Polly Dogood

Her Publick Letters, upon the Present State of Affairs

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Upon the Reflecting Pool

Wherein the Author, on the Day the President chose Mr. Lincoln's Pool for his closing Appeal, sets her Satire aside, tells the true History of the Pool, and reads what Mr. Lincoln and Grandpapa's Generation foresaw of the Way a free People loses its Liberty.

To the Readers of this Publick Blog,

Today the President chose the Reflecting Pool, at the Feet of Mr. Lincoln, for his closing Appeal before the Polls. I shall set my Satire aside for this Letter. The Hour is late and the Matter is grave, and I would rather be useful than amusing.

Let me begin with the Pool itself, because it is a small Story, and a Leader is best known by the small ones.

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The History of the Pool

In the Spring the President announced that the Pool was "absolutely filthy," and that "this work was supposed to be done by the Biden Administration." He would see to it himself, in a Matter of Weeks, for $1.5 million to $2 million, and paint its Floor "American flag blue." The Contract was let without Bidding to a Firm that had never before held a federal Contract, though it had worked at his Golf Club in Virginia. "I have a guy who's unbelievable at doing swimming pools," the President said. The Work was hurried for the Fourth of July, and the Pool refilled in June. Within Days the Water was green with Algae and the new Coating was lifting from the Floor.

Then came the Vandals. A former Olympic Canoeist was arrested and indicted for a Felony. The President said the Lining had been cut, "probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind," and that we would "see it in court." We did not. At the End of July the President's own Prosecutors asked the Court to drop the Case. Papers from the Interior Department, they wrote, showed the Damage came from a flawed Installation; it was "difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism," and had they known sooner they "would not have sought a grand jury indictment." The next Day the President wrote that he disagreed "100%" with his own Prosecutor: "There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!"

The Pool was drained a second Time in July and refilled in October. The Contracts now come to more than $16 million, eight Times the larger Figure he promised.

I do not tell this Story because a Pool matters much. I tell it for what it shows. The Work was promised cheap and quick, and went dear and slow. When it failed, the Fault was laid first on his Predecessor, then on a Citizen, and when his own Prosecutors would not carry the Charge, he quarrelled with them in Publick. It was never laid where it belonged, on the Man who ordered the Work and boasted of the Workman.

This Afternoon, standing beside it, he gave the Pool more than twenty Minutes of his closing Appeal before he mentioned the Election. He told the Country that "the vandalism was unprecedented," and that "we're giving serious thought to changing the name to the Trump Reflecting Pool."

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Toys, and the Kitchen Table

The Pool is one Toy among several. The East Wing of the People's House was pulled down for a Ballroom. A triumphal Arch is planned for the Circle at the far End of the Memorial Bridge, looking back at Mr. Lincoln. Each is a Monument, and each is meant to be remembered as his.

Mr. Lincoln knew the Type. In 1838, a young Man of twenty-eight, he warned the Lyceum of Springfield against a certain Kind of Ambition: "It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others." It "thirsts and burns for distinction." He did not foresee that it would one Day repaint his own Pool.

Meanwhile, at the Kitchen Table, where most of us actually live: a Gallon of Gas cost $4.17 on Sunday, the dearest Autumn the Motor Club has recorded, and in September the Government's own Index had Gasoline a third dearer than a Year before. Prices over all were rising 3.7% a Year, up from 3.0% when the President took his Oath. Employers added 29,000 Jobs in September, a Trickle. Those who buy their own Health Insurance saw their Premiums leap 20% this Year, and are promised 15% more. None of this is a Toy, and none of it has a Ribbon to cut.

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Who Fiddled

Everyone knows that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. It is not quite true; the Fiddle had not been invented. The Historian Tacitus, who did not love him, says Nero was away at Antium when the Fire of the Year 64 began, came back, and opened his own Gardens to the Homeless. But Tacitus records three other Things, and they are worse than any Fiddle. A Rumour went about that while the City was in Flames "the emperor appeared on a private stage and sang of the destruction of Troy." When the Ashes cooled, Nero "availed himself of his country's desolation, and erected a mansion" of Jewels and Gold, his famous Golden House, on Land the Fire had cleared. And "to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt" upon others.

A Diversion while the City burns; a Monument raised on the Ruins; the Blame laid on someone else. I need not draw the Lines from Rome to the Reflecting Pool.

Our own Version has no Lyre. It has a Golf Course. In the fifth Week of the War with Iran, with Gas climbing, the President spent his Saturday at his Golf Club in West Palm Beach, by HuffPost's Count his 110th Day on a Course he owns since his Return. The Watchdog CREW counted him at his own Properties on 191 of his first 512 Days in Office, and notes that the Taxpayers' Money for his Protection and Travel follows him into Businesses from which he profits. All Presidents rest, CREW allows, but this one is "unique in his choice to frequent his own businesses." Nero at least did not charge the Treasury for the Gardens.

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A Fair Ledger

I will be fair, as Grandpapa taught me, because an Argument that cannot bear Fairness is not worth making. Mr. Biden took Office in a Pandemick, with about one American in sixteen out of Work, and in his Term Prices rose faster than at any Time in forty Years, by 9.1% in the Year to June 2022. That was a real Failure. His Party was punished for it at the Polls, and deserved to be. When he left, Prices were rising about 3% a Year and Work was plentiful again.

Here is the Difference. Mr. Biden inherited his Troubles. This President has made his. By January the Rate of Inflation had fallen to 2.4%. Then came a War upon Iran, begun in February without a Vote of Congress, and Crude Oil near and above $100 a Barrel. Add Tariffs laid by Proclamation, so many that the Supreme Court struck down the first great Batch, and Health Subsidies left to lapse when one Vote of Congress would have kept them. By May Inflation stood at 4.2%, and in September it was still 3.7%. Each of these was a Choice, and each was his.

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Upon Errata

Every Leader makes Mistakes. What matters is what he does next.

Grandpapa, in his Memoirs, called his own Mistakes his "Errata," the Printer's Word for the Faults in a Book, and set them down one by one so that others might learn from them. He wrote that he would gladly live his Life over again, "only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first." Mr. Lincoln, in July of 1863, wrote to General Grant, whose Plan at Vicksburg he had doubted: "I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong." Mr. Kennedy, after the Bay of Pigs in 1961, told the Press that Victory has a hundred Fathers and Defeat is an Orphan, and then said, "I'm the responsible officer of the Government." The Country thought better of him for it.

We have seen the other Way already. In March of 2020, with the Pandemick upon us, the President told a Reporter in private, "I wanted to always play it down," and told the Country in the Rose Garden, "I don't take responsibility at all." A Man who will not own an Error cannot correct it. He can only double it, and then distract us from the Doubling.

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We Were Warned

Nor can any of us say we were not told, and not by his Opponents, but by his own.

In 2016, fifty Republican Officials who had kept the Nation's Security under Republican Presidents wrote that he "would be the most reckless President in American history." In 2020, his own first Secretary of Defense, General Mattis, wrote that he was "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people." In 2024, his own former Chief of Staff, General Kelly, said: "He's certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators." None of them spoke for the other Party. Two had served in his own Government, and the fifty had served his Party's Presidents, and they told us plainly.

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Upon Paper

A free Government is a Government on Paper. The Constitution commands that "Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same." Grandpapa was a Printer, and believed in Ink the Way other Men believe in Providence. When Mr. Nixon's Tapes were at last heard, the Republick learned in a Week what had been kept from it for two Years: on the Tape of the 23rd of June, 1972, released in August of 1974, the President could be heard arranging to impede the Investigation, and within Days he resigned. Congress then wrote into Law that a President's Records belong to the People.

Those who mean to do Wrong have learned the Lesson too: keep no Paper. By the Account his own Aide gave the January 6th Committee, the President's Chief of Staff at the Time burned Papers in his Office Fireplace about a dozen Times in the Weeks after the 2020 Election; what they were, she could not say. In March of 2025 the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Adviser discussed a Strike in Yemen in a Signal Chat with Messages set to vanish, and the Pentagon's own Inspector General found that many were deleted before the Department could preserve them, against its Rules for keeping Records.

And in October the President's Ambassador to Greece, Ms. Guilfoyle, resigned at the White House's Request. The Wall Street Journal had published Texts which a longtime Trump Supporter, Eric Deters, says she sent him before her Confirmation Hearing, asking him to wire $100,000 to her American Express Account. "It won't show up anywhere," one reads. When he kept Records, another says: "Eric, I really wish you would stop papering these things. It's really dangerous and not helpful to you." Mr. Deters says she wanted him on Signal instead, and calls the Request "pay to play." Ms. Guilfoyle denies any Wrong; her Lawyers say he owed her the Money for Speaking Engagements, which he denies, and she has questioned whether the Texts are genuine. White House Officials were told they were, CBS reports.

I have been asked whether Ms. Guilfoyle coined that Verb. She did not. To "paper" a Thing, meaning to put it in Writing, is ordinary Lawyers' and Dealmakers' Cant, and she spent Years as a Prosecutor in California before she went into Television. That is what chills me. A Lawyer knows exactly what Paper is for. It is how the rest of us find out.

Nine Parts in ten of an Iceberg lie under the Water, and what is never papered can never be seen. Here is only the Part that has come above the Surface. Each Item names who says so. I have called nothing a Bribe in my own Voice; where that Word or its Cousins appear, they are the Accuser's. Most of these are Allegations, not Verdicts, and the Accused deny them.

That is the Tip. Enough Men have been caught, just enough, for us to know the Iceberg is there. The rest lies under the Waterline, unpapered, in Chats set to vanish and Fireplaces that were lit, and we may never see it. Most of the Members asking these Questions sit in the Minority, and a Minority cannot issue a Subpoena. A Majority can, and it is on the Ballot tomorrow.

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How a Republick Is Lost

Here I must be a Schoolmistress for a Page, for the Danger is not the one most People picture.

The Founders feared it before it had a modern Name. General Washington, in his Farewell of 1796, warned that the bitter Quarrels of Faction "gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual," until "the chief of some prevailing faction" turns that Weariness "to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty." Mr. Hamilton trusted the Electors to keep the Office from any Man whose Gifts were only "Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity." That Filter has failed. The one that remains is Congress.

Rome shows what becomes of a Republick whose Senate stops checking. Augustus abolished nothing. The Senate still met, the Consuls were still chosen, every Form was kept, and the Senators voted him one Power after another. The Historian Tacitus, looking back, wrote that at Rome the Consuls, the Senators and the Knights were "rushing into servitude." No one had to drag them.

In our own Time it is seldom done with Tanks. Two Professors at Harvard, who have spent their Careers studying the Question, found that modern Democracies die less often by Coup than at the Hands of elected Leaders, who use the Power the Voters gave them to dismantle the Checks upon it. The Method is the same from Hungary to Venezuela: capture the Referees, sideline the Opponents, rewrite the Rules. Each Step is small, and each is defended as Law.

Look about you. The Referees: some seventeen Inspectors General, whose whole Office is to find Wrongdoing in the Government, were dismissed in a Night, which a Judge later found unlawful; and Prosecutors were changed until the President's Enemies were indicted, by a Prosecutor a Judge found was "unlawfully serving." The Opponents: Reporters have been barred from the President's Presence for what they wrote, a Ban a Judge has found is likely unconstitutional. The Rules: in Alaska the Department of Justice has asked a Court to stop the Certification of the Vote, should a Senator of the President's Party narrowly lose, and the President has said, "I'm the one that said 'do it.'"

Mr. Lincoln saw where the Danger would come from. "At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad." And then, the Sentence every American ought to know by Heart: "As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

That is why I keep saying the same dull Thing about Congress. A Congress that does not belong to the President is the Check that remains. It can hold the Purse, call the Witnesses, and decline to rush into Servitude. You need not love the Democrat to give the Constitution back its Checks. You need only hold your Nose, and vote tomorrow.

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The Pool

Mr. Lincoln sits at the West End of the Pool, looking East, past the Monument to General Washington, toward the Capitol. He has been watching Congress for a hundred and four Years.

The Ancients told of a beautiful Youth, Narcissus, who leaned over a still Pool, saw his own Face, and could look at nothing else; he wasted away at the Water's Edge. His Trouble was not that he saw himself in the Pool. It was that he saw nothing else, not the Country behind him, nor the People waiting on him, nor the Mistakes that might have been mended.

A Reflecting Pool is an honest Thing. It shows whatever stands before it. It is a Shame the President cannot see his true Reflection in it. The rest of us can, and tomorrow we may say what we see.

I am, Sir, in all Seriousness, your Humble Servant,
Polly Dogood

P.S. When the Charge against the Canoeist was dropped, his Lawyer said the Government owed him an Apology. I have not read that he got one. It would cost nothing, and it would be a fine first Erratum.

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