Proof is in the files

   

  Republicans at every level -- The Save Act in Congress, a House bill in Michigan and now an executive order -- are demanding proof of citizenship for voters. It seems like a reasonable expectation, but current proposals are weighed down with unreasonable restrictions. Women who adopted their husband's last name wouldn't match their birth certificate. Getting said birth certificate requires time and money which amounts to a poll tax for those who can't afford it. Ie: voter suppression.

    But this is not the stone age. I ordered my son's birth certificate recently so I could get him a passport. I went to the website for Kane County, Ill.,  where he was born, filled in a few lines of information, and mailed the form with a $16 check. The paper certificate with the raised seal arrived by mail in a week or so.  

    I am sure the clerk didn't go to a paper file for 1977 to find my son's birth certificate.  He undoubtedly looked in his computer and printed the certificate with a touch of a button. If my son wanted to register to vote in Kane County, that same clerk could confirm his citizenship on that same computer. No need to print it out. 

    But most of us register to vote in a different county than the one storing our birth certificate. If a new law says all voters will need to prove their citizenship by ordering a paper birth certificate and bringing it into the office in person to register, that creates a lot of work for clerks' offices all over the country.  

     Proving citizenship should be a simple matter. Couldn't we create a common birth certificate database between all clerk's offices? Voters continue to register online as usual, including maiden name and birth location. The local clerk's office can easily confirm citizenship by checking the joint database. 

      Republicans get the proof of citizenship they want. Voters get to keep their easy access. And clerks' offices add only a little more work, without a lot of unnecessary paper. We can prove citizenship without voter suppression. 

      Unfortunately, county clerks may not have birth certificates for all citizens. There are tales of home births and destroyed county records, not to mention naturalized citizens who are recorded in a different database. Accommodation will need to be made in these cases. But the government works for the governed, not vice versa. All citizens have the right to vote and the government has the obligation to provide any documentation necessary to prove citizenship. 

What it means to be truly great

    

For most of us, the U.S. Presidency is the pinnacle. The President is the most powerful man in the most powerful country in the world. How could you beat that? 

    But for Jimmy Carter, the 39th man to hold the title of President of the United States, it was just a stepping stone on his lifelong mission of making the world a better place. 

    Flags are flying at half mast this month in honor of Carter who died Dec. 29, three months after his 100th birthday. When Carter left the White House in 1980, his single term had a low approval rating. Inflation, which had been building for a decade, was at 13 percent and a failed attempt to rescue 52 hostages in Iran overshadowed earlier successes including negotiating a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Even Carter gave his presidency a grade of "B", better than average but not as good as he would have liked. 

    When he returned to Georgia in early 1981, the peanut farm he had placed in a blind trust during his presidency was in deep debt. Carter sold the farm keeping the four-bedroom ranch that he and his wife Rosalynn had built in 1960. But he didn't put his feet up and live on his pension. He started writing a memoir of his presidency. By 1982 the memoir was a best seller and the Carters had founded the Carter Center in partnership with Emory University to "wage peace, fight disease and build hope."

    Sounds pretty ambitious, doesn't it? But it wasn't enough to keep Carter busy. In 1984 the Carters joined Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit that uses volunteer labor to build homes for low-income families. The Carters didn't start or manage Habitat, they just became the organization's most prominent volunteers. For decades they spent at least a week every year hammering, sawing and painting at building sites all over the world. I worked on a couple Habitat projects in Grand Rapids but I would never have heard of the organization if not for the publicity Carter attracted.

     In the 40 years after leaving the White House, Carter wrote 32 best-sellers ranging from poetry and an historic novel, to political criticism, theology and even a children's book.   Yet, writing took a back seat to Carter's work as an international peacemaker. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” 

    The former president was also determined to eliminate Guinea worm disease, a devastating parasite infecting people in Africa and Asia.Working with local governments, the Carter Center helped reduce infections from 3.5 million in 1986 to just 14 reported cases in 2023. The Carter Center also worked to strengthen fledgling democracies by monitoring elections.

    Greatness isn't a title granted by governments, even in the wake of some mythical mandate from the voters. Greatness can't be bought no matter how many billions you spend. Greatness is an internal drive that can't be stopped by term limits or financial hardship, cancer, even death. The Camp David Accords Carter negotiated in 1979 have become a fact of life for Israel and Egypt. And the houses Jimmy and Rosalynn helped to build continue to provide warmth for families.  Greatness is reaching for the stars even when they are as unattainable as world peace. 

    Thanks, Jimmy.

The world's a stage

     I've neglected reading the plodding "Mandate for Leadership" lately because it is so much easier to get digestible, tasty bites about Project 2025  in Facebook posts and television specials such as The Reid Out on MSNBC. But today when I returned to the Mandate to reread Chapter 6: Department of State, I was struck  by how Project 2025's depiction of the world stage pales against the the drama unfolding there in recent news. 

    The Mandate views the Department of State as a huge debacle that needs major overhaul, just as it describes every level of the US government. And I am quite sure some reorganization and streamlining would help any business or government. But when President Joe Biden rolls out a complex negotiation with Germany, Norway, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey to get 16 prisoners released from Russia, you've gotta standup and applaud. Somebody in the state department is doing something right.  

     I was also struck on this reread of organizational criticisms how often the Mandate's problem with current international relations boils down to the pro-life/pro-choice disagreement. Repeatedly the mandate blasts any program which supports abortion or birth control as offensive to the cultures of the world and says our influence should be confined to "human rights" issues. Can't get much more "human" than abortion and birth control. Unless it would that other Mandate criticism ---LGBTQ rights. 

Homeland Insecurity

    

Chapter 5 of the "Mandate for Leadership" calls for dismantling the Department of Homeland Security. You may recall that this newest department was created after the attacks of 9/11, hoping to coordinate several otherwise unrelated agencies like immigration, Coast Guard, Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Mandate suggests a more logical, mission-oriented regrouping, but in the meantime advocates death by thousand little cuts. 

      Clearly, the object of the chapter is to strike out against immigration, but not the straight-forward deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants as touted so often by the current Republican Presidential candidate. Instead this chapter lists devious ways to get rid of LEGAL immigrants. For instance, eliminate  visas currently granted to victims of human trafficking who are serving as witnesses for the authorities. Or limit the H-1B visa most often used by university graduates to extend a student visa by qualifying for a specialized job. 

    These limitations are worded so that the impact is not immediately clear. For instance, the Mandate calls for the Secretary of Homeland Security to not update the list of countries that can participate in the H-2 Seasonal Worker program. But since the list is only valid for a year, failing to update the list at the end of the year is the same as shutting the program down entirely. 

          The Mandate would remove Temporary Protected Status, which was established in 1990 to protect immigrants from war-torn countries. An estimated 700.000 who have been living and working legally in this country for decades would be deported.

        Punishing immigrants is not all. Although illegal aliens don't qualify for federal school loans, the Mandate wants to deny federal aid  to ANY student if their school allows  "illegal aliens"  to qualify for in-state tuition, which 26 states have approved. Never mind that this would be a grave violation of the state's right to determine its own rules for in-state tuition.   

      And when it comes to state's rights this chapter goes to the other extreme as well.  Disaster preparednes should be on the states, the Mandate says. The Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to respond only in the most severe emergencies and should reduce the amount of grants available. That advice should be well received by conservatives in Florida and Texas, the two states that receive the largest portion of FEMA funds thanks to frequent hurricanes. 

Bull in a China shop

    

              With 3 million people serving around the world, the US Department of Defense is the largest,and most visible, part of the federal government. But the 2025 Project would have us believe it is in bad shape. A military that wears masks during a pandemic, and requires Covid vaccinations,  looks weak and risk adverse.  the authors say.  Evidently they forgot that the last great  pandemic was spread by WWI soldiers from the US who took it to Europe where it killed more than bombs and bullets combined.

       The second section in Project 2025's "Mandate for Leadership" demands a strong military, free of such precautions as vaccines or prissy "discrimination, equity and inclusion" training.

    To rebuild the military,  the Mandate recommends an almost wartime recruitment policy, just shy of a draft, with all public school students required to take the military entrance exam. ROTC programs would be increased at high schools and congressmen would be encouraged to have military recruiters at their town halls.

     Although the Mandate wants to expand the ranks, there's no room for transgender soldiers, no matter how capable an individual may be. On the other hand, the Mandate says anyone who was dismissed for refusing to take a COVID vaccine should be returned to the ranks -- with back pay.   

      I do agree with the recommendation to increase wages and family allowances for enlisted soldiers.       "No uniformed personnel should ever have to rely on social benefits like as food stamps or public housing assistance," the Mandate says.

    The Mandate also wants to step up foreign military sales by designing more export friendly armaments,  streamlining the congressional review process, reducing trade restrictions and expanding contracting   Although the Mandate stresses "warfighting" is the primary focus of defense, it does recognize "irregular warfare" including counter terrorism, cyber attacks, misinformation and economic plots. 

       China is "by far" the most serious threat to U.S. security, the Mandate says. That's hardly new. When I was a kid somebody told me there were so many people in China that if they started marching against the USA, the line would never end. Every time we had a bomb drill in school,  I imagined an unending line of Chinese soldiers was at the door. 

       That was 70 years ago and the long line never appeared. I visited China a few years back and was amazed that it wasn't that much different from all the other countries I've visited. 

        When Donald Trump was president, he called former president Jimmy Carter for his input on the source of China's strength. 

           "Since 1979, do you know how many times China has been at war with anybody? None," Carter was reported as having told Trump.  During the same time, the US was involved in one war after another. "China has not wasted a single penny on war," Carter explained. "and that's why they're ahead of us. In almost every way."

        It's like we've built this big, bad bull for the battlefield but instead he's breaking things in a China shop. 

 

 

 

 

             

Administrative State

         

  "Personnel is Policy" is an oft repeated maxim in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.  The people you hire determine the policy you get. You know, like appointing someone who has never been to public school to head the Department of Education. That's a pretty good indication of your education policy. 

             The first section of the "Mandate on Leadership" is all about managing personnel from details of who reports to whom in the White House Office, and what agencies need to be eliminated in the Executive Office of the President, to the vast civil service system. 

         If you remember your American History, civil service used to be the domain of political cronies, jobs determined by who you know, not what you know. But that all changed after a disgruntled worker who lost his job assassinated President James A. Garfield. The Pendleton Act, passed in 1883, established the merit system where civil service jobs were based on qualifications, not political favors.

        The Mandate claims that the non-partisan, "merit" system became out of control over the years, so now it is virtually impossible to fire civil  servants even if they aren't doing the job. Several presidents going back to Jimmy Carter tried to update hiring practices and employee evaluations, but cost-of-living pay increases have overrun merit increases. That seems to be the Mandate's real complaint against civil service jobs -- pay and benefits are equal to Fortune 500 companies and exceed that of smaller businesses.

         Let me get this straight, the Mandate thinks the greatest country in the world should not compete with the biggest companies for the best employees.Surely that's not the point this section is supposed to be making. 

        The Mandate solution is to make sure every agency and department is headed by a political appointee--not as a political favor you understand, but just to insure that the President's policy is being carried out and appropriations are properly approved. 

    Is this what they mean by "dismantling the administrative state"? Returning to the cronyism of 150 years ago?

Self-governance

   Before I leave Kevin Roberts' introduction to Project 2025 I must mention a major contradiction in terms -- that is all about terms. 

   "America’s corporate and political elites do not believe in the ideals to which our nation is dedicated—self-governance, the rule of law, and ordered liberty," he writes. "They certainly do not trust the American people."

    Wait a minute. Isn't it the conservatives, the group he champions, that doesn't trust a woman to make choices about her own medical care? That doesn't trust people to choose who they want to marry? And refuses to hear the wails of a teen struggling to accept a gender that just doesn't fit? They certainly don't want to allow self-governance for anyone whose choices don't agree with their own. 

    And how does Roberts suggest we deal with this disparity? By eliminating certain terms from "every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists." Those terms include:

• sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”)
• diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), 
• gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive,
• abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights

   Roberts equates transgender ideology with pornography, as addictive as any drug, he says.

   "Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders," he suggests. 

      It's no surprise that a few pages later in the section examining the executive office of the President, the Mandate for Leadership advises elimination of the Gender Policy Council and replacing it with a special advisor to the president on family life. 

   As long as that family's life doesn't have any of the terms that have been eliminated.