I can't remember whether this is a picture of forget-me-nots.
In recognition of this week’s theme — “forgetting” — it would have been convenient had I resorted to contriving a post in list form because I had forgotten about this week’s deadline. But, the truth of the matter is that (1) I read kwilk’s post this week; (2) I liked it; (3) I’m impressionable; and (4) I ultimately decided to steal the idea.
Here are two items of interest that we could hardly help but forget, thanks to our rapacious, small-minded, muckracking, bickering, tit-for-tat, two-party media culture that would give our country’s founders a start. (On account of revulsion or delight, depending on whom you ask.)
1. Yesterday Is So Far Away: In my lifetime, there has been nearly constant changeover between the parties that control the Presidency, the House and the Senate. In the year I was born, 1981, there was a Republican in the White House, a Republican-controlled Senate and a Democratic House. But, that changed by the time I was 6, when, in 1987, Democrats took over the Senate. It changed again 6 years later, in 1993, when we put a Democrat in the White House. By 1995, Republicans controlled the House and Senate. But, in 2001, the Republicans got their President and the Democrats regained the Senate, which the Republicans won back in 2003. In 2007, however, both Houses of Congress went Democratic and in 2009, of course, the White House did too.
What’s more, the government was divided in every Congressional session during this time, save four (1993, 2003, 2005 and 2009).
Where’s the beef, you ask?
Compare this ever-shifting landscape to the period between 1921 and 1931, when there was no changeover at all, but for the fact that the House finally switched from red to blue in 1931. And, all the branches of government during that time were controlled by Republicans. No divided government at all.
Second verse same as the first/A little bit louder and a little bit worse: In the ten-year period from 1935 to 1945, there was no movement at all. Democrats, Democrats, Democrats in the White House, Senate and House every single stinkin’ year.
If I were partisan, I’d note that the Republican dominance from 1921 to 1931 encompassed the Great Depression, whereas we escaped the Depression and won World War II in the period of Democratic dominance from 1935 to 1945. I’m not, so I won’t.
So even though your short attention span is probably not your fault, we’d probably all be better off if you kept some historical perspective the next time you feel prone to histrionics over rumors that your Senator is going to switch parties or to break out in hives today worrying now about a Tea Party takeover in 2016.
2. Speaking of Forgetting … The Internet does not. Just ask the Drunken Pirate featured in the New York Times Magazine’s cover story from a few weeks ago. She used to be a teacher in training. The article isn’t all post-apocalyptic wasteland. I thought Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain’s idea of “‘reputation bankruptcy,’ which would give people a chance to wipe their reputation slates clean and start over,” was an interesting one.
3. A Reminder this week from Dahlia Lithwick to Sarah Palin of what a true “Mama Grizzly” looks like, and explains how Ruth Bader Ginsburg cleared the way for “the Mama Grizzlies who roam our political landscape today.” As Lithwick recounts:
Those who like to believe they have picked themselves up by the bootstraps sometimes forget that they wouldn’t even have boots were it not for the women who came before. Listening to Palin, it’s almost impossible to believe that, as recently as 50 years ago, a woman at Harvard Law School could be asked by Dean Erwin Griswold to justify taking a spot that belonged to a man[ and, o]nly a few decades ago, Ginsburg had to hide her second pregnancy for fear of losing tenure.
4. Speaking of Women and Remembering … Don’t forget to call your mother. She’s worried about you. It’s now free (or cheap, if she lives outside the country), thanks to Google.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
