It seems I spend a good part of my time irritating my
friends, a good part trying not to irritate my friends, and much time saying “What
the hell?”
I guess that causes one to ask the primal question, who am I?
Well here goes.
A lifelong Democrat, I certainly don’t agree with all that
the party has historically represented. For example, I believe that Orval
Faubus, governor of my state during my formative years, was an evil man by the
standards of his time. He nearly destroyed my state, but would be a highly
respected conservative senator these days, probably considered a moderate Republican.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t grow up hating people who
supported the opposition party. I still don’t. I respect any rational reasonable
person, no matter what their politics. I’m wondering, though, how some may feel
about a party led my Donald Trump.
In my lifetime, I think Dwight Eisenhower was a fine leader
and a not harmful president. I was bemused to learn that Lyndon Johnson, as Senate
Majority Leader, often helped Ike more than Ike’s own party in achieving some
of his goals.
That’s how political life in America used to be.
I think, in my state, Winthrop Rockefeller was the most
inspiring governor of my times, and we’ve had some good ones since. I stopped
in Arkansas, when the Navy had paid my way all the way back to San Francisco because
I had read about the things Rockefeller was trying to do. Am I glad I stayed?
Well, I met my future wife here and have no particular penchant for computers, so
yes. Arkansas isn’t as poor and ignorant as much as it thinks poor and
ignorant.
I voted once for a member of the opposition party. It was a
time when a crossover vote in the primaries enabled Arkansans to rid the state of
a particularly icky politician. I have no regrets over that vote.
The rest of the time, though, I’ve remained a “Blue Dog.” The
candidates haven’t been perfect—both parties must share blame for Vietnam—but
they’ve been successful and, other than a case of an overactive libido, haven’t
been a national embarrassment. We’ve even produced a statesman or two. And, although
a firm believer in the First Amendment, I do use the Sermon on the Mount in
making political decisions. Therefore, I think Jimmy Carter was the finest
person we’ve had as president in my time, though he made many mistakes while
having “a hard row to hoe.”
I think the push and pull of opposing parties creates a
sound government. I would never wish for one-party rule.
Although I still weep at times over the fact that a Supreme
Court that included Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia elected George W. Bush
president, I’m not sure he was a bad man. I am sure that his primary handlers,
Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were. The stain of their bloody hands will mar
America forever.
And speaking of such, look now at the man whose bloody hands
will point young Americans into a land war, if past performance is any
indicator of future behavior. If there is now a deranged and dangerous man in
American politics, it is John Bolton. Ask the spirits of the perhaps more than
a million dead from the Iraq War he helped orchestrate, creating in the process
an unstable Middle East. His coming sins will only be surpassed by our shame.
As for the current state of America, the sounds of the Old
Testament, in Samuel One Chapter 19, ring in my ears: "Your glory, O
Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!”
It is my personal opinion that America’s greatness is being
slain upon the heights of greed and avarice.
It further appears to me that insidious forces are at work
in my beloved country. I fear that the cable TV show “Fox News” is destroying
the cognitive ability of a vast segment of American society, for a reason that
is as inexplicable as it is alarming. The fact that its major owners are an
Australian and a Saudi Arabian may suggest a lust for global power, accompanied
by a lack of concern, account for the reason more than any organized game plan.
As America witnessed the “Doomsday Clock” bound forward a
notch yesterday, and as parents and grandparents ponder how they might keep
loved ones out of a ground war such as the one that mauled those of my
generation, the days ahead look dark to me.
This is my opinion. I’ll never support a government that
would punish anyone for having a different one.
Unlike many though, I’ll be the happiest person in America
if future events prove me wrong.
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