The vivifying eddies of Smetana’s Moldau River don’t compare to the recent counter-flow of Senator Lindsey Graham that is music to the ears of Democrats while surreptitiously promoting the Republican agenda. This commonality gives new meaning to bi-partisanship! Graham meanwhile proves he is a seasoned mandarin and fully prepared for the unanticipated changes in the flow of the river.

Bedřich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his country’s aspirations to independent statehood. He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast (“My Homeland”), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer’s native Bohemia. It contains the famous symphonic poem “Vltava”, also popularly known by its German name “Die Moldau” (in English, “The Moldau”).

Senator Graham has sought to wallpaper his pro-Trump guild by impregnating the cause with a search for as yet unfounded voter fraud.

Graham late Monday acknowledged discussing the vote with Raffensperger, but denied pressuring him. “If he feels threatened by that conversation,” Graham said, “he’s got a problem.

Graham, who strongly criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign, went full MAGA a long time ago. But his acquiescence to Trump had always seemed like the political calculation of one of the most craven politicians in the country.

Whether the anaesthetized masses with their notably inferior capacity have any inkling or concern of this matter is relevant because it illustrates – as Graham has so demonstrably done himself – the paramountcy of institutional governance. The trouble in this case is that the thrust is not to maintain legal voting but rather the converse.  Such delicate interpretation of the Constitution is a persuasion best left to the professionals.  Aside from lawyers, politicians are renowned for their skilful management of words followed by obfuscation and eventually with luck the so-called hard conclusions (by which time normally we’ve forgotten the question).

Last evening while watching The Crown I pondered the pressures suffered by those in public office. The poison of hoi polloi is no less depressing for those in federal, state/provincial or municipal government or any off-shoot thereof.  People like I – those sniffling self-proclaimed intellectuals with their snotty-nosed silly liberal ideas – tend to overlook the greater talent to walk upright on a public stage both before and after a speech. With a straight smile that is.

For the many participants in the democratic process who have something to gain by their devotion to party and tribe it is inarguable that they are as entitled to pursue their lofty goal as I am to ride my bike. Nor do I derive any superiority from the inferiority of my ambition. Indeed I have often privately questioned what I should do in similar circumstances.  The answer seems to lie not in obscurity but rather by being conspicuous. What after all have we to hide? If we’re to advance beyond the servility and entertainment of Blade Runners then we owe it to ourselves to consider an option to the proposal. When was the last time you asked a known conspirator on the “other” side, “What drives you?”

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.