WELCOME

After 28 years of service in Arlington County’s local government, first on the School Board and then the County Board, I have stepped into a new role and life chapter: Private Citizen. My career has equipped me with extensive experience, valuable connections, and an unwavering passion for fostering good local government in Arlington and in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) region, an area I call home.

July 4th and Why MAGA Wants to Erase Truth & History, and the very bad Clarity Act

Dear Friends:

I continue to think about the meaning of July 4th, which felt so desecrated this year.

One thought, shared by quite a few, I’m guessing, is that we can celebrate the 250th anniversary of our democracy more properly when we get to 2038 and the 250th anniversary of the ratification of the US Constitution. By that time – if we can do what we need to do now – our democracy may be secured again. The past few years have seen many Americans learning far more about US history and Constitutional law than they ever expected I think. I certainly have. It’s quite eye-opening.

In his discussion with the wise Bryan Stevenson, civil rights defense lawyer and author of Just Mercy, Ezra Klein makes a good case for the birthplace of our democracy actually occurring in Montgomery, Alabama with the bus boycott of 1955 and the Civil Rights movement leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Our democracy was conceived in Philadelphia in 1776, but it was actually born in Montgomery Alabama when we began to make the beautiful words of the Declaration of Independence real for all, not just some, in our nation. Our democracy still has a lot of growing to do. But I’ve realized more and more how unprecedented this American Experiment is. Just the fact that most of us take for granted that we can live where we want, choose the career we want, marry whom we want, practice the religion we want (or none at all) is extraordinary for most of human history. Most people have had none of those rights. And I’ve realized how easily threatened those relatively new rights are.

Stevenson makes an excellent case that the major barrier to our nation’s democracy developing as it should is the narrative we’ve had around slavery in this country. That narrative has kept us from confronting the horrific truths of our history, including the history of our indigenous people. It was a belief in a false narrative of racial inferiority that allowed slave owners to believe they were true Christians while separating mothers from children and then beating them for crying, and committing much worse abuse and cruelty. It must be that same belief in a false narrative that allows MAGA supporters to believe themselves true Americans and good Christians as they inflict horrible cruelty on immigrant families and separate children from parents.

A false narrative of superiority is what German Nazi’s told themselves, and Afrikaaners, too, all the while committing horrible crimes against innocent people. Germany has made memorials and held difficult conversations about the Holocaust and the false narrative of the Nazi’s. South Africa has done the same with Apartheid. This honest confronting of the past never would have happened had the Nazi’s won or Black Africans not taken control of South Africa. In this country the North won the war, but the South won the narrative. So until very recently schools and streets were named after and memorials built to the Confederacy and Confederate heroes.

I grew up being taught that the Civil War was really about economics, and slavery wasn’t so bad and Robert E. Lee was an admirable person. The podcast’s title is “The America that’s Still Possible.” I’ve listened to it twice. Now I understand, as I have not before, why MAGA is so anxious to erase history and pretend everything has always been wonderful. They depend on a false narrative to keep control, destroy our democracy and (for their corrupt leaders) to pillage our national wealth. Many voters believe that false narrative, just as slave owners did and ruling elites throughout history. I think we are in the middle of a very long and very big war for humanity’s soul.

Here in Arlington this month, we had a great example of bringing history to light. Rev. Robert Simon Laws, a formerly enslaved person born in Virginia, was the founding pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church and led the church from 1866 - 1875. Mount Zion was originally The Old Bell Church, a congregation started at Freedman's Village, on land which is now known Arlington National Cemetery. After leaving Mount Zion, Rev. Laws founded what is now Friendship Baptist Church in Washington, DC. He then moved to Pittsburgh becoming a pastor there. He passed there in 1903 from pneumonia. Despite his illustrious and long career, he was buried in Pittsburgh’s The Homewood Cemetery without a grave marker. I much appreciate my friend and blog reader Kyra Hicks bringing it to my attention that as part of Mt. Zion’s 160th anniversary celebrations, the 10th pastor, Dr. Andre D. Ivy, led a group to Pittsburgh to install a new grave marker and honor Rev. Laws. There was good media coverage, including this Pittsburgh CBS news report.

As we get closer to the fall and our mid-term elections, when our democracy will be tested probably more than any time since the Civil War, election security is on everyone’s mind. As many of my readers probably already know, Indivisible is hosting a 3-part on-line election protection training, “Hands off Our Vote,” to get ready for the elections so we can all do our part to protect democracy. They are dividing the training into two separate groups: one is for a few states that are likely to be close in the midterms and which are controlled by Republicans. The other is for the rest of us. I plan to attend. The first session is July 31. I think our job will be to maximize voter turnout for the election and then maximize the backlash to what likely will be a number of illegal efforts to overturn the election results.

We’re in an era where it seems like get rich quick schemes, quick money, and scams of all kinds are all around. It’s become a dominant feature and cultural force in American politics and American life more broadly. And cryptocurrency is the vector by which the Trump family is making vast sums of money.

Here is an excellent interview with Chris Hayes and Ben McKenzie: “Crypto and The Golden Age of Scams.” The rise of crypto and the harsh truth about this is the subject of a new documentary called “Everyone is Lying to You for Money.” Ben McKenzie is an actor and made his directorial debut with this film. He joins Hayes’s podcast to discuss why so much of life on the internet feels very scammy, his critique of crypto and more.

This brings me to the immediate concern which is legislation called The Clarity Act. This Act would move oversight of cryptocurrency from the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) to the CFTC (The Commodity Futures Trading Commission). The CFTC is much smaller and weaker than the SEC. It is, in effect, an attempt to take away guardrails for cryptocurrency. It needs 7 Democratic votes to pass the Senate. I encourage all my readers to let Senators Warner and Kaine know that you do not want the Clarity Act to pass. Democrats are saying they will not pass it without provisions to prevent President Trump from profiting from it. He’s made $1.4B already. But the problems with the bill are much more than the corruption of the President.

The Genius Act passed last year with Democratic support (including that of Senator Warner). Few people were aware of its implications. More people are aware now, but cryptocurrency is a complicated issue. Some say it’s just a complicated Ponzi scheme. I do not know enough to judge well (although I lean towards the Ponzi scheme characterization at the moment). But I know guardrails are important and that the SEC is better equipped for that. It is important our elected representatives know that we are watching and concerned.

As always, I hope this information is helpful and welcome comments and suggestions.

Yours in peaceful and patriotic resistance,

Libby