Tuesday, December 5, 2017

To Seat or Not to Seat

Should the Senate seat Roy Moore if he's elected? 

Yes. 


To Seat or Not to Seat, a discussion about whether or not to admit an accused child molester to the Senate if elected | www.BakingInATornado.com | #politics #MyGraphics


Let me explain. Because it is emotionally painful for me to believe that.

Up is down and down is up. My kids used to joke, when something seemed grossly amiss, that it must be "opposite day". Opposite day? That I could live with. We're so far past opposite day we can't even find that little dot in our rear view mirror. We, my friends, we're living in Bizzaroworld. 

The "president" of these United States, an admitted sexual predator, is openly endorsing an accused child molester for Senate. 

Let that sink in. 

I've been trying but it can't. It must be because I'm too left brained, but for me it just does not compute.

Not only is the candidate from Alabama accused of molesting children but also, many times, of stalking them, including in malls and in their schools. As if that's not bad enough (and in a normal world, it is) he has twice been elected as a judge in the Alabama Supreme Court, and twice removed for refusing to adhere to the Alabama Cannons of Ethics. He is openly homophobic, and does not know (or care) about the separation of church and state. How he made it to the bench that second time, after being removed the first time, is meaningful. It is a glimpse into the priorities of the community he now is running to represent in the Senate.

I have to admit that at first, when some sitting senators began discussing not seating Moore if elected, I was relieved. Phew, an "out". But later that same morning, I sat down with a cup of coffee, some warm cookies and my favorite sounding board, College Boy, and ended up completely reversing my stance.



Giant Banana Toffee Cookies, mashed bananas and chocolate covered toffee add flavor to these cinnamon and sugar rolled cookies | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cookies

Giant Banana Toffee Cookies
Giant Banana Toffee Cookies, mashed bananas and chocolate covered toffee add flavor to these cinnamon and sugar rolled cookies | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cookies


Lets talk about the famous (infamous) Access Hollywood tapes. The fallout was this: Billy Bush lost is job and Donald Trump was elected. Is it fair? Not to most of us. But there is a difference between being employed and being elected. A crucial difference. The workplace is not a democracy. Our country is supposed to be.

Moving on the the situation with Al Franken and John Conyers. They are elected officials who are facing the political consequences of the behaviors of which they are accused. And they should. But here is the difference between them and Moore: these men's electorates did not have this information when they were running for office. We cannot know if they would have been elected had these accusations come out during their campaigns. In this situation, any possible repercussions must be put into the hands of the governing bodies in which they currently serve.

We have lost our moral compass. That was evident during the presidential campaign and pretty much every day since. Our political parties are about tribalism, protecting donors, and reelection, nothing more seems to penetrate. Lindsay Graham said Trump was a "kook" and unfit for office, then walked it back. Paul Ryan said that these are not the values of his party, now looks at the "president" with adoration. Nancy Pelosi said Conyers was an icon, then called for his resignation. It's no longer about us, the citizens. It's about them. We, the people, we don't even seem to register. We are the scenery, they are the actors.

And so, one week before the Alabama election, I had to do a lot of soul searching. I had to put aside my own morals and values and even my extreme nausea and dig deep to find what it is that I believe in when it comes to the current state of our government. And I found it. It's democracy. There is so much that I see as an assault to that democracy. Within the parties themselves, it's the super-delegates who negate the premise that there is one vote for person and each vote matters as much as the next. In the election, it's the Electoral College, which does the same thing. Gerrymandering the districts is flat out cheating made legal.

And I think that refusing to seat a duly elected Senator when all of the accusations against him were well known during the election, is yet another fall down the slippery slope away from democracy. If we allow the senate, who's motives are dubious and values are fluid, to usurp the will of the people, what exactly do we stand for?

Yes, we need to find our moral compass again. There is no question in my mind that Donald Trump has opened Pandora's Box. And evil is dancing in our streets unchecked. But the remedy is not to further expropriate the will of the people by nullifying elections. No matter how distasteful, repulsive, offensive, disgusting, repugnant, abhorrent . . . the results of those elections may be. Or we are no longer a democracy.  


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Giant Banana Toffee Cookies        
                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 2 1/2 dozen):
1 stick butter, softened
2 over ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup chocolate covered toffee baking chips

1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
*Cream the butter, bananas, 3/4 cup sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. 
*Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Carefully, starting on the lowest speed until incorporated, beat into the banana mixture. Mix in the chocolate covered toffee baking chips.
*Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.
*Mix together 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon in a bowl.
*Drop dough, a heaping TBSP at a time, into the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll in the sugar/cinnamon mixture, forming into a ball and place onto prepared baking sheets (no more than 12 cookies per sheet as they spread).
*Bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to cool completely.

12 comments:

  1. We definitely need to find our moral compass again, without a doubt. We also need to stand by the standard that says innocent until proven guilty. It feels like many women are screaming sexual assault only to later be found to have been paid to say so in an attempt to ruin someone. When the charges are proven in a court of law, Then the accused should pay for their crimes. The women who are proven to be dishonest in their accusations should also pay for their crimes. The Government Officials who commit crimes should also be officially charged, tried and if proven guilty, should pay for their crimes. As we all have been told, no one is above the law, yet it seems that many people are, in that charges are never brought against them. Then there are others, like the Bundy's, who are charged for taking a video of law enforcement officials (BLM) and they spend 2 years in jail before even being tried. Our world has definitely been in a downward spiral, and we all need to work together to try to get it upright again. Do I approve of the sitting President tweeting and causing so much turmoil? No. But do I approve of him standing up for the America we all grew up in? Yes. It is scary out there right now, and I pray that We the People can prevail. I pray that we can find our moral compass again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that until representatives are forced to live within the laws that they pass for us, nothing will change. As long as they live above the law, they are not governing, they are dictating. There is no such thing as "public service" any more.

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  2. We can just hope for a miracle and he doesn't get elected. I feel bad for minorities including Democrats, Women, Hisbanics, Muslims and Jews in Alabama! A perfect example of not enough people voting down the ballot in the last election and new people not getting into state politics. Chocolate covered toffee baking chips? I really have to spend more time in the baking aisle!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly, it doesn't look like that miracle is coming. And yes, it's a scary time in this country for minorities.

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  3. What he does is beyond me and many others, very country have problems with their leaders none of us a spared.

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    Replies
    1. Very true, but what's going on in our country now is something I never thought I'd see.

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  4. I think, unless fraud on the part of Moore can be proved in the election (not the same as the accusations against him)if he wins, Moore must be seated. I think not letting him take the seat he is lawfully elected to (again, if that happens) would set a dangerous precedent. If we think back on our history, there have been many times where we have lost our moral compass (not outlawing slavery at the moment of our country's birth, as one example). It's not to minimize what is happening now but one can only hope we survive to recover from this Presidency with an intact democracy. If we don't, it is the fault of many of our citizens. We would have rotted from within. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right, Alana. Trump has opened Pandora's Box, but our electorate is responsible for letting him do so. I truly hope that we don't lose any semblance of democracy, which seems to be Trump's ultimate goal.

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  5. I agree with you on the Moore issue, as a native Alabamian, I can only pray that he is not elected. I know if I still lived there, he wouldn't get my vote.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish you could still vote there, I know we could count on you to put country before party.

      Delete

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