cycles and cycles

at least one is new this year

Annapolis is simply spectacular in mid-November. The season’s final home football game at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium concludes in sixty-eight seconds (Navy won). We did not renew our tickets this year for a couple of reasons but we can hear the stadium hoopla when the wind, which is strong today, brings sound our way. We won’t have any more aviators flying directly over our home until the Blue Angels prepare for the graduation ceremony six months from next weekend. The touristas, welcomed joyfully for half the year in this historic capital, largely sailed away (literally and figuratively) following the sailboat show four weeks ago. Boaters go south for the winter or go into dry dock or, my favourite, get the ‘shrink wrap’ treatment by the end of this month so those choosing option one are increasingly gone while the folks doing the shrinkwrapping are pretty busy. This is a town with some predictability which is why one of our friends simply won’t venture through the downtown crowds at high warp of the cycle.

Sadly, Annapolis confronts the common problems plaguing the nation, if not the world. Crime is neither rare nor entirely non-violent. Our residential community increasingly focuses on it because we are not ‘gated’ as are most other condominia. Schools struggle for teachers, bus drivers, and student attendance. Annapolis has relatively good services but we pay for them dearly. Traffic on Interstate (sic) 97 running from Annapolis to Baltimore and back is an unholy mess on Friday afternoons as it transforms into a moving parking lot for state government employees heading home. Sadly, rare is the weekend we don’t have a major accident in Anne Arundel County as people drive insanely and, too often, impaired.

We are concluding this autumn with an open Congressional seat, one of those few where an incumbent chose to retire. John Sarbanes, a name in Maryland’s politics for decades along with his father Senator Paul, announced late last month he will not run again. I confess I don’t follow Maryland inside politics as I do in other places but this was a surprise to me.

The district, I have read, is changing a bit from the one Sarbanes won nine times. Maryland’s urban areas are heavily Democratic while rural portions of the state are pretty Republican but I don’t think the demographics entirely convinced him as this is pretty much urban by Maryland standards. His statement mentioned finding opportunities outside of Congress to engage in improving the community, such as working at a nonprofit. Improvement is welcome anywhere but I don’t think he has a specific target of opportunity yet. His focus in Congress was campaign reform which is certainly a dead issue of late.

Sarbanes is probably retiring largely because of Congress’s utter futility these days. Republicans Ken Buck, a Colorado hard core fiscal conservative, and Kay Granger, a Texan on House Appropriations, both announced within the week of Sarbanes that they too will leave, albeit for differing reasons. Granger has been serving for three decades while Buck specifically cited the nonsense invoked by his Republican colleagues regarding claims regarding the 2020 presidential outcome. He also predicted Trump in office again would engender a third impeachment inquiry. Well, that is bold.

The election is fifty weeks away and others (such as New Yorker George Santos) will join these three on the sideline rather than milking the donors and prolonging their lives in the House of Representatives. The numbers at present are not high enough to alter the course of this balance of power or the trend of moving towards reality show bingo (or wherever we are headed) but it is indicative that some serving do have the self awareness to depart on their own terms.

One person can make a tremendous difference as we saw with Newt Gingrich forty years ago or Nancy Pelosi more recently. The dynamics of 435 Representatives and 100 Senators is a fascinating but complex one.

Too many in Congress stay on and on and on and on, even those elected by whining about the need for term limits. Seems once they get there, most Representatives and Senators go from term limiters to homesteaders pretty quickly.

I respect those who recognise when it is time to go. Believe me, as someone who wrestled with thinking I was a failure not to work until I was 72 (I got over that issue and am so glad I retired as is my blood pressure), it’s tough to give up what you have been doing. I imagine it especially true for someone in higher elective office as the perks and the adrenaline are difficult to replicate legally. But, a great deal of our Senate and House currently stay too long—period. The debate about Senator Feinstein’s competency was only one example while Senator McConnell’s ‘freezes’ earlier this year were another.

Then again, I also acknowledge I may be wrong as new is proven not always better. Each of us can find multiple individuals who decreased the quality of their institution upon arrival; new simply isn’t always better. Nor is seasoned, however. But we definitely need them to start governing rather than whining, fighting or whatever it is they are doing.

Our local State Senator threw in her hat within a couple of days of Sarbanes’ announcement. She is the youngest woman elected to our state’s Senate and an energetic do-er based on our sole experience with her. I expect others to compete for the office as Maryland has talented politicians from both parties, as well as from many backgrounds. In any case, the Maryland face representing the Third District will be a fresh one on Capitol Hill in January 2025.

So our Annapolis residential cycle runs along the norm this year and our House of Representatives cycle is a new one. Change and constancy, fresh and seasoned. A bit of colour struggles to compete with the dying leaves.

And other surprises, bursting with colour, still emerge in the cycle.

We each have the chance to change our individual roles but most often fall back into the comfort of the known. I celebrate those who take the plunge for public service, especially if they do it extraordinarily well. We need people with courage, dedication, and ability to compromise. Yes, I will say it: we need compromise to make it all work.

How about your district? Your state? I look forward to your thoughts on this topic. Thank you also for reading Actions Create Consequences this breezy but bright November afternoon. You are my inspirations for better civic discussion and engagement.

Be well and be safe. FIN