The struggle against Trump 2.0 has tested the resolve of Congressional Democrats. Some have failed the test but there have been some unlikely heroes, one of whom is Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen who along with Cory Booker, Mark Kelly, and Mark Warner has earned the sobriquet of raging moderate.
Van Hollen’s mission to El Salvador has unleashed a torrent of vitriol from the MAGA maggots. Some claim the trip failed because he didn’t bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home, which was never the point of the Van Hollen mission. The Senator knows that the gangster who rules that country is in Trump’s hip pocket but he *was* able to see the kidnapped man and verify that he’s in decent shape, for now.
Team MAGA has resorted to juvenile stunts worthy of their cult leader as you can see from this image from the White House X feed:
That’s why I call the MAGA cult leader, the Insult Comedian. One thing that’s not in short supply in this administration are Sharpies. Sharp minds are an entirely different matter as Team MAGA continues to bring the stupid. Bigly.
After his return, Senator Van Hollen made the rounds of the Sunday shows, saying this on ABC:
“I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process. And the Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported. My mission and my purpose is to make sure that we uphold the rule of law, because if we take it away from him, we do jeopardize it for everybody else.”
Nailed it. If this stands, they can disappear anyone.
Repeat after me: Give due process, its due.
The flood of MAGA vitriol has been matched by a flood of my own memories. It’s a subject so painful that I’ve only alluded to it in the past: Leo Ryan’s mission to Jonestown in 1978. Leo was the Congressman from my district. More importantly, he was a friend of my father Lou’s back when it wasn’t strange for a center-right Republican to be pals with a liberal Democrat. They were a political odd couple but a good fit otherwise.
My father was one of many who urged Leo Ryan to investigate Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. Lou was asked to speak with Leo by Father Steven Katsaris, the Orthodox priest who baptized me, it didn’t stick but that’s a story for another day.
Father Steven’s daughter Maria was a fanatical member of the People’s Temple and close to the cult leader. Her father the father hoped to expose Jones as a dangerous man and free his daughter from his clutches.
The Ryan mission ended in Leo’s murder and the slaughter of cult members by their poisonous leader. It was not mass suicide; it was mass murder.
I only saw Lou cry twice. The first time when his mother died, the second time when he learned of Leo Ryan’s murder. I recall my mother telling dad not to blame himself. His response, “I don’t. Leo would have gone anyway. That’s the kind of man he was.”
Knowing Leo Ryan is why I don’t automatically disdain all politicians. He was one of the good guys who tried to do the right thing on behalf of his constituents. It cost him his life.
That’s a just a thumbnail sketch of my memories of the Ryan mission; even after 47 years, it’s too painful to go into the details. Suffice it to say that Leo Ryan was a good man. I’m proud to have known him.
For me to compare anyone to Leo is high praise indeed. Chris Van Hollen deserves it.
The last word goes to James Taylor: