On this Ides of March America finds itself in a time and state of suspense. So many balls are up in the air, keeping the nation on pins and needles:
Winter has
yet to turn into spring.
We are
awaiting the outcome of the NY State grand jury investigation of the former US
President in the case of the hush money paid to silence porn star Stormy
Daniels.
We are
awaiting the findings of the Georgia State special grand jury investigating
whether the former President and his allies committed any crimes while trying
to overturn his 2020 election loss.
We are
awaiting the findings of special counsel Jack Smith in the Department of
Justice probe into the
former President’s handling of highly sensitive classified documents he
retained at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House in
January 2021 and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election's
results, including a plot to submit phony slates of electors to block Congress
from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's victory.
The Supreme Court will
decide before this summer whether the theory of ‘independent state legislature’
is supported by the US Constitution and, if it does, confer on state
legislatures plenary, exclusive power to redraw congressional districts for
federal elections and appoint state electors who cast the votes for President
and Vice President on behalf of, but not necessarily in concert with, the
voters of the states.
A US District Judge in Amarillo,
TX , appointed by the former President, is expected to issue a ruling any day
now that may impose a nationwide injunction on the distribution of the abortion
pill mifepristone.
The civil suit issued by
Dominion Voting Systems against the Fox News Channel will either come to trial
in April or be settled between the parties. The suit, if it proceeds, will
determine if the media channel can, with impunity, misinform the viewing public
if it wants to conform its news reporting to the prevailing biases of its
audience and thus protect its viewership and ratings.
The nation keeps
teetering at the brink of a recession as the Federal Reserve tries to figure
out if it can bring inflation under control without bringing the economy to a
dead stop and exacerbating the financial crisis that torpedoed the Silicon
Valley Bank and now threatens contagion.
The acrimony between the
two political parties has risen to the level where it looks uncertain if
Congress will be able to raise the debt ceiling as required to avoid a default
on the national debt, which is predicted to happen sometime this summer if a political
compromise is not enacted upon. The American public has good reasons to be on
edge as the consequences of a national default are unimaginably dire.
In the meantime, the
nation is gearing up for the primary campaigns for the 2024 Presidential
election at least at the Republican side (with the Democrats holding their
powder try until the current President decides if he will run for a second term.)
For the time being, the former President is still the front runner on the
Republican side, but it is very early in the game and his legal challenges may
ultimately have an impact on the outcome of the primary contests which will not
play out until the spring of next year.
The uncertainty caused
by all of these pending matters is ‘sans pareil’, without equal. What we are
watching is not simply a contest between a progressive and a conservative approach
to the future governance of the nation as it has been for all of our lifetime.
For the first time in recent history a populist, anti-democratic, movement,
triggered and espoused by a former President, is challenging the tenets of the
republican democracy and the Republican Party, so far, is refusing to deny it safe
harbor.
Our democratic experiment
that started in 1776 is in jeopardy of institutional breakdown by a politization
of the judiciary and an errant ideology infused in one of its two parties in
its legislature. America is holding its breath to find out how the crisis will unfold,
and the world watches us in bewilderment and with trepidation.
What is hanging in the
balance with all this uncertainty is America’s power to guide and influence
world affairs. The concept of ‘America First’ is not entirely misguided. Geopolitics
has not developed in a way that the world can safely afford to do without
American leadership. But it will prove impossible for America to exhibit global
leadership and be accepted in that role by the world community, if it cannot put
its own house in order. At a time when America is still the indispensable force
to guarantee the charters of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization it cannot fail in asserting its own republican democratic governance
system. It cannot allow the ‘full faith and credit’ of its sovereign debt to be
placed in doubt. And it cannot show its adversaries any internal division about
its support of nations whose territorial integrity and sovereign existence is
placed under attack by hostile neighbors.
The nation will be in suspense for several more
months until each of these pending matters will have been decided, for better
or for worse, with monumental consequences for the future of America and the
world.
