Whither America? The Moment is at Hand

                 Whither America?  The Moment is at Hand

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 7/8/18

It was bound to happen, the topsy-turvy state of American politics, that is.  Things change.  Flux is one of life’s absolute certainties.

Liberals typically celebrate this certainty.  Believing in the perfectibility of man, they favor and employ disruption to achieve it.  For most liberals, change is their modus operandi, not legitimate change through the legislative process, but change via the courts and the streets.

Conservatives observe change and are prone to yell, “Stop!” or at least “Hold on.”  They are perhaps the better students of history.  They question whether or not the Godless communists were any better than the 300-year reign of the church-going, peasant-holding Romanovs.  (The communists weren’t better. They were far, far worse.)  Conservatives rightly wonder why liberals used to love everything Russian and were so soft on communism, but now consider Russia a mortal enemy who colludes with Republicans.  Hhmmm.

Castro was just as evil as the deposed Batista.  One might ask if Mao’s “People’s Revolution” brought more freedom to the people.  It certainly did not.  So change is not always good.

Even so, change is happening fast in American politics.  The terms Democrat and Republican are becoming muddled.  We thought Donald Trump had muddled the words Republican and conservative, and that Democrats would profit from it.   But then Maxine Waters, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren became the face and voice of the Democrats, stirring the Democratic pot just as deeply.  Columnist George Will might want to reconsider his decision to leave the Republican Party if his intent was to go Democratic.

Donald Trump’s successful incursion into politics has delighted many Republicans and mortified others.  Trump has drawn to himself many Democrats and has driven other Democrats to unmask themselves, thus revealing their true socialist core.  Party distinctions and loyalties are no longer the beachhead for our political involvement.  Voters have begun to seek a singular voice, a disturber.  If that voice is imperfect, how perfect, how corruption-free are the parties?

Few if any media commentators have truly delved into why an unconventional Republican candidate became the Republican Party’s nominee and the nation’s President, or how a billionaire could so adeptly arouse the so-called working class.  Yet, this President with no political experience is getting at least a B+/A- for advancing his agenda.

Commentators and reporters study the news and produce their articles, but they obviously don’t study the electorate.  A reporter’s one-night stay in a remote town motel and a 30-minute session with the locals over breakfast, 30 seconds of which will be aired on television, doesn’t show who and what ordinary Americans are.  No breaking bread in a home, no driving and stopping through tired neighborhoods plus no riding down country roads equals fake information about ordinary Americans.

The folks about whom the media stars know little or nothing are the ones who are finding hope – even solace and camaraderie – in an upstart New Yorker.  And though the New Yorker probably didn’t hit any back roads either, he obviously touted positions and spoke words that the supposedly “uneducated, uninformed, cultist-inclined” Americans were waiting to hear.  Words like “more jobs,” “build the wall,” and “lower taxes.”  Trump lovers have never flocked to the courts or taken to the streets.  They’ve been at work.  Their saner tactic has been to keep waiting for the light and flocking to the voting booth.

The craziness of Maxine Waters and company, whom Democratic Party leaders have not disavowed, daily strengthens the New Yorker’s cause and broadens his base.  May her craziness increase! 

The moment is at hand.  Doubtless, our politics is moving away from parties and toward the individual who can best size up and stir up the most hearts and minds.  If we must blame someone, blame our two major parties.  It is they who have slow-walked on reducing spending, looked the other way when our southern border was being invaded, and allowed government to grow time and time again.  As a result, both parties are responsible for Donald Trump and his glorious deplorables.

As a rule, American voters turn rightward for solutions.  Think Nixon and “law and order,” Reagan and “the evil empire,” or Trump and “America First.”  Parties would best remember this. 

How many Republicans, not just President Obama, have been heard to say, “Those jobs are not coming back”?  But they are, and all because of a man, not a party.

Whither America will be answered partially in November of this year, and more fully in November of 2020.  For now, polls show that the people are feeling rather satisfied.

Roger Hines

7/4/18