Montagues and Capulets

October 02, 2013

By Margaret Randall

As our country goes into its second day of partial government shutdown, many foreigners ready to spend their money at our national parks and other points of interest are being told their destination is closed. They don’t understand how a standoff between two modern political parties in a democracy constantly advertised as worthy of emulation can paralyze a nation, furlough federal workers, and stop important services. This couldn’t happen at home, they say.

If we talk about the US right now as we would talk about another, less “developed” country where the government is as immobilized as ours, we ourselves would be using a very different vocabulary. We would be using the term “failed state.” We would bemoan the immature tribalism, the fact that regional warlords aren’t able to adapt to modern notions of democracy but revert instead to feudal antagonisms. We elect our officials after all; we don’t inherit them.

Democrats and Republicans are not supposed to be Montagues and Capulets, the bitterly warring families in Shakespeare’s late sixteenth century drama “Romeo and Juliet.” Members of both parties would no doubt recoil at being compared to the Sunnis and Shiites antagonizing each other in Iraq, or to the Hindus and Muslims following India’s 1947 partition. They would scoff at an accusation of tribalism. They, after all, are accustomed to referring to people they consider much less developed as engaging in tribal rivalries. They consider themselves above such primitivism.

It seems to me that the description is apt when looking at congressional behavior, especially since the election of a president whose race, rationalism and efforts at narrowing the gap between rich and poor are so anathema to their own brand of “service.” John Boehner is a believable warlord, as is Ted Cruz with his absurd grandstanding and pompous self-aggrandizement. Republican hostage taking in this crisis is painfully reminiscent of a bunch of Somali pirates boarding international vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden and holding their crews for ransom. Their belligerence can only end badly.

Republicans in Congress, the good ole boys as well as tea partiers, seem bogged down in outdated concepts and territorial demands. It’s easy to imagine them wearing the macho garb of some desert tribal leader instead of their uniform suits and expensive ties. It is easy to imagine them reeking of some local firewater rather than whiskey paid for with taxpayer money. Most congressional Democrats are no better. This time around they vaguely stand for solution, but all too often they too have favored their political careers rather than work for the people’s good.

So, when will a hurting citizenry demand better? When will we stand up and say we don’t want historic reenactment but government that tells the truth and serves our interests?

This piece was written by:

Margaret Randall

Margaret Randall (1936) was born in New York City but grew up in Albuquerque and lived half of her adult life in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua. When she returned to the U.S. in 1984 she was ordered deported under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality's McCarran-Walter Act. The government alleged that her writings, "went against the good order and happiness of the United States." She won her case in 1989.

She is a local poet who reads nationally and internationally. Among her recent books of poetry are My Town, As If The Empty Chair / Como Si La Silla Vacia, and The Rhizome As A Field of Broken Bones, all from Wings Press, San Antonio, Texas. A feminist poet's reminiscence of Che Guevara, Che On My Mind, is just out from Duke University Press, a new collection of essays, More Than Things, is out from The University of Nebraska Press, and Daughter of Lady Jaguar Shark, a single long-poem with 15 photographs, is now available from Wings. Her most recent poetry collection is About Little Charlie Lindbergh (also from Wings Press).

Randall resides in Albuquerque with her partner, the painter Barbara Byers, and travels widely to read and lecture. You can find out more about Margaret, her writings and upcoming readings at, www.margaretrandall.org.