With the historically brief exception of 1792-1815, the House of Bourbon ruled France from the Middle Ages until 1830. This latter date was the end of the Bourbons, as rulers, largely because of Charles X, last Bourbon (reigning)King who ruled 1824-1830. Their fall came through a revolution brought on largely by Charles’s misrule, trying to use his power to oppress the state at large and to get revenge on his enemies.

It was said (wisely, I’d say) that the Bourbons never learned anything and never forgot anything. This phrase came into my mind recently after reflecting on our election and on what we’ve since seen of the anticipated beginning of a new Trump Administration. I had been hoping that we would see a new type of Trump rule–didn’t really expect it, but I hoped he would show a change. Those hopes were rather quickly dashed. He appears never to learn how to govern better or how to forget his past quarrels and lust for revenge against individuals or groups who have opposed, criticized or otherwise irritated him. And he appears never to abandon his tendency to do the outrageous just to be outrageous, or rather just to implant that idea in the public mind with the assumption that in his case it’s a sign of originality.

All this would be bad enough if it stopped there but it doesn’t. The more we learn about the appointments and the appointees, the less we trust the process, at least as done by this President-elect and his minions. They have given us so far a list of prospective leaders who are often of questionable qualification in personality and experience. That was discouraging enough. Now many of them seem to have lackings in morality, sense of honor and common sense which would be enough to disqualify them from high office.

Naturally, the Republican leadership in Congress has had to deal with this apparently unexpected though not unforeseeable(if your remember the first time Trump was President) situation. They seem to be able to do so, mostly only by a combination of irrelevant comments, distortions of facts and unfounded denials. And of course, the time worn Trump trick of doing something super ridiculous to hide the fact that several other appointments or whatever are merely ridiculous, not super so, leave them seeming almost acceptable.

But it has occurred to me that the Republicans have found a new part to this attitude, related to what they’ve done in the past, but still not really tried until now. When they seem to feel they’re in real trouble they go to the bathroom. Yeah, OK, so what do I mean?

Well, a time honored way(on both sides of the aisle) of avoiding dealing with embarrassing facts it to find a distraction, a fact alluded to above. But they have found a new way to do this using a new issue-this is trans-gender matters , particularly bathrooms and who goes where.

Now I am perfectly aware that I am treading on treacherous ground here. Many people have issues and problems and strong, serious feelings on these matters. I do not deny them their feelings or their right to express them. But I do wish to ask–well, when we’re dealing with things that might affect Gaza, the Russian-Ukrainian war. the stability of American society and the welfare of our middle class and others–do we really need to talk about who uses which bathroom at the same time?

It used to be that when faced with difficult issues members of Congress would say at least the equivalent of, “Hey, let’s go have a couple of beers,” or “OK, guys let’s go have coffee.” Now it appears to be , for the Republicans, “OK, folks, let’s go to the bathroom.” And that’s where they go, or at least their minds do.

Rep Nancy Mace, R-SC, was, I think, one of the first out of the starting gate in this race to the twisting of the political mind. She indicated she would “stand in the way” of Sarah McBride. Now as nearly as I can tell, Rep McBride has done nothing to incur Ms Mace’s wrath except be elected to the House as a Democrat and be trans, apparently the first “openly trans-member” of the Congress.

II haven’t seen much of McBride but have been suitably enough pleased by what I did see. She seems determined to stand her ground and do her job, but not to expect a medal for it. She said that if permitted, the House Republicans would see that “all we talk about is bathrooms.” A slight but understandable exaggeration.(“You say Iran just invaded Israel? Well, sorry, we got this bathroom identify crisis we gotta solve first”). She also said that she will abide by Speaker Johnson’s rules even though she disagrees with them.

Speaking of the Speaker, it appears that he does have, legally and according to House rules, the right to make a decision(which he did)to ban members from using a bathroom not in accordance with their “biological birth.” He included a plea that everyone be treated with “dignity.” I agree, but how about policies that make this easier, not harder?

Of course, speaking of off-the-wall House Republicans, Marjory Taylor Green got into the act. She threatened (unspecified) physical violence against her Delaware colleague whom she described as “mentally unbalanced.” Well, Marjory, speaking of “unbalanced”–it would appear that being called unbalanced by you would be tantamount to being called loud by a carnival barker.

No doubt some things still need to be worked out here and maybe we can hope for some balance and good will on each side. My hopes aren’t real high on that one. What do Johnson and Mace expect trans-members(McBride is the only one as far as I know now)to do while they work out a policy? Carry a Mason Jar? Bring their own port-a-potty? Raise their hand and ask the Speaker if they may go down the block to the nearest service station?

Well, whatever, the gathering of minds in the bathroom will reduce the pooling of intelligence or even less than intelligence on the House floor. And this may mean further delays in deciding on Trump’s carefully chosen(for ironic irritation)list of nominees, particularly the Hegseth and Gabbard type.

Speaking of that, I intend to follow up on this soon with a reflection on Trump’s nominees who are still “running.” Gaetz just dropped out a couple of hours ago which is a relief. Now about RFK, Jr …