Just the facts, ma'am...

 

The story you’re about to hear is true.  Only I could not change the names – it would only protect the ignorant.

Very little of what I am about to write is partisan.  It will deal with politics, but adults should be able to discuss politics without falling to pieces, to be able to appreciate a different point of view without feeling their values are being attacked. 

That’s what grownups do, or did – they could have a balanced conversation because they had the maturity to see, if not agree with, more than just their point of view.  

Right now, I am living my worst nightmare – an America reflecting for all the world to see the scariest parts of our culture toward aging, particularly the unprecedented way olders & elders are minimized by society, including themselves. 

This is evident in our businesses, where it’s not what you know but how well you can forget & relearn, where it’s not tough to get a job if you’re over 55 or 60 – make that 40 or even younger.  

This is evident in how our culture has evolved from tribal to clan to immediate relatives to what is now described (oh, the irony) as the nuclear family unit. 

It’s evident in politics, where Republican Party elders have been treated over the past decade with distain & outright disrespect.  Many within the GOP – including many aging & elderly men & women – now see extended time of service in government treated as a weakness, not a strength, leading younger politicians to brush aside long-standing traditions & unwritten protocols that once helped form the backbone of reasoned governing.  

Which brings me to The Letter. 

First off, I understand the frustration of the Republican-led Senate that the President is locking senators out of their traditional advise & consent role.  As someone who taught Government, I know that step is included in the Constitution as a crucial check & balance.

The GOP sees talks with Iran doomed to be a bad deal & that the president has barred the path laid out by our Founding Fathers.  But the sorry fact of the matter is that Republican Party leaders – including every blessed man considering a run for the presidency – blew it.  Blew it big time.  By making a rookie mistake.

 

Republicans have a longtime history of disgust with federal overreach.  Well, I am unable to think of a single instance of government overreach that comes close to The Letter.   

Just the greeting should have given more wiser heads a clue this might be something they’d want to skip – “An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”  Whose name was on the address?  Were they clueless which governing body was the right one to receive it?  If someone sent a letter to the House, Senate, Supreme Court & the President of the United States, it would be trashed by the local US Post Office.

A rookie mistake.  Folks without a lot of business experience.  If they had business world experience, they’d know that it’s essential a letter be written to the correct person, or else it looks like you didn’t know who that is.  And the letter is never seen by the appropriate person(s).  Business 101.

To digress…   Back in my USHealthcare days, I swiftly moved out of hourly Member Services into salaried Provider Liaison thanks to the favorable outcomes I racked up, to all the once-irate members who flipped from furious to our biggest cheerleaders.- where other Member Service reps told callers to write to USHC, I’d give members  the name & address of the relevant VP.   They got action because they went to the best person to make the essential decision.  I received letters from members who were still turned down, but felt like they’d been HEARD. 

The Letter wasn’t addressed to Iran’s Supreme Leader, to its President or Parliament or Assembly of Experts or Council of Guardians.  Which makes a lot of people naturally wonder – didn’t they know which was the right person or group?  If they had, it would have gone to the Council of Guardians. 

 

Again, a rookie mistake, which more seasoned senators could easily have avoided. 

How many of the 46 senators signing Tom Cotton’s letter assumed at least one Democrat had been approached to get onboard?  He skipped an essential step in not appearing blatantly partisan in an unprecedented insult assault on the presidency.  Politics 101,

 

Still, nothing shrieks “rookie staff” louder than the fact that apparently no one in the junior senator from Arkansas’ office realized 47 senators had signed on. If ever there was a number the GOP should avoid, it’s 47.  Mitt Romney lost the presidency largely due to 47 – and lost by getting only  47% of the vote!!  How dense can a staff be that no one made a convincing argument that it would be worth one less name in order to avoid the ominous #47.   Numerology 101.

As someone with many years in the corporate world, I appreciate all that young folks & new hires bring to an organization.  An unspoiled commitment to changing things for the better, a zest for & dedication to their work.  They give organizations new life, a fresh perspective & boosted energy.  But there is a reason why freshmen legislators are called “back benchers” – they’re supposed to be sitting back for a spell & learning, seeing how things works, getting the lay of the land before making their maiden speech.  

When I worked at BYSIS, no one would have handed responsibility for major accounts to a new hire with a passion for turning the company around but precious little experience in financial services.   The very first signature on The Letter isn’t Mitch McConnell’s, the Senate Majority Leader.  It's the signature of a senator who had been sworn in just a tad over two months before.  

While Tom Cotton might thumb his nose at traditions & protocols, they matter to other governments, especially to Iranians.  (My guess is Council of Guardians staffers had to scurry to the internet to find out just who Tom Cotton is.)

 

What gives me the greatest pause, what drives home so clearly the danger we put ourselves in when we distain distrust disrespect “older & wiser” people, is how the GOP is responding to the blowback The Letter is getting both here & abroad.  In a nutshell, their defense is either “HE made me do it” or “but they did it too.”  Both are childish & churlish.

I absolutely agree that President Obama was freezing the Senate, as a body, out of talks with Iran.   But a snarky temper tantrum on paper is not a reasonable response.  He did NOT make them compose a letter so full of unmistakable condescension, it’s considerably more insulting than informational.  I don’t doubt it states what’s in Sen. Cotton’s heart – in the hearts of all neo-conservatives & many Americans – but that doesn’t disguise its immaturity.   

I was about to say that more seasoned staff writers would have gotten the message across better, but my greatest fear is that The Letter does say precisely what Sen. Cotton wanted.   

The most shocking - and telling - thing is that apparently not a single more experienced senator or seasoned senatorial staffer said, “Wait a minute.  Let’s consider…”   

That speaks volumes of how the GOP seems hell bent on lionizing brash, reckless behavior while caging party elders.  In other words, the natural result of a national & party culture that applauds youth  & inexperience, while depreciating & dismissing age & expertise. 

As for the equally childish, “They did it too!”  defense – well, I agree.  Individual American politicians have acted recklessly in the name of righteousness in the past, including Ted Kennedy & Nancy Pelosi.  But 46 senators signing onto a poorly-written, openly petulant letter that leads off with the name of someone sworn in just a shade over two months earlier?  Nothin' even comes close. 

What a lot of people miss is that Tom Cotton’s lack of experience & passionate principles are the very things the folks back home in Arkansas voted into office.  Sen. Cotton had every reason in the world to write The Letter & to get as many senators as he could to sign it.  

That is what his constituents back home sent him to D.C. to do – not just shake up the government, but to up-end it & literally reform it into something that transfers power down to the states.  Why would he sit around twiddling his thumbs waiting to be given credence by  doddering  party elders?  

He did what Tom Cotton does – took bold action almost as soon as he was sworn in.  Look up "sanctions corruption of blood."  He understands that in today's GOP, power has ebbed from established leaders & flowed to brash new comers – think Ted Cruz 2013 – who will stand on their principles, to blazes with the outcome. 

My problem isn’t with Senator Tom Cotton.  He’s doing what he was elected to do.  My problem is with a political party that minimizes established leaders as it elevates inexperienced youngsters to positions of immense influence. 

Ask Ted Cruz if he has any regrets about forcing a partial government shutdown in his first months on the job – nope, he doesn’t. 

Ask Tom Cotton if he regrets The Letter  - no how, no way.  

They both did what they felt needed to be done.  If the nation or the party was damaged, that was not their doing, but others.  They stood by the principles & values of their Texas & Arkansas constituencies, which was what they believe they were elected to do. 

My problem is with the party, which has created an atmosphere where experience is shunned & enthused inexperienced novices are given the spot light on a national – make that international - stage.

 

Republican leaders couldn’t  reason with Ted Cruz – and we ended up with a partial government shutdown that created financial havoc just to make a point it never made. 

I’ve yet to hear a single Republican say, “We tried to warn Tom.”  Not one.  They signed or they declined, but it seems that not a one tried to counsel. 

Youth is attractive, energizing to be around, exciting to hear, but they need a more experienced guiding hand to help them fulfill their promise.  Except there are few left in the GOP & the ones that are get marginalized.  

They’ve primaried moderates out of existence – no one uses the term RINO (Republican In Name Only) because there aren’t any centrists left in the party.  

 

Those offering years of experience are labeled Establishment, depicted as out of step & out of touch.  Minimized, marginalized, labeled “irrelevant” & ignored.  A microcosm of our American culture toward aging at its worst!

If anyone is still reading this lengthy lecture on what feels like my worst nightmare of our country’s warped culture around aging – I applaud & thank you.  Still have to go downstairs & have my breakfast, but couldn’t keep quiet anymore about my horror at the current condoned folly of youth, uncurbed by wiser heads.

Ted Cruz’ unchecked youthful folly wrecked havoc on our fragile economy.  Now, a wet-behind-the-ears senator’s  not just open but openly condescending letter to the leaders of a hostile power is creating havoc within our government.  

It busted up the carefully crafted, veto-proof coalition of Republicans & Democrats that HAD been poised to force the president into presenting any proposed agreement to the Senate for approval.  International leaders have voiced utter amazement at the GOP’s Mickey Mouse attempt to insert itself into ongoing diplomatic talks.  As for the folks on the receiving end of the letter?  They’re using it as further evidence of America’s decline.  

For years, I’ve ballyhooed warnings about the dire effect our country’s sorry culture around aging & our worship of youth could have on our well-being.  I never expected to have such extreme examples of youth & inexperience run amuck, unchecked & unrepentant, than we got two years ago in Ted Cruz & have even more spectacularly in Tom Cotton.

 

If anyone had told me eight years ago that we’d experience what we have over the past few years, I wouldn’t have believed it.  Am going to predict that things are going to get far worse – or better, if you’re one of the many who believe that what Ted & Tom did was what the country needs.  I’d say we’ve shoved away the very people we need for balance – the older, the more experienced, the wiser savvier cannier – but it’s clear that there are a lot of people out there who don’t want balance, who have no interest in seeing any perspective but their own, who find no fault with The Letter. 

As a nation, too many embrace a culture that distains & dismisses older people, including those with experience & wisdom.  As a party, the GOP has let inexperienced youngsters sow their political wild oats, unchecked in their open dislike & distrust of those with experience & wisdom and in their distain & dismissal of national & international elders.  

That’s the story unfolding around us.  I’ve done my best to stick to just the facts.  And didn’t change any names, in order to not protect the ignorant.  It’s a pretty sorry tale, if you ask me.  It sure doesn’t bode well for what lays ahead.