In an interesting turn of events, the FBI recently has uncovered a cache of weapons and amunition, as well as the detailed plans of Christopher Paul Hasson in his efforts to “establish a white homeland”. The US attorney’s office describe Hasson as holding neo-nazi and neo-fascist views. Police also found a list of Republican and Democratic congressmen who it is assumed Hasson planned to attack.

Hasson had been arrested on illegal drug and arms charges, but that seemed to be only the tip of the iceberg for investigators. Hasson sought to recreate an attack that occured in norway in 2011, and time will tell if this attack will go on to inspire further extremism.

Early this month a 1980s yearbook was uncovered, and contained within was a supposed picture of Virginia’s democratic governor Ralph Northam in blackface, standing next to another individual dressed as a Klansman. First, Northam claimed that the picture was not of him, and then later admitted that he had infact dressed in blackface that year but that the photo was not of him.

The event posses an interesting question; to what extent do we as a country forgive those who have done blatanly racist things in the past? I mean, they were kids right?

I think the action, while inherently racist, should be forgiven given the person in the present actually regrets what they did and show that, and in my mind that’s Northam has done, given that he has started a reconciliation tour.

Time now will only tell what will happen in the governorship, and in the democratic party.

Amid calls from the Movement for Quality Government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped down as foreign minister for the state. He will be replaced by Israel Katz, a member of his own party Likud. This move comes as the Israeli federal elections quickly approach in April, in hopes to maintain Netanyahu’s parties dominance into the next 3 years.

Time will only tell if this will be a good strategy, as already the new interim foreign minister has committed an international diplomatic blunder, stating that “The poles cooperated with the Germans” during the holocaust. Later, the statement was edited to remove the ‘the’, but the effects have still been felt, and polish, as well as czech, politicians have recently pulled out of a conference set to be held in Jerusalem.

35 Days later, no progress made, and the government will be open for the next three weeks while a bipartisan border control committee debates over border wall funding. While both sides of the aisle are truly to blame, the republicans definitely have suffered the most in terms of polling and time will tell whether this will come to be a major issue come 2020.

One interesting threat that the white house has issued is that if come February 15 and the impasse has not cleared, the president will use his executive power to declare a state of emergency to build a wall, using the reasoning that the border is a looming disaster. This is clearly not true, as illegal border crossings are at a 45 year low, however these claims do serve another purpose. Whether or not they are true, Trump will be able to use the declaration of a state of emergency as political leverage to catapult him into another 4 years of being president 45.

Another issue that this shutdown creates is the precedent of using shutdowns as political leverage to fulfill policy decisions. While not only being non-democratic in nature, the increasing prevalence of shutdowns will lead the American economy to suffer and prevent efficient bureaucracy.

3 billion dollars in unrecoverable economic activity is not a huge portion of the total GDP, but time will tell what effects these past 35 days will have.

Scrolling through twitter or a news feed on any given day in the last three years might lead an outside observer to believe that the very fabric of American society and politics is being torn apart and that the country is on the brink of a civil war and somehow the Russians are involved.

But this is just everyday news, right?

I’m not so sure. For the American public, the constant onslaught of controversy every hour of everyday of every month for 3 whole years has led many to turn off the television. And its not that most people don’t care, its that most people get so extraordinarily stressed about the conflicts, real and supposed, that seem to face American society everyday that they would rather just pull the blinds than face societal issues. And when they seem to come at such a speed and supposed power, how would anyone really form a rounded opinion of a certain controversy before the culture moved onto the next?

So is this normal? No, objectively its not. I unfortunately don’t have the years behind me to say I experienced the speed at which news coverage in the previous few presidencies occurred at, but what the current presidency and president have brought is a relaxation of the idea of the objective truth, the feeling of a close relationship and easy access to a politician who doesn’t act like a politician, and the massive breaking of presidential norms.

Whether one believes that this is a positive or negative thing, or that some policies or events that have occurred are net good or bad, it is hard to argue that this is normal. Our country must now grapple with the effects of this president, but positive and negative. We truly can never return to the norms of the Clinton, Bush or Obama presidencies and must now seek to reestablish what the office of the president means. What does this mean for the future of American society and Democracy? Time will only tell.

Further reading:

https://www.theatlantic.com/unthinkable/