Today – on the eve of a potentially catastrophic or uplifting runoff vote for the Senate control – and for the first time since I was drawn to relentless interest in American politics in 2016 following the astonishing election of comic television entertainer Donald J. Trump as president of the United States of America I heard the voice of leadership. I refer to today’s late afternoon address of Gabriel Sterling on national radio. It was an uncharacteristically candid report delivered with the axiomatic estrangement of a medical physician. I’m still rejoicing! At last someone has shown what it is to have intelligence and capacity. And a moral backbone truly reflective of the atmospheric dedication of a public servant.

“Many conservative House Republicans defended President Donald Trump in the aftermath of his phone call demanding Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” the votes needed for him to win the elections in his state — as Democrats began drafting a resolution seeking to censure Trump over the matter.“

It was also the first time during the reign of Nero of Mar-a-Lago that I caught myself openly and gleefully applauding the words I was hearing from an American government official –  words that were almost tearfully isolated from the now extraordinarily tarsome gibberish routinely touted by politicians of all stripes. Specifically Sterling distanced himself from Lindsey Graham and his whip-snapping cattle driver Donald J. Trump. Not to mention that disappointing floor-mopper Mike Pence who only succeeds to distinguish himself if he doesn’t open his mouth or get too close to another woman. Obviously there are Democrats who toe the party line but the Republicans have unquestionably illuminated themselves and not just among the rank and file but from the highest levels with the most egregious display of theatrical bootlicking.

“Mar-a-Lago is a resort and national historic landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, built from 1924 to 1927 by cereal-company heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post.“

Sterling signals hope for the Union – and for what remains of the battered Republican party. He distinguished himself as a man devoted solely to fact while at the same time acknowledging the choice of two parties in the American political system without contamination of electoral opponents.  The optimism attending the incoming president-elect Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and his vice-president elect Kamala Harris is certainly persuasive. Yet the view remains blurred. There are mountains yet to cross not the least of which is the standard retort of Republicans that in the recent presidential election Trump won a staggering number of votes from the American people. It is a fact not to be ignored nor diminished. It isn’t a simple matter of saying that Trump favoured the uneducated, the impoverished or the disadvantaged – even though until Trump the Republican party was popularly synonymous with white, rich and racist. Even to this day Trump has managed to preserve the less than complimentary association with gun-toting, drunken, misinformed people – as well as the universally mocked contingent of Florida voters who live on a planet of natural beauty and gated communities though often with the underbelly of rot and disintegration from the ’70s when development hit its peak.

What is more fair as a reason for Trump’s success – that is, until today when a public figure at last stood up to face Trump’s stomach-churning and palpable absurdity – is that poor, white Americans and those sliding on the coattails of historic superiority were seeking to recover what both of them felt was their rightful entitlement based on an uneducated acquaintance with European influence. These so-called MAGA supporters have unwittingly poisoned themselves and the erstwhile global appeal of America with the inescapable condemnation of ignorance and bad business judgement.  For Republicans to persist in their contradictory assertion of commitment to Americans by cornering public health and education with the archaic denominations of “radical left” and socialism is nothing but laughable not to mention devious.  Whenever did they last read Anna Karenina?

Anna Karenina (Russian: «Анна Каренина», IPA: [ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə]) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Many writers consider Anna Karenina the greatest work of literature ever, and Tolstoy himself called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger.

A complex novel in eight parts, with more than a dozen major characters, it is spread over more than 800 pages (depending on the translation and publisher), typically contained in two volumes. It deals with themes of betrayal, faith, family, marriage, Imperial Russian society, desire, and rural vs. city life. The plot centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg and forces the young lovers to flee to Italy in a search for happiness. After they return to Russia, their lives further unravel.

Trains are a recurring motif throughout the novel, which takes place against the backdrop of rapid transformations as a result of the liberal reforms initiated by Emperor Alexander II of Russia, with several major plot points taking place either on passenger trains or at stations in Saint Petersburg or elsewhere in Russia.

Sterling today illustrated that Republicans have fallen into their own toxic mix of circular logic, blaming American voters for the investigation of fraud compelled by the politicians themselves. It sadly echoes the flimsy motives for spiriting communism as a means of keeping people uneducated and unhealthy reminiscent of the arrogant disdain of politicians for the masses. At least the Catholic church had the dignity to obscure its condemnation by saying it in Latin which no one understood. Sterling provided a breathtakingly vital stimulus of plain talking and avoidance of obfuscation of every order.  He has similarly given whatever remains of the Republican party the prospect of palatable meaning – though noticeably that was hardly his higher objective.