“Despite politics as usual in Washington, we may still be able to celebrate the holidays with our friends and family, cocooned for a while, using the energy we find there to prepare for the work ahead to bring a sustainable peace to the earth.”


~ When Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately,” I am not sure he had the current Senate’s Republican caucus in mind. Compared to the society in which the framers lived, the bluster and moral outrage of today’s Republican caucus seems small minded and trivial. The Republican caucus has done a good job of hanging together, and this is true in the Iowa legislature as well as in Washington. I am confident that today’s politicians don’t view the threat of being hanged as a motivator behind their actions. It is not only Republicans that have lost the sense of high moral purpose that is evident in the writings of Franklin and other framers of our independence from Great Britain.

Former Ambassador Linton Brooks is a veteran nuclear negotiator who was responsible for final preparation of both Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1991 and between the U.S. and Russia in 1993. Brooks favors nuclear disarmament and has now changed his view to become a supporter of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. He said, “I think we have an unfortunate habit in the United States, especially over the past few years, of demonizing those who disagree with us,” he said. “On complicated national security issues, people who are on the other side of you are not wrong or evil. They simply read things differently.” He also said, “The only time you get everything you want on a treaty is when it's a surrender document.” The Republican caucus has made clear how they read the national security issue of nuclear disarmament and related treaties.

The Republican caucus plus one independent senator had this holiday greeting for Iowans and all Americans:  According to the Washington Times, “All 40 Republican senators and one independent wrote to President Obama on Wednesday reminding him that the current defense authorization law links modernization of the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal to further U.S.-Russian arms reductions.” Those of us who follow the nuclear disarmament community in Washington knew this was coming, that the Republicans would attempt to affix conditions to the ratification of the new START treaty with Russia. START negotiations are not finished, but the conditions for President Obama have little to do with the actual treaty. It is about the Republicans exercising power where they can, and for ratification of a treaty it takes 67 votes, so some Republican votes are needed. The Republican idea of a holiday message is the refurbishing  of our nuclear weapons arsenal. Knowing this was coming didn’t help make the season any brighter.

In Iowa, we currently have a U. S. Senator who is part of the Republican caucus and a signer of this nuclear holiday greeting. It seems unlikely that Senator Grassley will break the caucus and speak out for nuclear disarmament, for ratification of START, or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty any time soon. Even if it represented an opportunity for him to re-establish his moderate credentials with independent voters, he is unlikely to break the caucus. The right wing of his party already believes he is too liberal. If we thought his views were moderate, then we were mistaken. Franklin also wrote, “No man’s life, liberty or fortune is safe while our legislature is in session.” It is sad to say that this still holds true.

I was disappointed that the Republican caucus took this approach to reducing nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia and sent their note to the President. I expressed as much to some of my colleagues in an e-mail. An answer from an Iowa physician brought this, “I have to agree it is a rather strange note to get on the eve of our most ‘peaceful’ holiday time of the year.  Given how many people all around the world celebrate life and peace in various ways during the darkest days of the year, it is astonishing how equally we have all positioned ourselves on the brink of extinction…. in so many ways!  I guess we have to use such reminders as the reason we all work so hard.  However, I do hope everyone can take a little time to give thanks for all the wonderful friends, families, and opportunities each of us enjoys each and every day.  Be well and warm and peaceful, one and all.  I give thanks regularly for the great privilege of knowing and working with each of you.”

Despite politics as usual in Washington, we may still be able to celebrate the holidays with our friends and family, cocooned for a while, using the energy we find there to prepare for the work ahead to bring a sustainable peace to the earth.