Seeking a Congressman for the End of the World
Why IL 13’s Congressman Needs to Go
Originally, I wrote this piece as satire. I kept the title from that first draft because, well, it still works. Satire was my go to because, in the moments after President Trump’s nuclear threats, satire was the only mechanism capable of adequately recognizing the surreality of the moment. In fact, I even sent out this tweet aimed at my local Congressman (Rodney Davis) from my student organization’s account.
However, now that the dust has settled, I feel satire is not the correct approach. The President threatened an entire nation with murder, and only by the grace of God am I not a citizen of that nation.
North Korea has a population of 25 million people. Among those people, I am confident that at least one is innocent of everything but being born in the wrong place. In fact, I wager I can find ten, maybe a hundred, maybe a million, maybe tens of millions of such people. When our President threatens Kim Jong Un with nuclear war, he also threatens the North Korean people with slaughter.
Americans must decide whether we can justify the murder of tens of millions of innocent citizens just because they are led by a crazed lunatic. As the citizen of a nation led by a crazed lunatic, I hope not.
America and North Korea are standing on the precipice of what may become the greatest humanitarian crisis in history. We have two (alleged) nuclear nations, two leaders with insecurities to mask, and two innocent populaces with no interest in dying fiery deaths. Add to this a baffling web of allies and we find ourselves looking at death tolls in the millions on day one.
So you can see why satire feels wrong to me.
I hoped, I really hoped, that when my local IL 13 Congressman Rodney Davis had the chance to address the topic he would say that foreign policy requires subtlety, expertise and tact. After all, I have read many-a-quote from Davis saying that our national security is not something to be taken lightly. I had always assumed this meant he would advocate for serious, in-depth, well-advised decisions.
But once again, it seems I have overestimated his integrity and underestimated his subjugation to party leadership.
In a radio interview with GLT’s Sound Ideas, Congressman Davis said “The president is always going to be different. He’s the first president in our lifetime who has come directly from the private sector. No government, no military experience. There was not a bigger distinction between presidential candidates in our lifetime (in the 2016 election). And the American people chose someone from the private sector. They wanted different. Well, they got different.”
Yes. He excused the President. He squirmed and slanted for a President who had just threatened the murder of millions. He deemed him “different.” “Different” is cute, congressman. It’s quirky, it’s exciting, it’s fun. Threatening genocide is none of those things.
To their great credit, GLT followed up, asking Davis if he felt the President could come off as less crazed. Davis responded, “I don’t necessarily look at that as crazed. That’s a personal editorializing assessment from you and many in the media who may not like him.”
After that two sentence non-answer, Davis launched, unprompted, into a completely unrelated topic, indicating he had no interest in addressing anything of actual difficulty in the interview.
If this were an isolated incident, I would dismiss it as a Congressman having an off day. But it’s not. This is a behavior pattern of Davis’. With his earlier “fairer, flatter, and simpler” gaffe, we saw the disastrous results of what happens when an interviewer sees through his talking points and asks him real questions.
The days of non-answers and talking-point-recitations are ending. His constituents and opponents have caught on.
Jon Ebel, a Democratic candidate running for Davis’s seat, colorfully commented in a newsletter email “President Trump trivialized the loss of life possible in a nuclear conflict and is unsuited for any office other than that of a psychiatrist.”
CU Indivisible, a Champaign Urbana progressive organization, tweeted, “Can someone get a message to Rodney Davis telling him Congress’ job isn’t to act as lickspittle sycophants to the president? He’s actually supposed to be acting as a check on this sort of behavior.”
And, of course, I, as Co-president of Illini for Ebel, a student group that support’s Jon Ebel’s candidacy, am penning this op-ed.
My frustrations with Congressman Davis are many, but today they boil down to the following: Congressman Davis, I am astounded that you somehow managed to make basic humanity a partisan issue, I am astounded at how you manage to speak at such great lengths on controversial topics without saying anything useful, and I am astounded that you can claim to be a moderate bipartisan despite your 96% adherence to the party line.
Congressman. Please. Show some courage. Take a hint from your constituents and the “vitriolic rhetoric” that you chide us for.
Remember that you were elected to serve the people of IL 13, the people of Illinois, the people of America, and, in the greatest sense, the peoples of this Earth. That requires courage. Show some. If you don’t, we know some people who will.
-Ben Chapman, January 2018
Ben Chapman is a candidate for State Senate in the Illinois 51st District, and is the Political Action Co-Chair for the Students for Environmental Concerns and the Co-president of Illini for Ebel at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
