his images and a novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline - all available on Amazon.com. His art website is: www.waynedking.com , and his writing site: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing . He now lives in Thornton, New Hampshire at the base of Welch Mountain where he proudly flies both the American and Iroquois Flags.

A Fusion of Magic Mushrooms

In Celebration of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests Pioneers of Crowd Funding & Conservation

In Celebration of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests
Pioneers of Crowd Funding & Conservation



Deep in a Dorchester Woods

Links from this Podcast:
Podcast with Jack Savage
Free Joseph Website: http://www.freejoseph.net
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests: https://forestsociety.org/


The Society for the Protection of NH Forests has pioneered conservation innovations since their founding in 1901.

Including A Podcast Conversation with Jack Savage, President SPNHF

I stood today on the summit of Welch Mountain and looked into the Sandwich Range accessed largely along the “Road Through Sandwich Notch” of which Elizabeth Yates wrote more than a century ago although she is best known for her book Amos Fortune- Free Man.

At one time the town of Sandwich, to which the Notch Road is now the backcountry gateway, was a provincial capital of New Hampshire. All along this road are the stone walls, cellar holes, and other signs of a day when the population of Sandwich was considerably larger.

The Notch Road into Sandwich is a beautiful backroad trip today, passing by Beede Falls, Cow Cave and Pulpit Rock where in the 1800s townsfolk would gather at the base of this huge Glacial Bounder and listen to the local preacher as he stood atop the rock delivering his sermon.

Sandwich Notch might have been developed over the years except for the good works of a number of local folks and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

Yet Sandwich Notch is only one of the Notches that the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests has saved through the good works and generosity of thousands of members and friends. You may already know oftheir good works. but did you know that they led the way to making crowdfunding a “thing”?

Now it can be argued that "crowdfunding" is nothing new.

My Iroquois ancestors gathered together to help one another build their longhouses even before the Peacemaker and Hiawatha brought the Great Law to them more than 500 years ago. Early European settlers joined with one another to build barns or homes. However, there is no question that among the earliest efforts by nonprofit groups was the effort in the 1920s to save Franconia Notch through - among other things - the sale of "deeds" to a square foot of the Notch or the "purchase" of a tree, allowing thousands of people from across the nation to get involved with conservation efforts.

In just 120 years the Society has been at the forefront of change that has rippled out from the social and political boundaries of New Hampshire to the nation. Their founding effort to help pass the Weeks act not only resulted in the White Mountain National Forest but spread the National Forest fever across the continent.

There are very few organizations with which I share such a common kinship. So many of their efforts, focused on the lands and the people I am closest to, have become touchstones in my own life. The rallying point of their formation - the fight to save the forests of the White Mountains, and to protect the water resources, eventually led to adoption of the Weeks Act and the establishment of the National Forest in Congress. Their opposition to building a 4 lane super-highway through Franconia Notch resulted in the only scenic parkway of the Interstate highway system. The protection of Crawford Notch, Sandwich Notch, Lost River and the prevention of a ridgeline drive across the Presidential Range too were achieved with their leadership.

These epic battles were among the tales I would tell as I guided trail clearing, hiking and backpacking trips in the Whites in my early adult life. Even earlier they were the topics of dinner conversations around the family table at my home as a young boy.

Listening to my grandmother describe how she felt when she donated a hard-earned $10.00 to buy one square foot of tallis slope on the side of Cannon Mountain to protect Franconia Notch made me feel that I was part of a grand tradition here. I watched with admiration as my Mom and Dad helped lead the efforts to clean up the Pemigewasset River with other remarkable people like Pat & Tom Schlesinger of New Hampton, Syd and Olivia Howe, Dr. Larry Spencer at Plymouth State.

Later in my own home, around that same family table, my Senate office team would strategize ways to carry on that tradition: rebuilding the historic Smith Covered Bridge after it was burned by an arsonist, sponsoring the NH River's Protection Act, the Land Conservation and Investment Program, and conserving Livermore Falls.

The Forest Society served as inspiration for all of this, over the years developing a conservation ethic part John Muir - the preservationist - and part Gifford Pinchot - the architect of "wise use".

To some, it appeared that they were taking the safer, more moderate route to their destination. No one ever accused the Forest Society of being wild-eyed environmentalists; but to the great grandson of an Iroquois man and an Abenaki woman it seemed (and still seems) right . . . a part of the Circle; where people are neither beneath or above but an integral part of the whole.

When you venture out this summer - especially if you do so here in New Hampshire - say a quiet thanks to the generations of people who have helped to build the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Because of them the White Mountain National Forest, Franconia Notch, Crawford Notch, Sandwich Notch and other sacred places of these white hills will forever be wild and free.


About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor; he is the former publisher of Heart of New Hampshire Magazine and CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., and now a columnist for the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism (inDepthNH.org) where he writes “The View from Rattlesnake Ridge” and hosts two Podcasts: The Radical Centrist (www.theradicalcentrist.us) and NH Secrets, Legends and Lore (www.nhsecrets.blogspot.com). His art (www.waynedking.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images and a novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline - all available on Amazon.com. His art website is: www.waynedking.com , and his writing site: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing . He now lives in Thornton, New Hampshire at the base of Welch Mountain where he proudly flies both the American and Iroquois Flags.

Milkweed Whisper

Blue Hellebore Dreams

Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

https://forestsociety.org/



Jack Savage is President of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. He was appointed as the Forest Society’s fifth President in September 2019. Previously the Vice President of Communications/Outreach at the Forest Society for 14 years, he has been a key contributor to many of the Forest Society’s successes over the last decade. He has guided the organization’s evolving use of digital media to accomplish its land protection and advocacy goals, and overseen the expansion of its education and volunteer programs.

Savage’s family has roots in the forest products industry — they owned the Charleston Lumber Company in Charleston, W.V. in the 20th century. He and his wife, Cheryl, now make their home in a historic farmhouse in Middleton, NH, where they have lived with their dogs and horses since 1993.

As a writer and publisher, Savage has had broad experience in newspapers, magazines, and book publishing. He is a former editor of NH Profiles magazine, publisher of NH Seacoast Sunday newspaper, and operator of his own company, Carriage House Publishing. Savage is also a founding board member and past president of the New Hampshire Writers Project.

A certified Tree Farmer, Savage is active in his community, serving for the last 12 years as town moderator and formerly as selectman, chair of the Planning Board, and chair of the ZBA. As a volunteer and member of the regional conservation group Moose Mountains Regional Greenways, Savage helped facilitate the Forest Society’s conservation of more than 2,000 acres in the Moose Mountains range.

jsavage@forestsociety.org

Franconia Notch Documentary
Franconia Notch Documentary





Geology of Franconia Notch
Geology of Franconia Notch






Forest Society History

https://forestsociety.org/our-history
Protecting New Hampshire's landscapes since 1901



Forestry pioneers gathered on Mount Carrigain in 1919 to study five-year old slash. From left: Henry S. Graves, chief of the U.S. Forest Service and Society leader; J.J. Fritz, forest supervisor; Franklin Reed, district forester; Philip Ayres, Society forester; Allen Chamberlain, journalist and later to become president of the Appalachian Mountain Club; and C.B. Schiffer, district ranger. (Photo: USFS archives)

1901


Eight concerned citizens form the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Their mission: to protect the White Mountains, which are rapidly being clear-cut.

1904


Mission Statement adopted: "The Society is a forestry association seeking to perpetuate the forests of New Hampshire through their wise use and their complete reservation in places of special scenic beauty."

1908


The Forest Society urges the state of New Hampshire to buy Crawford Notch. It does three years later.

1909


As a result of Forest Society urging, the state of New Hampshire appoints a state forester, and passes its first forest fire prevention laws.

1911


The Weeks Act is passed by Congress, after intense lobbying by the Forest Society and other conservation groups, leading to the establishment of the White Mountain National Forest.


The Forest Society buys 656 acres on Mount Sunapee to save it from being clear-cut.

1912


The Forest Society buys 148 acres around Lost River Gorge.

1915


The Forest Society acquires title to 600 acres on Mount Monadnock, beginning a process that ends up protecting more than 4,000 acres on the landmark mountain.

1918


The Forest Society begins work to acquire 1,500 acres on Mount Kearsarge.

1920


The Forest Society releases two breeding pairs of Minnesota beavers at Lost River. Prior to this, beaver had been extinct in New Hampshire for 30 years.

1923


The Forest Society leads a campaign to purchase 6,000 acres in Franconia Notch, including the Old Man of the Mountain, the Flume, the Basin, and two mountain lakes.

The Flume at Franconia Notch

1927


The Forest Society helps the state to buy Franconia Notch. The Forest Society retains ownership of 913 acres, including the Flume, and runs the park for 20 years until 1947.

1932


The Forest Society opens its first annual Nature Camp at Lost River. 90 years later, the Forest Society is still teaching people about the wonders of forests.

1934


The Forest Society helps defeat a proposal to build a "skyline drive" across the Presidential Range.

1937


The Forest Society begins publication of its magazine, Forest Notes, which is still published today.

1943


The Forest Society helps protect land surrounding Echo Lake and White Horse Ledge in North Conway.

1942


The state passes a constitutional amendment to end the annual taxation of growing timber — a victory the Forest Society had fought for since 1901.

1945


The Forest Society helps form the New England Forestry Foundation to promote better forest practices.

1948


The Forest Society transfers its 1,116 acres on Mount Sunapee to the state of New Hampshire.

1949


The Forest Society brings the Tree Farm program to the state, which encourages landowners to manage their woodlands for the long term.

1950


The Forest Society gives its final 520 acres on Mount Kearsarge to the state for the Frank Rollins Memorial Park, honoring the Forest Society's first president.

1959


The Forest Society opposes a super highway through Franconia Notch.

1960


Mr. & Mrs. Clarence L. Hay give the Forest Society 675 acres of woodland on Lake Sunapee.



Hay Reservation

1962


The Forest Society stops a plan to floodlight the Old Man of the Mountains.


Working with the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, and the state Fish & Game department, the Forest Society purchases land in the Hampton Salt Marshes to thwart a major development project.

1963


The Forest Society leads the way on legislation that creates town conservation commissions.

1966


Thirty-eight towns now have conservation commissions (by 2014 there will be 216 commissions).

1969


Plans for a nuclear power plant at Seabrook spur the Forest Society to lobby for extensive review of all major power installations.

1970


The federal government withdraws its plans for a tunnel and four-lane highway through Franconia Notch.


The Forest Society forms an interstate coalition to fight a proposed east-west superhighway across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.


The Forest Society opens an EcoCenter at Mount Monadnock to teach the 75,000 annual visitors about the mountain's ecology.

1971


The Forest Society negotiates its first conservation easement, which allows landowners to keep their land while preventing future development.

1972


The Forest Society begins a campaign to protect Sandwich Notch — the last unprotected notch in the state.

1973


After years of debate, the legislature enacts Current Use taxation, allowing millions of acres of land to remain as open space. A plan for a smaller parkway through Franconia Notch wins Forest Society support.

1974


The Forest Society purchases 726 acres on Gap Mountain. The next year, Mrs. Francis Fiske donates the south peak to the organization.


The Forest Society owns 7,189 acres in the state.



Gap Mountain

1976


The Forest Society celebrates the re-opening of the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway, first laid out by Forest Society President Phil Ayres in 1925.

1978


Groundbreaking for the Forest Society's new headquarters begins. The award-winning Conservation Center gets over 80% of its heat from the sun and is an appropriate symbol of the organization's commitment to renewable resource use.

1982


The Forest Society works to get a bottle bill passed in the state, but it fails by one vote.

1983


The Forest Society helps raise awareness about the impacts of acid rain on New England's forests, laying the groundwork for important amendments to the Clean Air Act.

1984


The Wilderness Act passes the US Congress, designating 77,000 acres in the White Mountain National Forest as wilderness. Forest Society President Paul Bofinger chaired the committee that reached consensus on the bill.


The Forest Society owns 16,184 acres in the state.

1986


The Forest Society starts the Trust for New Hampshire Lands/Land Conservation Investment Program, a public-private six-year partnership that would protect more than 100,000 new acres in the state.

1987


A 10-year management plan is approved for the White Mountain National Forest. The Forest Society played a lead role in helping finalize the plan.

1989


The Forest Society, the state, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Forest Service help save 40,000-acre Nash Stream forest in northern New Hampshire.

1990


The Forest Society serves on the Northern Forest Lands Council to find ways to sustain the four-state, 26-million acre forest and its people.

1993


The Forest Society creates the New Hampshire Conservation Institute to enhance and streamline its education and research efforts.


The Forest Society produces its award-winning Guide to Logging Aesthetics and a companion video to promote low-impact forestry without high impact costs.

1994


Forest Society reservations add up to 24,584 acres.

1995


The Forest Society creates its Living Landscape Agenda, a two-pronged plan to save special places and take care of land into the next century.

1997


The Forest Society acquires its 100th reservation - the High Watch Preserve in Effingham and Freedom.


High Watch Preserve. Photo Credit Jeff Sluder

1999


The Forest Society becomes the first private landowner in New Hampshire to have its land green-certified by SmartWood.

2001


The Forest Society celebrates its 100th anniversary — a century of outstanding accomplishments in the conservation and reservation of New Hampshire's forests.

2002


The Forest Society and the Museum of New Hampshire History launch a joint-project entitled Claiming the Land: Our Past, Our Future, Our Choice.


The New Hampshire House and Senate pass legislation regarding all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). The bill sets a policy for new ATV trails on state land and increases registration fees with revenue directed to enforcement, education, and trail acquisition. The Forest Society lent strong support to this bill.


The Forest Society, New Hampshire Public Television, and Cross Current Productions collaborate to produce Livable Landscapes: Chance or Choice , a one-hour documentary about citizens combating sprawl in their communities.

2003


The French Wing addition to the Forest Society's Conservation Center earns national recognition for innovation in "green building" design and construction. The U.S. Green Building Council awards its gold certification to the organization under the rigorous standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.


The Forest Society, federal and state officials, and other partner conservation organizations celebrate the permanent protection of 171,000 acres in northern New Hampshire.


The Connecticut Headwaters Project is the largest contiguous block of New Hampshire land in private ownership, comprising roughly three percent of the state.

2007


The Forest Society protects 3892 acres in fiscal year 2007, including 845 acres (10 projects) in forest reservations (land we own, 2,995 acres (27 projects) on which we hold conservation easements, and 52 acres (two projects) that we protected and will be transferred to a third party.


The Forest Society is also pleased to announce permanent LCHIP funding. The New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) is an independent state authority that makes grants to New Hampshire communities and non-profits to conserve and preserve New Hampshire’s most important natural, cultural and historic resources. Through this grant program every dollar invested brings in significant local, private, federal funds, and helps New Hampshire businesses and traditional business districts.

2013


The Forest Society is accredited by the Land Trust Alliance Accreditation Commission. The Commission, established in 2006 as an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance in Washington, DC, conducts an extensive review of each applicant’s policies and programs to determine if the applicant meets the national standards for excellence, upholds the public trust and ensures that conservation efforts are permanent.

2019


On February 13, 2019, a fire at The Rocks destroyed two historic buildings that we used for office space, programming, a gift shop and farm operations. In the wake of this devastating loss, the Forest Society had an opportunity to rethink the vision for this iconic North Country destination and launched a restoration project in 2020.


After nine years of hearings, meetings, and strategy sessions, the NH Supreme Court dealt a death blow to the Northern Pass project by ruling that the Site Evaluation Committee had indeed followed appropriate legal protocol in denying Northern Pass a certificate of site and facility. It was big win for New Hampshire’s landscapes, forests, and communities. Once again New Hampshire citizens stood their ground for the things they hold dear: open spaces unmarred by commercial development, downtowns with scenic charm, communities with a sense of who they are and what they want to be, farms that provide livelihoods for families, and the overwhelming sense that New Hampshire citizens, not some company from away, have the right—even an obligation—to determine their future.

2020


The Forest Society protected the Ammonoosuc River Forest in Bethlehem as its 191st forest reservation.

Peaholes on the Pemigewasset River

Glow on the Roaring Fork River

Hellebore Passion

Two Pandemics, One Cure - Truth & Justice

 The View from Rattlesnake Ridge

Flames Reaching for a Painted Sky

Two Pandemics, One Cure - Truth & Justice

Reconciliation Demands Truth and Justice as its Partner

My neighbor Bill appeared in his doorway this morning, as I was setting out on my ramble, with a smile on his lips. “Feels like Spring doesn’t it?” he quipped cheerily. Here we are just a few days from inauguration day and - if I didn’t know better - I would have thought that he was talking about that, not the spell of warm weather we are having here in the valley. But I know that Bill will not be cheering for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as they stand before the nation to take the oath of office. He made sure to show me his Trump lawn sign on the day he brought it home last fall so it was not likely that he had undergone a conversion. 

I smiled and agreed with his assessment, content for the moment to revel in my own interpretation of his meaning but aware that what lay within the gaps - the unspoken reality - will be playing out across the nation in the coming days, months, years perhaps. 

Today our nation faces the test of two pandemics: one scientific and one moral, both posing existential threats to all that we hold dear. Both in need of the same cure - TRUTH. 

As of today, nearly 400,000 people have died, many unnecessarily, from the toxic brew of COVID-19 and the accompanying lies, incompetence and misdirection of an administration more interested in conjuring up conspiracies and redirecting blame than protecting our citizens. 

In addition to the firestorm of criticism and alarm over the storming of the Capital, there has been a growing effort by supporters of President Trump to attempt to redirect our attention with calls for healing and national reconciliation. For the most part, their argument has been that the President has been defeated and with that, is only days from leaving.  Our efforts and focus, they now contend, should be directed at moving on and bringing the country together. 

In other words, just ignore the fact that 93% of Republican members of Congress voted against impeachment in the face of overwhelming evidence that the President and his minions had actively incited insurrection; a direct attack on American Democracy.  For this reconciliation cannot come without a cost and that cost is truth. 

A Rest at Jefferson Highlands

Furthermore, only one week before that - immediately after the attack on the capital - 8 Republican Senators and 66% of House Republicans refused to acknowledge and certify the election results, stubbornly sticking to the playbook of lies that have polluted social media and represent a long-term existential threat to the Republic. 

For months now I have been pulling at threads that weave a painful, long and winding path to today. One such thread even leads back to my beloved hometown and state and even to a younger version of myself. 

Until recently, I had come to believe the role that Attorney General Bill Barr has played in our descent into the shadows of American authoritarianism was an unprecedented threat to the Republic. After all, much of the covering fire for Donald Trump’s attack on the norms of democracy and the rule of law has been aided and abetted by AG Barr. 

Cabin at the Edge of the World

However, as it turns out, Barr’s behavior had precedent in that of New Hampshire-born Nathan Clifford, a Democrat, who figured prominently into not one, but two of the greatest historic tragedies in American History: The Trail of Tears that stole the homelands and forced Native American communities from the Southeast onto lands in what is now Oklahoma;  and the destruction of post-Civil War Reconstruction and the birth of Jim Crow.

In 1832, over the opposition of American icons Daniel Webster, Davy Crockett, John Quincy Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the United States Congress passed President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act. For six years the Cherokee nation valiantly tried to fight removal - peacefully - through the US Courts. In the end, they won only to have Jackson ignore the ruling of the United States Supreme Court, declaring “Mr. (Justice John) Marshall has made his ruling, now let him enforce it.” Ultimately, it was then-Attorney General Nathan Clifford who would rule - without justification - that the Indian removal was permissible. More than 25% of the men, women and children who began the Trail of Tears would not survive the journey, especially children and the elderly.

Nearly 40 years later, Clifford, by now a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice would be the deciding vote on the Tilden/Hayes Commission that decided what was at that time the closest election in US history in favor of Rutherford Hayes in a backroom political deal that ended Reconstruction and began what would come to be known as the Jim Crow era, condemning the United States to another 150 years of racial injustice. 

PoplarWind

These betrayals of our American ideals have been papered over in the past 150 years, by generations of Americans, Including me when I sponsored what I thought to be an innocuous bill in the late 1980’s to name a rest area in honor of Clifford, an act I regret and renounce today.

   

This time, the betrayal of our Republic has been at the hands of the Republican Party. That betrayal has been profound and there can be no reconciliation without acknowledgment of the damage that the party has inflicted on the Republic. 

A strong two-party system is in the best interest of the American political system, but the Republican Party need not survive in order for that to be possible once again. In fact, without confronting the truth and purging those who have aided and abetted the Republican party’s descent into authoritarianism and white nationalism the party does not deserve to survive. The Republicans can just as easily go the way of the Whigs as long as another party - one actually dedicated to the American Republic emerges.  

 

But make no mistake neither party is without blame over the long arc of American history. The Democrats have plenty of shame and blood on their hands from the Trail of Tears to Jim Crow. 

America has arrived at a moment and only the cleansing of our national soul will help us to truly move beyond this together. 

Reconciliation is the balm to heal hearts but truth and justice must be the arrow that delivers it.  

Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, he was the 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor and most recently the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space. His art  (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images with another, "New Hampshire - a Love Story", on the way. His most recent novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline is available on Amazon.com. He lives in Thornton, between Rattlesnake Ridge and the Waterville Range. He proudly flies both the American and Iroquois Flags. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing

Milan Paper Birch Monochrome

Flowering of Hope at the Pow Wow