Yesterday I attended the annual Maryland District 14
Democratic Club Holiday Party at Catherine & Montgomery County Executive Ike
Leggett’s home. The context: Clinton won Montgomery County
with 75% of the vote; Trump received 19%; statewide, the margin was 60%-34%. President Obama’s national approval ratings
have been over 50% for most of the year, and the most recent poll (Gallup)
shows him at 58% approval; and the nationwide popular vote shows Clinton
beating Trump 48%-46%.
But, as we all know, this did not translate to election
results that would continue the Obama Legacy.
Instead, we now have in incoming Republican power structure that not
only threatens to wipe out that Legacy, but to undo the progress not only of
the Great Society, but of the New Deal, as well. Everything that the federal government has
done in the last 83 years to keep Capitalism from going off the rails and to
move toward a fairer society is in jeopardy.
So the mood at the Leggetts was not what we thought it would
be prior to November 8. There was much
discussion about where we go from here, nationally. We all know that the next years are going to
be difficult, and that we will have much work to do to win the next elections
and then to rebuild from the carnage which now seems likely.
Ike spoke to the assembled crowd, as did Congressman John
Sarbanes, whose congressional district encompasses much of D. 14. Here, I will do my best to relate some of
what they said.
As a matter of background, I have been a bit depressed, knowing
that so much of what I hold dear is now on the Republican chopping block. The
thought of having to rebuild at an age at which I would have hoped to be able
to sit back and enjoy the view of the America I treasure is upsetting.
But Ike’s remarks really put it into perspective, making my
personal pain seem relatively small. He
spoke of meeting with elderly African Americans in our community – people in
their 80s and 90s – who experienced the impact of legal segregation and state
and societal discrimination from the time they were born, but then worked to change
the country and saw things change radically for the better. People who, in their last years, saw progress
on the five yard line with the country ready to enter the end zone – the sports
metaphor equivalent to the Promised Land.
And now they see that they (we) have been pushed back to the other end
of the field. They may not live to see
us regain the ground. So it is incumbent
on the rest of us to keep up the struggles.
I did not experience the pain of the people Ike spoke
about. America has always been very good
to me. Ike’s words inspired me for the
work ahead.
Then Congressman John Sarbanes spoke. He is the son for our former Senator Paul
Sarbanes, and his district has included our neighborhood from the time it was
created after the last Census. My
impression of him has always been positive.
I am more impressed now. The most
important thing he talked about was how Democratic members of Congress are not
going to let the Republicans off the hook.
They will be the Opposition Party.
They will push to the public consciousness the outrages that are coming.
And, he told us, the Congressional Democrats are organizing to do that. It appears that Sarbanes will be a leader in
that effort.
I wish him well. I
wish all of us well. We have a responsibility to both past and future
generations to work to get America back on the right track. Earlier in the day, I attended a meeting with
the District 18 Maryland General Assembly delegation at Temple Emanuel (my
synagogue), hosted by Jews United for Justice.
On the written agenda, JUFJ included the following familiar, but very
pertinent passage:
“Rabbi Tarfon said, ‘It is not upon you to finish the work,
but neither are you free to desist from it.’”
