Students in English Literature today have it so much better than those of us who toiled in High School classrooms sixty years ago. Oh, they may have to struggle with some of William Shakespeare’s plays, read some stuff from Lord Byron and maybe get lucky to be assigned to slog through Mary Wallstonecraft’s original version of Frankenstein. But mostly they must ‘master’ more modern classics like Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird,Catcher in the Rye, or one of George Orwell’s classics.
But you have never really experienced the depth and length of works in English unless you were forced, rather assigned, to read Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Written in 1798, it was the longest of this poet’s work, and I really mean long. Rumor has it that Cliff’s Notes refused to abridge it because the abridgment would be about as long as a short novel! How should I know? As a senior at Moberly, Missouri High School in 1959, that was one of our most important, most boring and most useless assignments that I can recall from that class.
For our purpose one of the lasting images from this epic poem was of the albatross. Since this incident occurred in the southern climes, the version of this bird possessed the greatest wingspan of any flying creature, upwards of 11 feet from tip to tip.
This tale of a sailing ship and its crew began with an ‘ancient mariner’ stopping wedding guests from entering the venue for the ceremony. He then proceeded to tell the story of a journey of tragedy and rescue. Their ships’ destination was the South Pole or thereabouts, a rough journey that found them ice bound and becalmed. Then a great white bird (the albatross) appeared and seemed to bring a south wind and they escaped that frigid trap. But the Mariner, for some unspoken reason, used his crossbow and killed the poor bird. His fellow crewmembers hung the dead albatross around his neck as a sign of his evil deed, because things then went from okay to worse. Eventually the ship neared the equator, and once again had no wind with which to move. Heat and lack of water (water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink) caused all save the Mariner to die.
Finally, after the Mariner fell to his knees and fervently prayed, the albatross fell from his neck and the wind picked up. His crewmembers came back to life and the ship and the Mariner were saved.
That is quite a truncated version, but the vision of the albatross around the neck of the unfortunate bird killer has come into the vernacular today. Most use it as something in a person’s life that seems to symbol doom or destruction.
So today I would like to posit that the Democratic Party has an albatross around its collective neck. Now this is a party that should be sitting in the catbird seat (another classic, written by the American James Thurber). Democrats are looking to dethrone President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, a President thoroughly hated by almost all of that party’s faithful. Dems have resisted every step of Trump’s way, obstructing every policy he has pursued.
Then, in the 2018 election, the House of Representatives was won when the Democrats won forty seats held by Republicans, and regained power there they had lost in 2010. Among the winners were some young and attractive candidates, presaging a bright future for the party of Jackson, FDR and Kennedy. In addition, for the past two years plus, the blue party has had the support of a news media so biased that more than 90% of the coverage of the President was negative, contributing to an approval rating of him that has hovered at or below 40% for most of his tenure in office.
But is that victory over Trump next year inevitable? Can we see an albatross around their collective neck which might derail their quest for Presidential power?
One dark spot for the Democrats is the economy. Despite their obstructionism, Trump’s policies have produced a booming economy, with the unemployment rate among several demographics at their lowest point. More jobs are available than there are people to fill them. Businesses are expanding, and even manufacturing jobs are coming back to America. But the party with the donkey as their symbol feel confident that even this will not block their path to power again.
Indications are that the Wall Trump promised in his campaign in 2016 will be that albatross. Polls are overwhelmingly in favor of increased security on our southern border, that security including a wall, a physical barrier. However, in face of public approval, several Dems have even talked about tearing down existing walls. (See Kirsten Gillibrand and Beto O’Rourke, among others.) Could this be the downfall for the Democrats next year?
But — lest we forget, there is the problem of the Democrats’ fervent embrace of abortion. In New York, abortion was extended into the third trimester of pregnancy, even to the point of aborting a baby about to be born. Even though many in this country would allow the procedure in some situations or early in a pregnancy, most want limits, and the picture of New York’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo, leading the cheers as he signed the bill into law might be enough to tip the scales for Trump.
On that issue, not to be outdone, a delegate to the Virginia House proposed a law that would allow abortions even as the baby was being born. That state’s governor, Ralph ‘blackface’ Northam, agreed that even if the baby survived the attempt to abort him or her, the mother and doctor could agree that that luckless child could be ‘kept comfortable’ until death. And remember, Democrats have abortion on demand as one of its strongest planks in their party’s platform, and pro-life Democrats are about as welcome as a Klansman at a NAACP rally. So does the albatross for the party look like an abortion doctor?
Virginia also has another problem for Democrats. Photos of two of the top three officials in that state show them in blackface, a slap in the gut of African Americans. Those two, the Governor, Ralph Northam, and Attorney General, Mark Jennings have refused to resign even as national party leaders have urged them to do so. Justin Fairfax, the Lt. Governor, has had two woman come forward and give detailed stories of how he sexually assaulted them. Could these antics in the Old Dominion turn enough votes to block Democratic chances next year?
Sighting an albatross in the 2020 election might also look like virulent anti-Semitism coming from some of the Democrats’ most visible new members. Two of these are Muslim women, one, Ilhan Omar, from Minnesota, the other, Rashiba Tlaib, from Michigan. Each has been embroiled in controversy as they criticize Israel and Jews and promote the destruction of the Israeli nation. Some of the rhetoric was so bad that House leadership tried to get them to shut up and toe the party line. In addition, a freshman Representative from New York supported these two, and even gave encouragement to the Women’s March, which was so anti-Semitic that several major contributors pulled their support from it.
What can be said about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? (AOC) At 28, in her New York City district, she upset the fourth ranking House member in New York’s primary, and then went on the win the general election. This now 29-year-old, the youngest woman to ever be elected to the House, has become the most quoted and most visible of all politicians, including those running for President on the blue ticket. She hasn’t met a mic, a reporter, or a tv interview she has shied from. Some of her memorable statements included the ‘fact’ that unemployment was low because so many Americans were working two or three jobs. Not so, because the Labor Department counts only people who work, not the number of jobs they work at.
But her now signature policy proposal is the Green New Deal. In it, she (and Senator Ed Markey) claims the world will end because of global warming, caused by human activity, in 12 years. To counter this, according to her, some elements are necessary to enact. In ten years, no more fossil fuels will be used. All electric power will be generated by wind and solar units. All cows need to be eliminated because they ‘fart methane gas’, high-speed rail will transport passengers, eliminating air travel in the U. S. in that ten-year time period. Every structure in the nation will need to be razed and replaced with environmentally friendly buildings. Plus, the government would guarantee a salary for all those “unable or unwilling to work”. We who work, of course, will pay for all this. There is more, but you get the idea.
One would think that that kind of policy proposal would be dismissed as the ravings of an out-of-touch, naive young woman, BUT — already the first four declared candidates for President have endorsed the Green New Deal. Those four now prominent Democrats, who each want to be the face of the party — Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth
Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand — have signed on to the madness. Is this the albatross?
Presidential wannabes also pose a problem for Democrats. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is preparing for as many as 20 candidates as they begin their winnowing process. One writer claimed the number could be as high as 35, as he named names of those who had dreams of the Oval Office. Will this affect party unity next year? Stay tuned!
At the beginning of this essay, only one albatross was thought about. But could all of these together be enough to bring down the ancient Mariners of the Democratic Party? Only time will tell, but an objective look at the personal and policy problems faced should give the party leaders headaches and stomachaches.