Dewey had charisma but voters got real

It was in 1948.

So the headline this morning is "Trump 2024 campaign prepares for post-midterms launch." 

It has come to this. This is 2022 America. The Arizona Republican governor candidate makes a joke connected to the attack on Paul Pelosi, and her audience laughs. Something about America has profoundly changed. I flail away as a writer trying to point out certain things. Have done so for quite some time. 

Trump and those like him have considerable support in outstate Minnesota. My fears about the mid-terms are extremely strong. Yes, they haven't happened yet. Trying for a glimmer of hope, I remember history and how Thomas Dewey was expected to reach the White House. The Democrat Harry Truman survived, as we are reminded with the famous photo of Harry holding up the erroneous newspaper headline. 

Is that newspaper worth a lot? You might think so, but not so much. That's because everyone saved it. 

So Truman won and why? That's because in the final analysis, even though it's so easy to be entranced by GOP and "conservative" rhetoric, enough people can see through it in the end. 

We might want to cheer when Republicans preach about "fiscal responsibility" that would extend to entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. Wisconson's Ron Johnson has gotten attention for such talk. Rick Scott's words have been so pronounced, Mitch McConnell actually had to push back and proclaim "we (the Republicans) will not be sun-setting Social Security." 

But there is obviously an impulse for them to do so. They are like the scorpion in the story of the scorpion and the frog. It's innate with them. And my, how they mine the culture wars. The older demographic has sort of made a Faustian bargain. They are emotional with how they want to prevail on the cultural stuff. So the Republicans respond by saying "we'll give you the cultural issues if you give us the tax cuts." 

He'll be in our face again.

What about when "the dog catches the car?" The older demographic along with so many conservative Christians lifted Trump to the presidency. So Trump got to name three Supreme Court justices. All this tore away the protection of Roe vs. Wade for women. 

At first we heard that Republicans wanted states to decide on the matter. But wait a minute, Lindsey Graham weighed in. The "nationwide abortion ban" has not resonated.

The chest-thumping of Republicans can get tempered in short order. 

The anti-abortion or pro-life crusaders, like the Minnesota GOP governor candidate, have gotten spooked as if it were Halloween. Facing the prospect of losing, they back off on an issue that was heretofore such a matter of principle for them. Saving human lives? Was that really their guiding principle? So how could this Dr. Scott Jensen suddenly start running high-profile campaign commercials reminding women that abortion is their constitutional right in Minnesota? Why is he suddenly so proud of that? 

Rep. Paul Anderson

We here in West Central Minnesota got a campaign flier from this Paul Anderson, who I've never met, that doesn't even tell us what political party he's in. He's new to us in Morris as representative. I happened to know he's Republican. Can't this guy reveal it to everyone? Has he become tentative about that? 

But behind closed doors when in elected office, without a doubt he'll show his Republican stripes. So, why so "stealthy" about it, Paul? He would laugh if reading this. That's called arrogance.

Voters realized with Harry Truman that government is not perfect - it can be intrusive in some ways - but let's think twice before jettisoning it. 

So the voters surprised by electing Truman. Actually I would be of the mind to never forgive Truman because of Korea. My perception is always influenced by Vietnam. 

But voters decided in the end, that while Dewey might win "the beauty contest" as it were - charisma, yes - Truman afforded the best policies for their lives. 

Are we in Minnesota so entranced now that we'll give Republicans the key to the car and allow them to scrap the state income tax? I know you are all annoyed by the largesse in public education. But let's remember the saying about not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Even if that happens, we'll still need publicly supported education. But what form will it take? 

What would be the consequences for our University of Minnesota-Morris? We had a household name Republican make comments about our Morris campus recently. Are we in the crosshairs? This is a legitimate fear. How would the Republicans sort things out if they get a true grip on power? What would be the fate of our Morris campus which after all has subscribed to a lot of the "woke" stuff? I hate to use that term but if I use it, you'll know what I'm talking about. 

Local control is best? I thought Republicans loved that principle. But wait a minute, Republican legislators want to clamp down on schools in regard to "divisive materials." "Divisive" can be a vague term. We know about Republicans' intentions because Paul Anderson has it right on the campaign flier he sent us: "Rep. Anderson wants to make sure education in Minnesota focuses on improving academic achievement, free of controversial, divisive materials." 

Republicans are the most "divisive" people around these days. They laugh about the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband. Glenn Youngkin spoke in a light vein about the attack. Youngkin was pressed repeatedly for an apology on this, by none other than "Newsmax" host Greta Van Susteren - yes, good ol' Greta - and the Virginia politico steadfastly refused. Silly rabbit, it is in the DNA of Republicans to never apologize for anything. 

 

Underlying it all

So, America appears to be going crazy in so many ways. The explanation for it all is under the radar screen. The explanation is that this nation did not properly resolve the 2008 "financial crisis." The financial crisis was not an act of God. The wrongdoers escaped legal consequences. The powers-that-be allowed the problem to be papered over, which really just bought time. Such a hackneyed phrase: "kicking the can down the road." 

So Americans are frustrated for reasons they don't fully understand. Remember Hank Paulson holding those three pieces of paper with his hands trembling? We allowed all this to just fly by. The media made it complicated.

We saw the seeds planted for a true upheaval in this country on January 6. Amazingly, there has not been a reckoning, as much as Liz Cheney and too few others have tried to persist. 

Cheney and others like her could face the death penalty from trumped-up treason charges if Trump storms back into the presidency and gets to appoint his own people all over the place. He pulls out all stops to legally challenge any action that might be taken to counter him. If he loses, he appeals. He intimidates people with frivolous lawsuits. He fills the clown car with people like Rudy Giuliani who can then go on far-right TV networks or YouTube channels. 

AM radio has nothing but reactionary-type hosts all day, all night, the exceptions being negligible. The wave may be about to pound down on us with consequences that we do not grasp yet. 

All these innocent older people who attend the Good Shepherd Church in Morris, or of course the Apostolics, will likely not be prepared for the consequences. No state income tax? "Re-sets" for Social Security? Will a majority of the public really give the nod for such things? 

Or will we wake up to a "Harry Truman surprise?" Will we decide to tell Fox News, Newsmax et al. to just take a hike?

 

Addendum: Please y'all, cast your votes for Edie Barrett and Kari Dorry. My attitude on the City of Morris races is: vote for the non-incumbents, sight unseen. It's a no-brainer. Just arrived: a flier that claims Torrey Westrom is "committed to banning abortion even in cases of rape or incest."

Cast your vote for Edie Barrett.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com