We all heard them cave today on DACA

“I have finally figured out what the real conspiracy is.”

In the 1970s I was a member of the Wyoming legislature and a member of Congressman Teno Roncalio’s staff. There was an eccentric fellow in Cheyenne named Charlie (I won’t use his last name) who came to talk to me regularly. Charlie was a member of the John Birch Society. He worked hard to persuade me of his multitude of conspiracy theories. He kept up with all of their positions and could articulate them perfectly and with great zeal.

But, one day something changed. Charlie walked into my office with a grim face. He informed me he had “finally figured out what the real conspiracy is.” It was, he said, to be found, not among democrats or Republicans but rather in the John Birch Society leadership itself. Charlie had “figured out” that all they wanted was his vote and his money while they willingly but secretly joined Democrats and Republicans in taking advantage of the foot soldiers like him.

I remembered Charlie when I watched Senators Schumer and Durbin cave in to the Republicans today and most Democrats follow.

I am not one to believe there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. There are significant differences on many issues, but it’s how they vote and not the positions they take that determines whether there is justice. Alas, many of the differences eventually dissolve into rhetoric and not action. Before you excuse them by saying they are in the Senate minority and can’t do much, I don’t recall there was much difference when they had 60 votes in the Senate. Even then, they couldn’t even include a “public option” in the Affordable Care Act because too many in their caucus were beholden to insurance company lobbyists.

We all heard them cave today on DACA. Schumer and Durbin stood and gave lofty speeches about DACA, gushingly offering up their thanks to the Supreme Leader for his gracious agreement to allow democracy to invade the workings of the United States Senate. They celebrated the occasion as though they really thought it meant anything. It doesn’t.

Isaiah, the great prophet of Hebrew scripture, once spoke of empty promises and celebrations. He used words that came to mind as I watched the spectacle of the Democratic Party leaders trying to convince us that they had accomplished anything.

“You people of Gomorrah. "What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?”

How appropriate are Isaiah’s words aimed at “you people of Gomorrah?” The great sin committed by the people of Sodom and Gomorrah has nothing to do with homosexuality as the false prophets teach. It had to do with the failure of those people to offer hospitality and what they did to cause harm to strangers among them.

The prophet Ezekiel explained why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed and the actual reason should cause us all to tremble.

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore, [God] did away with them as you have seen.” Ezekiel 16: 49-50.

The Democrats and Republicans are “you people of Gomorrah.” What Schumer and Durbin and the others did today was to offer a “burnt offering” to Steven Miller and the Freedom Caucus of the House Republicans. The DACA kids are those burnt offerings.

Like Charlie and the John Birch Society, I think we have finally figured out what the real conspiracy is. I can’t wait until the Democratic National Committee, or better yet the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, call again and asks for a contribution.

Charlie had it right all along.