Several people have asked me why I am writing so infrequently. Well, there are a few reasons. My job is keeping me pretty busy, so that’s legit, right? Mostly though, it is because day-to-day politics have left me speechless. Both parties are so hopelessly mired in the quagmire of partisan despair. Politicians and the political regime (the press, politicos, talking heads) have become incredibly petty. In short, I have OD’d on simple-minded hacks on both sides of the political fence.
How bad is it? It’s so bad that a Mitt Romney or George H. W. Bush would be considered to liberal or “out of touch” to secure their party’s nomination for President. And is equally so bad that a John Kerry or Al Gore would be too conservative to secure their party’s nomination for President.
In a way, the democrat’s have an easier problem to address. There is a democrat center and a democrat left. Any democrat is too liberal for me, but that is not the issue. The dems face a horrible challenge; namely,the relentless run to the left. Folks, it’s not just any old left, but a left that crosses the line into the land of socialists and hatred of capitalism. That is a scary place, yet the democrats seem incapable of stopping that slide into the abyss.
The GOP faces a bigger problem, largely because no one even knows what or where the GOP actually is. In short, I would argue there isn’t a Republican Party. There is a loose-knit, semi-confederation of former GOP stalwarts, libertarians, tea-partiers, and Trumpster wannabes. What a mess. The President has them scared of their own shadows. Sure, in private they wring their hands and speak with despair of his unseemly behavior. But in public their hands are tied. They are between a rock and a hard place. It’s a regular old dog’s breakfast.
The SCOTUS process is perhaps the only current event where the “Republicans” can act as one. For all of Trump’s faults he is two for two with superior Supreme Court nominations. Judges Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are not right wing zealots. There is simply nothing wrong about them. They are as pure and unadulterated as they come. They are not there to write law; they are on the bench to interpret it. This is what great judges do. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer make themselves smaller and smaller every time they talk with disdain about Judge Kavanaugh.
Just before I lose my more moderate or (dare I say) liberal readers, allow me to also say I didn’t think it is possible for me to dislike President Trump more than I did, but I do! He is a horrible man. Alas, we remain in a better place as a country than we would be had Hillary Clinton continued the miserable, economy-crushing policies of Mr. Obama. My greatest fear remains the possibility that Mr. Trump has not told the truth about something presently under investigation by Mr. Mueller. If his morals end up being as bad as his personality, the entire nation will suffer. History tells us that the voter backlash will be extreme, and in today’s environment the definition of “extreme” is “socialism”. The swing to the left will decapitate you if you get in the way of that blade.
For the sake of the United States, let’s hope this self-centered man is telling the truth. We can ill afford a wholesale shift to the far left. But I digress. The main point is that both parties are listless amoeba; pandering to extreme voices, taking whatever shape is necessary to mollify their extreme base, and afraid to do the right thing for fear of reprisal. We’ve been in messes before, and no doubt will be again. But this one is a doozy. I remain virtually speechless!
