Before you read this, beware. Much of what I have written is
somewhat disjointed. I am doing
“freestyle” writing – whatever pops into my head. And like most of us, I
find today’s political climate far more than simply disjointed.
***
My introduction to politics is as follows:
I was 18 years of age in 1965 and working as a lifeguard at
the Governor Morris Hotel in Morristown, New Jersey. Despite being near
bankrupt and sometimes unable to meet its payroll, the hotel was the site of a
number of important events and parties, including my senior prom less than a
year later.
But, I digress. I went to the kitchen to snarf a sandwich
and there was Richard Milhouse Nixon standing with a couple of men in suits
holding an envelope in his hands. The then former vice president glared at me
as if I was J. Edgar Hoover and I beat a hasty retreat, sans sandwich.
***
I neither trusted, nor liked Nixon very much after that. It
wasn’t until four years later, when I turned 21 and voted for the first time,
that this experience came to mind and I voted for Hubert Humphrey in 1968. By
that time I was a wannabe hippie and strong supporter of Eugene McCarthy and
even stronger opponent of the Vietnam War. I thought of Lyndon Johnson as man
of extreme courage, deciding not to run for re-election in the effort to
achieve peace in the war that made little sense.
Several years later, of course, Nixon proved that he wasn’t
very much of a leader after trying to invade Democratic Headquarters, perhaps a
reminder of the situation with the Russians today.
In my lifetime, we have had an extraordinary group of
presidents. Eisenhower, between playing a lot of golf, put together an
Interstate Highway system and got us the hell out of Korea. JFK convinced a
generation to do something for our country, made a commitment to space
exploration and, despite fumbling, kept us out of a nuclear war. Johnson
brought about the “great society” fighting poverty and ensuring our elderly had
health insurance, not to mention overseeing the passage of the Civil Rights
Act. Nixon, despite his many flaws, helped ensure a lasting peace with China.
Ford held together the country in the aftermath of Watergate. Regan, who many
thought spent his time napping in the Oval Office, quietly plotted the downfall
of the Soviets. Carter, faced with the Iran hostage crisis and severe
inflation, led the nation with humility. But then politics turned mean.
I suppose it started with Watergate. Nixon’s supporters
fought tooth and nail for their man and never lost their anger about losing.
They nearly toppled the Clinton administration over a sex scandal. And on the
opposite side when George W became the subject of constant attack as he lead us
into the great recession, they reformed as soon as Obama entered the White House
as the Tea Party.
The Nixonites and their ultra-conservative descendants,
remind me of southerners in the mid-1960s, still fighting the civil war in the
face of segregation being trashed by the Supreme Court and legally destroyed by
Equal Rights legislation.
But this is not about history. This is about today. This
isn’t your politics of the 20th century. This is the politics of the
digital age. We wonder if the Russians succeeded where Nixon failed in getting
private information from the Democratic Party. And we wonder what impact this
had on Trump’s shocking victory?
Until recently, I have enjoyed social media. I have
connected with many old friends and classmates. I recently discovered a woman
who I kissed when we were in first grade and that neither of us had never forgot
that clumsy effort. But the
politics of social media has sometimes torn my ego to pieces.
Over the past year or so, I have had some medical problems,
which have led to financial problems. I never dreamed of having them but as the
pressure continued to mount, I have vented in a very inappropriate manner:
focusing on politics in social media. My Trump bashing has gone from making fun
of him to calling his supporters “TrumpNazis” and fighting them on every point.
I sincerely believe those who support Trump, blindly it seems, have become like
the Nazis following Hitler, although I’m sure some of them are very nice people,
I’m sure.
For those who didn’t get the last line,
it is a joke of sorts. But anyhow, what I have come to
realize that my Facebook friends, who do support the president, are people I
truly care about. My favorite cousin and his wife; a former neighbor who was
very kind; a young man I was a youth minister to who overcame a crazy father,
and many more are on the right side. And I am very concerned that several of my
friends on the left have lost their sense of self, spending all day sharing
political posts while on their phone. Two years ago, I visited a man I consider
my best friend. We have both given shelter and support to one another over the
course of decades. Before smart phones, much of our time together has been
filled with lively conversation and many, many puns. The last time I visited
him and his wife two summers ago, we still had that. But there were many gaps,
as all of us would have our noses in out iPhones.
In other words, all of us need to get a life.
At the same time, social media probably saved my life. Ten
years ago, I was very lonely and socially isolated. My parents were dead and my
relationship with my wife and younger son were not very good. I happened to go
on Classmates.com and went to someone’s profile. Unknown to me, when you
visited a profile on Classmates, they leave a note saying who visited you.
Anyhow, I got a friendly message back and eventually I found myself messaging
friends and others whom I hadn’t spoken to in many decades.
Suddenly, I had a support system. And when I left my
marriage, I went all over the East Coast spending time with people. They helped
me through a very vicious divorce and more. I now have about 125 Facebook
“friends,” including friends, family, former classmates, lovers and people I
have met throughout my travels. And while about 30 of those people are the ones
I consider especially close, all of them are meaningful to me. There’s one
former high school classmate who I rarely converse with who puts up encouraging
signs nearly every day and I enjoy them immensely.
I really didn’t want, or need an iPhone. I bought it because
I travelled a great deal in my RV and I used the “hot spot” feature to access
the Internet from remote locales. But I slowly began to depend on it. My weather
app defaults to wherever I am and I check it daily. I also have it programmed
to where my children and some friends are.
Now, I do banking on line. I’ve written one check since in
the last five years – to a campground that didn’t accept credit cards. I rarely
use my laptop any more. It’s become a word processor. I do Facebook and e-mail
on my phone.
And so I don’t know what to make of things these days. I
don’t trust much of what I read on Facebook, yet today’s newspapers are useless
in covering local issues. This Sunday, the Newark Star Ledger had a full-page
story about an amusement park in its Morris County section, which consisted of
four pages. The problem is, that this amusement park is about 80 miles away
from Morris County. The rest of the “editorial” on the remaining three pages
consisted of one small story about a charitable group, “events” culled from
press releases about things like fundraisers, craft shows, etc. And the back
was half a page of recent house sales and half a page of advertising. So I
don’t rely on newspapers any more. I go to Google news, which contains a list
of links to stories that come from semi-respectable news sources. Recently, I
have discovered the “News” app on my iPhone that I check daily. I am a faithful
follower of the local news programs from New York City television stations,
switching stations after each half hour to get different stories. And of course
there’s CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. While these stations are fabulous for breaking
worldwide news, their never-ending panel discussions about politics make me
want to puke.
Those who know me are aware I spent many years in print
journalism, in local news and trade publications. Like most journalists, I make
an honest effort to be fair and objective in what I reported. But I have often
found that even on a local level, if I wrote something one side objected to,
they wouldn’t speak to me. I always told those people that we publish all
letters to the editor. The now defunct Daily Advance newspaper out of Dover, NJ
had a policy that they would endorse people for political office down to local
town councils. But only if the candidates came into the office for interviews. I
had written much about one town I covered and members of the Republican Party
would not speak to me. I had to beg and plead with them, telling them that we
were prepared to endorse them and I would not be a part of the process. They
came and they were endorsed simply because they were the best candidates. On
the evening the endorsements were printed, I called the mayor to see how he
reacted. We spent a good hour on the phone discussing journalism and local
politics and if we weren’t friends after that, we were at least cordial.
I suppose what I’m trying to say that while there is little
that is new in terms of ideas; the technology has changed our worldview. We
have each become personally involved in the process, being afforded our own
shot at discussing the news.
Like many oldsters (God, how I hate calling myself old, even
though I proudly accept that mantle), I have a yearning for the “good old
days.” I recently wrote a short story about what might happen if on February
20, 2020 at 02:02:02 (a.m.) the Internet collapsed. Some of us would get along
just fine, not even being aware of it, while others would have us on the brink
of Armageddon.
With the Internet down, how would I find things out? Good
God, would I actually have to talk to people? Would I have to treat them with
courtesy and respect? The thought can be terrifying.
But back to the political stuff: I just can’t ignore what is
going on these days. Trump’s escapades and twitter rampages fascinate me as
well as turn me off. Why he is doing this, I have no idea. But he reminds me of
a Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels jumping up and down demanding to be heard. I
think that the Russian investigation continues to soil him because he thinks it
invalidates his election victory. He seems unable to get over it. I find it
ironic that he attacks so many of his critics when he spent the campaign in
attack mode from the day he started. I just don’t understand him and alternate
between thinking he is a child who never grew up and has genuine mental illness
issues. Perhaps both?
After I ended my newspaper career, I would discuss politics
with a few people and then go to the voting booth to have my say. But now I
express myself through Facebook and a blog. I have no idea how many people read
what I write on Facebook, but I am astounded that you, dear reader, are among
well over 10,000 hits who have been here reading my sometimes pompous meanderings.
So having something of a voice, I want to use it to express
myself. I hope that I make sense more often than not, so here I go as I eventually
get to more than 2,500 words on this missive.
First, Trump has not kept his campaign promises. There is
very little wall. Our health care is not very good. His promises to revive jobs
in industries have gone down the tubes. I can’t think of one company more
American than Harley Davidson who has been forced to operate out of the country
due to the Trump tariffs. Trump campaigned in Chicago to end gun violence and
visited Long Island to combat gangs. Nothing has changed.
I also feel his actions as president have been ineffective
and actually hurt our country. He listened to victims of some recent gun
rampages and people hoped that he might consider some common sense gun
legislation. He said so but quickly waffled after the NRA pressured him. The
way he has handled immigration has been an absolute mess. And I don’t want to
begin about his recent European trip where he attacked our alliance, treated
the British like pond scum and God only knows what happened with Putin.
I believe he is unfit to be president, but I also believe
the Republican party is to blame. Republicans control the House and Senate.
Conservatives will clearly control the Supreme Court. And yet they have been
unable to work together. There is an ongoing struggle between Tea Party
conservatives and mainstream Republicans. The top GOP issue for eight years was
getting rid of Obamacare. The couldn’t do it. But they have managed to cut back
social legislation all the way back to the Great Society of the 1960s.
And the bottom line is Trump supporters. They will defend
him no matter how much he does to hurt the nation. The most recent is to
overlook Trump turning his back on our own intelligence community and to try to
divert the issue back on Hillary, who has not been in government since the end
of Obama’s first term. I weep in frustration when I discuss what Trump said or
did, and they don’t seem to care. There is a photo on Facebook showing people
portrayed as Trump Supporters. The all-white group of mostly women express “the
twisted logic of Trump supporters” with the following statements:
“He didn’t say that.
And if he did, he didn’t mean that.
And if he did, you don’t understand it.
And if you did, it’s not a big deal.
And if it is, others have said worse.”
Say the following very, very slowly: W----T----F----?
The Democrats are not exactly doing much either. Somehow,
someone must emerge from the wreck of the campaign who is the antiTrump. They
need a leader not named Hillary, Bernie or Elizabeth who can speak with a voice
of reason and strength; someone who has a record of truth and honesty. They
need a white and/or female version of Obama. And I don’t know if they can. Democrats
can’t go through the primary chaos we have seen in the Republicans for the last
three presidential elections.
And more importantly, right now, power must be wrested from
the Republican majorities in Congress to prevent Trump from doing more damage.
Hopefully a viable presidential candidate will emerge from that group. Baby
Boomers like Trump have had their day. Change will happen this November. But it
will be difficult to view and hope that there will be genuine change when
billionaires like the Koch brothers try so hard to influence the elections. I
sometimes wonder if they are more dangerous than the Russians.
Have a good day, unless, of course, you have other plans.'
