NOTHINGBURGER

  Yup. I had no idea either. What the heck is that?  I backed up and reread the last few sentences. Still not clear as to exact meaning, if there truly is any, but the intent is clear. Basically, it is a rather new term, perhaps in first use, functioning as a descriptive term. Quite ingenious.

We are running out of terms to describe the egregious behavior of GOP members. Actually, they are not truly GOP members as we used to define them. Rather, they are members of a new class of, well, there it is - nothingburgers. There is no real meat to their views. There is no real truth in their words and actions. What there is, is a false declaration and representation of being patriotic Americans, true followers of Abe Lincoln and the GOP tradition, hence, the nothing in the nothingburger.

We all are truly at the point of all being nothing, whatever meat we choose to label the package. Even in the first Civil War there were always people willing to talk, to compromise, to try to find a path whereon all could walk, equally uncomfortable yet all equally comfortable at the same time. No one had to get it over on the other one. Compromise was not a dirty word, only an impossibility at the beginning, but able to be achieved, if grudgingly, at the end. If there was actually an end to the issues of the war. Doubtful. 

In any case, what we now have is the awful situation of total enmity. "Shoot when you see the whites of their eyes" is not the ruling refrain, yet many, too many, are taking it literally. Political opponents are no longer that - political opponents. Right now, Americans of differing political opinions and place on the "syndrome" of politics in America today, are bitter enemies. Yes, bitter. Yes, enemies. If a Russian troop marched down Main St. today, followed by GOP troops and then Democratic troops, I have serious doubts as upon whom would the Americans shoot in defense of what? Their country, Americans all? Or their once fellow Americans, now the enemies of each other. Rotten mess we are in, are we not? the meat in all the burgers stinks to the high heavens.

We are at the brink of crossing a Rubicon of negatives, of implemented tropes that will change this country in a most damaging and perhaps permanent way. Once again to discard, downplay the value of women, their equality, their dignity, as we stand on the brink of a truly political, rather than blind, Lady Justice. The wire hangers are being taken out, sharpened up, and bloodshed awaits.

America has always been a land where at least somewhere a religion and its adherents could find a haven. Today, we are returning to the days when America is to be a "Christian" country. What does that mean? Are we going to burn people at the stake if they refuse to adhere to that premise? Are we going to have forced conversions? What will we be doing to enforce that precept of "one nation, one religion"? Are you afraid? You should be. These nothingburgers have a great deal of misplaced power, dangerous to us all.

Rather than adhere to the separation of Church and State, these burgers are plumping for your federal dollars to shore up their religion, their mostly  prejudiced, and poorly educating schools. I sent my kids to a private school, a yeshiva, where academic excellence in both areas was demanded. We were to emerge from our schooling as proud Americans, patriotic, thankful, and proudly Jewish. Accepting all religions even as they would accept ours. State money was used to pay for secular textbooks, not for the teachers, or the students, not for anything other than secular needs and up to a point. And that is the way it should be.

I know, as I was a student there and worked within the system as an adult. The way it should be and remain so. The only safe way to keep us American. All of us. No exception.

Enough of this enmity between family members. Enough of this hostility on planes. Enough of forgetting that “today could’ve been avoided with a little human decency and compassion.” If only. Then we could rid ourselves, not of the lawyers, as Shakespeare proposed via Falstaff, but rid of all the nothingburgers in both camps. A dream, fading away more and more. A shame, truly a shame.