My Point of View by Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

 

What I would give for politics to seem perfectly normal again.

This past week our president openly admitted he would likely accept hypothetical information from foreign powers to help him win re-election in 2020. Problem is, under the Federal Election Campaign Act, it’s illegal to knowingly receive anything of material value from such a source. Trump also said he wouldn’t go to the FBI in a situation like that, because “you don’t call the FBI.”

In contrast, FBI director Christopher Wray recently stated, “if any public official or member of any campaign is contacted by any nation-state or anybody acting on behalf of a nation-state about influencing or interfering with our election, then that’s something that the FBI would want to know about.”

Trump bluntly retorted that Wray “is wrong.” He further rationalized, “The FBI doesn’t have enough agents to take care of it,” and, “But you go and talk honestly to congressmen, they all do it, they always have.”

None of Trump’s stance is normal or pro-American, and it’s blatantly anti-law enforcement. It’s a self-serving “cheat to win” mentality at direct odds with recent images commemorating Allied forces who selflessly wrested Normandy’s heavily-fortified beaches from Nazi control 75 years ago this month.

American freedom depends on defending truth even when it’s hard, not dirty exercise of power when it’s a path of little resistance.

There’s only one Republican in the entire Congress who is publicly defending the truth about the Mueller report at this point. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan laid out the case for impeachment more concisely and clearly than almost any Democrat has. He is taking intense heat and derision from his party for it.

Our congressman Jim Hagedorn is following the path of less resistance, and he claimed at his town hall in Truman in late May that the Mueller report didn’t find evidence of Trump conspiring with Russia. He left it at that, ignoring Part II of the Mueller report, which doesn’t exonerate Trump from the crime of obstruction of justice.

Mueller would have charged Trump if he believed that he had the authority to seek indictment of a sitting president. He handed that responsibility to Congress, which does have the power.

Hagedorn is in a tough spot because he wrapped himself in Trump’s long red tie to win his seat. Are American principles, in the end, more important to Hagedorn than a magnetic presidential personality? He will likely face that history-making test.

Hagedorn also seemed uneasy discussing tariffs and trade deals at the gathering, which several farmers attended. He said he wants all sides to come together. The main (unspoken) obstacle is Trump, who keeps threatening tariffs by tweet, even over unrelated issues like immigration. The Star Tribune headline that weekend was “As Trump threatens Mexico, trade war fatigue sets in for Minnesota businesses and farmers.”

Fatigue. Yes. How long can we keep doing this?

On a more pleasant note, when I sat at a bench with my copy of “It’s Perfectly Normal,” the sample curriculum from the comprehensive sex education bill that failed to pass the Minnesota House this year, I had nice conversations with three people who showed up. We agreed on many things. A major point of departure was treating homosexuality in the regular range of sexuality, and objection to that is closely associated with religious beliefs.

The fact remains that church and state are separate, and public schools aren’t confined to a narrow range of Biblical teachings favored by some Christians. Parents are responsible for their children’s religious education, if any. (Incidentally, I read the Old Testament in my Good News Bible at age 10, and for a long time I had a distorted sense of what was “perfectly normal.”)

Regarding students who have spoken up about teachers “infecting” Albert Lea High School with liberal bias, I would need more context in order to evaluate teacher response. For example, Aaron Farris and Alex Baerman quoted teachers’ negative comments to their pro-Trump views, but were vague about what they stated first. Content matters.

As for CNN 10, calling it liberal brainwash gives away more about Aaron than it does about CNN. (Judge for yourself; it’s available online.)

We should delve deeper into this conversation. I left teaching social studies a few years before Trump’s rise, and I can see he has impacted the learning environment. Students, if we all used the same standard of truth that Trump does, society as we know it would break down faster than you can say “Lord of the Flies.”

What is “perfectly normal” has changed over time, and that can be a good thing, especially in regard to extending human rights. Standing up for American ideals like truth and transparency and rule of law, though, must remain normal if we are to preserve our democracy.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.