BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 17, 2019) — The recent pas de deux between presidential adviser Stephen Miller and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) neatly-but-sloppily illustrates the current impasse that has ground to a halt the American political process, whose once-greased and working gears now wear frozen rust worthy of a Steampunk collage.

Omar, as most know, has been noteworthy for her “anti-Semitic” comments. She on more than one occasion has embarrassed her party, and worried Democratic leadership had to censure her for the favor. A presidential campaign just past the doorstep renders such flammable remarks all the more volatile — and we won’t even get into her “some people did something” characterization of Sept. 11, 2001. Miller is President Trump’s most senior adviser on immigration policy. He’s a hardliner who favors secure borders, the only way for nations to maintain internal and external viability, and his opponents have blasted his policies as being intolerant and hostile.

With an electric prod in hand, Omar approached this hornet’s next and gave it a jolt when she labeled Miller as a “white nationalist.” Oh, by the way, Miller is Jewish. That was enough for the Republican right to answer back, once again condemning her as “anti-Semitic.”

“White racist” vs. “Anti-Semite.” Where does one go from there?

THE PLANET won’t bother answering, because you all know. You see the evidence everyday in rabid partisanship, legislative gridlock, boiling politics, and the end of true dialogue, discussion, and debate. The Omar v. Miller fusillade leaves thoughtful people on the sidelines with mixed emotions. They are happy to stay out of the mud pit, but they lament the loss of their political relevance.

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This type of poisonous electoral atmosphere guarantees its own perpetuation, with each cycle worse than the one before, since good people’s disgust keeps them from participating. We The People end up with the sad state we’ve seen on the national, state, and local level, with the political process attracting to near exclusion only the avaricious, sneaky, vicious, selfish, corrupt, and the dabblers (especially locally: those fixated on themselves, who have turned their insecurities into envy, who have no chance at winning, who take out nomination papers, who put no money or effort into their campaigns, but who want their name in the fine print for 15 minutes).

The dreaded others are the insecure wannabees who will beg for table scraps from The Suits. The rosters of Pittsfield’s boards and commissions are loaded with these slipper fetchers. Most of the few good people who do get in the cage with the animals end up being thwarted and resign, Chuck Vincelette and Chuck Garivaltis for example, who had their bellies full on the school building needs commission and parks commission, respectively. For every solid Chuck, there are 100 hacks.

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THE PLANET doesn’t buy that Omar’s remark’s were “anti-Semitic. That wasn’t her mistake. The term “white nationalist,” however, sealed her fate. That loaded phrase cast in racist terms the issue of immigration. Coming from (a) a woman of (b) color, the term can have no legitimacy nor can her remarks about Miller’s immigration stance, words that otherwise might have led to meaningful dialog. Conservatives did themselves no favor, either, by issuing the “anti-Semitic” brand, a clearly and blindly political tactic. They, too, might have produced something meaningful if they had objected to Omar’s making this about race.

The only person we’d consider voting for in such a time would be anyone smart enough not to want to run.

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“A wonderful fact to dwell upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other” — Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, opening line, Chapter 3.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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