Are we looking the gift horse of American Democracy in the mouth? As much as I try to pretend that our Democracy (capital D intended) is not in jeopardy, the harder it is to ignore clear signs that the majority of the people in one of our two dominant political parties claim allegiance to a powerful cult of personality that won’t go away. Truth and facts no longer mean anything in what I feel is a dangerous [...] READ MORE
It’s time to stop pledging allegiance to the Grim Reaper of Russia! Trump and his allies insist that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine were he still president. And Russia did not make aggressive moves on his watch, something former aides and others credit to his erratic behavior and direct threats that left world leaders uncertain of how Trump would respond to a provocation. —Associated Press (March 29, 2022) The attempt of the Trump-inspired “America First” campaigns [...] READ MORE
It’s time to zip up my lip and wait for what the voters have already decided. My plan for this week was to write about anything but politics, particularly presidential politics. I figured by mid-Wednesday morning when I posted this, there would still be no victory proclamation. It is time to move on, whatever happens, even if it means enduring a numbing four more years of fibs, fiction and factionalism. I suppose I can endure whatever happens. [...] READ MORE
Hatred of any person, especially an entire race, can poison an otherwise healthy mind. Any dialogue about racism is good. My last blog wasn’t specifically about the president, but my references to him were primarily about his failure during this crazy campaign season to stand up against hate groups and white supremacist violence. For the record, my fact-checking confirms three distinct times he did behave presidentially in the aftermaths of two violent events that resulted in the [...] READ MORE
Advice for President Trump with apologies to Dr. Seuss. It is clear our president needs another television gig. Just keep him away from debates. He hasn’t figured out that the other person —and the moderator—get to talk, too. The first debate is what it is — I mean was what it was —and I suppose Trump backers wish it wasn’t. Sometimes debates bare the ugly truth of who you really are— as if we needed any more [...] READ MORE
Separate truths keep Americans at odds. I’ve always been a devotee of fact checking, especially in the political climate that has overwhelmed us since the political campaigning that prefaced the 2016 presidential election. It wasn’t just the presidential candidates themselves, but the congressional races where everything was divided into us-versus-them rhetoric and the campaign ads were replete with exaggerations and lies. Social media was a traffic jam of people who didn’t know what they were talking about [...] READ MORE
It is better to have a mask on your face than a foot in your mouth. Looking back over the recently departed month of June in the Land of Opportunity, which, in case that rings a bell, was once synonymic for the United States of America, two images are branded into my memory. One is of a Minneapolis cop looking casually at the camera and then down as George Floyd takes his dying breaths. The other is [...] READ MORE
Is that your head or someone’s misshapen big toe? Just one letter can change meaning. The political landscape is getting crazier and crazier, but is it crazy in a good or a bad way? Are facts important to you— such as the things people actually do and say— or do we really have the option of alternate facts? How about the alternative of optional facts? My recent blog about the overwhelming evangelical support for President Trump was [...] READ MORE
How did Trump become brightest hope of evangelicals? I’ve been curious for some time about the tremendous popularity Trump has enjoyed with the once judgmental evangelical leadership. Evangelicals represent more than a fourth of all active voters (26 percent) and one third of all Republican voters. Seventy-five to eighty percent of them voted for Trump in 2016 and seem poised to do the same in November of 2020. Even the recent publicity stunt of Trump using the [...] READ MORE
Why all the complaints about wearing masks? It’s creating a new industry. Masks, for some, have become a symbol of individualism and a reason to resist and proclaim their Constitution rights. What about the rights of people who don’t want to be exposed to bare-faced people? It’s not about your right to wear one. It’s about our right to get through this with as few casualties as possible. Masks, in comic book America, denote bravery and heroism. [...] READ MORE
