It would be easy to assume. But we cannot. Maybe our impulses will build up to really want face-to-face contact as we fulfill our obligations. Intangibles? Or maybe people will feel there really are tangible benefits. The question has been hovering out there for some time. The shutdown has just highlighted it. And yet I feel there is no clear-cut answer.
Predicting the future is a fool's errand. How could we have ever predicted the election of Donald Trump? Regardless of how you felt about Barack Obama's policies, surely we'd agree he was a first class and civil gentleman. Always respectful and restrained, aware of established protocol.
Look up the text for Trump's "Access Hollywood" tape. Recite it out loud, please. Add to that his abject lack of experience in government or the military. His lapses in character, his pettiness and his scheming for partisan advantage are obvious so regularly, it's amazing we are so restrained in our assessment.
I know a retired Morris high school teacher who always carried himself with maximum class, yes the epitome of that, who bulls forward with Trump support. You have to be cautious airing any criticism of Trump around him.
And because Trump endorsed Roy Moore for Senate (Alabama, wouldn't you know), this individual became defensive even on Moore's behalf. You are no doubt aware of Moore's background. Not sure which is more offensive, the Access Hollywood tape or Moore's background, but in league with that was Trump's behavior with porn stars/Playboy models. It was in all the papers. Too unsavory for me to want to review, and yet you would think the people across the political aisle from me would be the banner carrier for "personal responsibility." Isn't that the flag waved so long by Republicans?
None of what I'm writing here would make anyone in the Trump crowd, including all those Apostolics, ponder to take a fresh critical look at their own views. They are well past any propensity for critical thinking. It's just "Make America Great Again."
Constantly we must try to assess how Trump actually became president. The long view of history and of the media might help. Consider that after the famous 1960 Kennedy/Nixon debates, our nation went into quite a hiatus with that process. This despite some very burning issues over the next 10-15 years. Today is the polar opposite: we have gotten drunk with debates even in the primaries. Trump was among something like 17 GOP candidates. They got trotted out for debates.
I smile as I consider the truism that all GOPers basically think alike. Oh, they really do. They can speak in grandiose terms to try to endear themselves, but once in possession of power they're all the same. Of course Trump doesn't want strong Federal government leadership in the current crisis. GOPers don't go for that sort of thing unless it's the military and then it's just for the purpose of chest-thumping.
Republicans do not want people to like government. Toss it to the states, do not bother us at the Federal government level, except that the president loves his daily TV presentations because after all, that's the kind of forum that got him elected. Trump lacked any meaningful credentials to be president but he made up for that with cunning media instincts. This he plied in standing out among the huge field of GOP presidential hopefuls, some of whom were no doubt in the field just to build up their names for book marketing or the lecture circuit.
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Some of us I'm sure felt the campaign was like a carnival act and if in power, surely Trump would do a turnaround and appreciate the gravity of his position. Wrong-O. And now so many of us don't wish to admit to ourselves we were wrong. In fact, we might re-elect Trump just to try to show we might be right yet.
Why can't we have a president who can give a speech like Queen Elizabeth in the current crisis? Obama would have given a speech like that, word for word probably. To impress upon everyone what a shared challenge we face and how we must truly bond, surely to transcend petty differences. We don't need to hear sniping at "the fake news" and disparagement of governors who happen to be Democrats. We must be truly fearful that states with Democratic governors might get the dirty end of the stick in some way. Do you realize how ludicrous it is, to even have to worry about this?
At least in Minnesota, half the legislature is controlled by Republicans. Maybe that will help.
Will Trump and the Murdochs keep pulling strings to bamboozle us? Their formula has worked until now with shocking ease. Their top mouthpieces bull forward with zero room for humility. The people on the other side have to make statements to defend themselves. There is no shame among the righties. That is, unless more Americans start seeing through the smokescreen of right wing rhetoric, the incredible fakery of the Christian evangelicals.
Traditional conservatives want government to be restrained and civil, for life to have a reasoned and secure pace to it. That philosophy would frown on a a charismatic leader getting the limelight each day, yes even Palm Sunday when Trump demanded TV airtime - nothing new to say, just a platform for bluster.
Conservatives in the mold of Mark Meadows are actually not supposed to like this sort of thing. They want free market capitalism to set so much of the tone in our lives. Yet amazingly, they sit idly by while their government unleashes bailouts - a command economy - and countenances the Federal Reserve as it undertakes bizarre actions as if it's some sort of savior. Huh? The Fed is just supposed to manage the money supply. Part of its mission is to stay in the background, but not now: Mr. Powell went on the Today Show recently.
Yes, "Alice Through the Looking Glass."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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