From Maloni the citizen, not the Maloni the GSE advocate
I am a Pittsburgh kid, born and raised.
When my family moved from the house in which I was born, I went to Allderdice high school in Squirrel Hill, where I still have many friends most all of whom are Jewish (my father was an Italian Catholic and my mother was Jewish).
Went to and graduated college in the City.
Nearly 50 years ago, I came to DC to work for the then Pittsburgh Congressman, who was on the House Banking Committee.
My only (late) brother had his bar mitzvah at the then tiny Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood—our original community--the congregation later moved to Squirrel Hill and merged with two others and was housed in the “Tree of life” building where last week’s fatal atrocities happened.
Long before that horrendous tragedy, I planned this pre-election blog and broadly what I wanted to say.
Last Friday’s Pittsburgh murders by a bitter anti-Semite, plus the bombs sent to national Democrats by a thug weightlifter who had been kicked out of his family home by his mother, and the racist killings in a Louisville, Ky., Kroger supermarket to me are part of the same devil’s brew about which I planned to inveigh.
But in the aftermath of those same week tragedies—reading/watching the current national discussion about our personal responsibility and thinking about individual actions when faced with the bigotry and hatred—I softened some of my animus and intent.
I vowed I would take a stand but not add to the violent partisan and decorum-reducing tone going into the November 6 congressional elections.
I made up my mind to not take a predictable way out, not join the mob, or heavily vilify President Donald J. Trump's aberrant personality, bizarre manifestations of his presidential authority, and the anger and division which have marked every day of his presidency.
Ergo, I won’t repeat the long list of Trump actions--domestic, international, and personal--I’ve touched in my prior blogs.
He did not kill anyone or send bombs in the mail.
I hope you'll vote next week against all of the President’s congressional enablers, Republican would-be office seekers, and I can convince you to communicate the same with your personal network.
#1
First, vote against whichever Republican is running in your congressional district, not because that individual is heinous but because once he or she gets to DC they'll be forced by GOP leaders to frolic in the swamp that produces policies that, mainly, are poisonous and noxious to civil discourse.
#2
More importantly, I ask you to write, call, email, tweet--whichever is your favorite, easiest communication method--your friends, colleagues, business associates, and family around the country, to vote and do the very same.
It’s called leveraging.
It's the most immediate and constitutionally accepted way of injecting some balance into our daily lives and to expel some of the venoms.
In doing what I propose, we may lose some decent moderate Republicans—but few have stepped up to embrace that mode and speak out--and for that I am sorry, but that’s a small price to pay if we get back our country’s traditional political fairness and bipartisan respect.
Collectively, President Trump--despite his success at implementing several of his campaign promises, which traditionally is a hallmark of an effective politician—and the incumbent congressional Republicans have been partners in creating a toxic set of conditions that violate a skein of American historic ideals and democratic principles.
This Administration daily spouts outrageous lies which get choreographed and amplified by its faux media allies and right-wing posse.
From a longer range perspective, including economically with spending we can’t afford, norm-busting which hurts the least able and most vulnerable among us, and the failure to lead, not just read words from a teleprompter, I think perpetuation of the GOP-dominated Congress is deadly for our nation's future, ergo my wish to you all.
I’ll blog to you after the election, when we might be able to talk about GSE issues again, facing a saner political future.
Maloni, 10-29-2018
