Paraphrasing one of the several reactions to the George Floyd murder trial displayed at the top of today's program, there's poetry in that it took the breath and life being taken from George Floyd so that the country could effectively breathe and exhale.
The cost for that collective breath has been far too high, for far too long.
The governor of Minnesota got it right this week when he said that this is not a culmination but a beginning, a base, in which to move forward toward justice. Mr. Todd put forward the question of whether or not this is our 'Selma' moment, as Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC) was quoted saying about the verdict. As the always most logical voice in the room, The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson said that it was too soon to tell, but rhetorically asked, that if this isn't then what is? Historian Keith Mayes from the University of Minnesota was a definitive 'no' citing the fact that we've had six people of color die at the hands of the police since the verdict and that Washington hasn't called for reform in a wide bi-partisan fashion.
The lingering questions:
Where would we be without the video? Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said that she didn't know. None of us do.
If Republicans controlled Congress would we even be discussing police reform legislation?
And are we as a society at this point even capable of having another 'Selma' moment?
The panel conversation circled around police reform and whether budgets for departments are too high, too low, whether the disparity is too great and how the money should be spent. However, Mr. Todd made the very point that we made in last week's column, to which Malcolm Gladwell expounded upon and left sitting; the point being that when half of the population is armed and you don't know who that is, how do you avoid police using excessive force? He explained, as you can easily imagine, that no other country has this unique problem to the extent that we do here.
As a society, if we want to reform the police and have their behavior change, the rest of us could take some of the burden from them by having more gun safety. Police reform and gun safety are obviously politically charged issues that usually warrant too many opinions than we want to hear.
That vaccinations are a politically charged subject is just 'effing' stupid at this point. How many millions have been vaccinated? And even in the case of the Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine, there should be no issue because the cases of blood clotting have been so rare. Feel better that they are aware of it and making us aware of it. Republicans and states in which the former president won are either flat out refusing to get vaccinated because Trump (doesn't deserve any honorific) isn't the president and the election was stolen or you've been advised by your Evangelical pastor that the virus is a hoax and it's a sin to get it. Or you could be like Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and say if you got vaccinated then why should I have to? There's a real leader for you. And it's Republicans that complain about things being shut down, yet refuse to do one thing, the vehicle through which we can fully reopen. When confronted with this kind of pretzel logic, it's difficult to have empathy for the other side's point of view.
(Aside: Morgan Radford noted that 6 in 10 Republican voters still think there was fraud in the election that enable Mr. Biden to win.)
Despite the aforementioned obstacles, a right-wing echo chamber only in for the check, and Republican held state houses doing their best to limit democracy, President Biden has an overall approval rating amongst all Americans of 53 percent. Normalcy and competency go a long way, don't they? We'll have trouble adjusting back into normal life, however you want to define that, post-covid and some people may never stop wearing masks, being hesitant to be in large groups, et al.
The same has been the case in the first 100 days of Mr. Biden's presidency. It will take time for the public to adjust to a normal functioning administration with no 'crazy dramas,' as The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan put it. And hopefully as time goes on, the 'crazy' will be seen for what it is and eventually fade. A bit optimistic, but either way it's going to take time to adjust.
Panel: Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Morgan Radford, NBC News; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post; Malcolm Gladwell
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