Vive la modération!
No hawks, no doves, just sanity. From this day forward, we simply MUST win.
I’m not running for president, and I have zero desire to be your daddy, but some serious adulting is overdue.
I’m over 21 (by a half-century), wear cardigans regularly, and I’m sane. Or pretty much. Although I don’t pretend to be an expert on anything, I am a retired newspaperman who’s tried to pay attention for most of the last five decades.
I’ve begun to understand more clearly than ever why the phrase, “May you live in interesting times,” is a curse. Please, pull up a chair. Because I’m telling you, it’s bad.
The America First version of this country is on the wrong side, deliberately and aggressively, as its democratic allies combat totalitarianism, especially the Russian dictator’s variety, as well as right-wing authoritarian movements at home.
Ukraine is burning as the United States, now in the hands of its own right-wing movement — this one unprecedented in its lawless exercise of power, and thus like nothing the world has ever seen — effectively amplifies Vladimir Putin’s propaganda. In fact, it now appears we helped him formulate some of it.
Our sleepy president and his as yet unindicted co-conspirators are the Russian war criminal’s ace in the hole, their sole interest apparently to make a buck.
The world, meanwhile, friend and enemy alike, has watched decades of relative detente, if not always stability, replaced by a belligerent, day-to-day volatility.
How could it be otherwise when the U.S. president is a malevolent sociopath who operates on whim?
The whole world is sick of living like this, but I think we should prepare for more threatening days as the new year arrives.
Having turned America into a reality show, the Felon and his Cabinet (which, again, likely includes a few felons of its own), are sabotaging the goldmine enriching them all.
The ratings for season two of American Carnage are crashing, its players and their performative politics infected at last by predictability, the killer of Almighty Eyeballs. The only steady source of entertainment is their ineptitude.
Even the chief executive is snoozing through the cringe-fests of his Cabinet meetings, waking long enough to spew garbage about people he describes as such.
True, his in-your-face white supremacy, coupled with ample video of the secret police throwing brown people to the pavement, will keep the cruelest and most ignorant among the cultists engaged.
Bear in mind, though, they’re still lusting after those Epstein files, which promise to launch this spectacle into territory the producers of Jerry Springer never dreamed of.
The cult is tired of waiting and their dear leader — between naps — knows it. His “best people” know it, too, and it’s making them look desperate.
If it weren’t for that “affordability” issue, which the president says is “fake” and a “con job” (whatever that means), this week’s debut of a new level of transparent, even proud racism might rescue him for a while.
I don’t believe that will happen – not because his ignorant bigotry bothers his core supporters, but because their lives are not better since he took office on January 20. Nearly everything costs more, including all the “must haves” such as electricity, housing, gasoline and groceries.
Sure, politicians over-promise, but the president campaigned on day-one winning, and only the wealthiest Americans are any better off since day one began with pomp and pardons, Christian nationalists and Nazi salutes.
And while it’s true that much of the GOP-induced pain for working people (amid windfalls for the richest) will be inflicted after the midterms, health insurance premiums explode on New Year’s Day.
There’s a major opportunity here, but it mostly involves reason and common sense, neither of which screams engagement, so it’s important to repeat — on a loop as it were — that the future of our country hangs in the balance.
Which brings us to one of the ways we can embrace moderation without sacrificing, or backing off one iota, from our commitments to a liberal democracy. Our mantra, which I suggest we shout from the rooftops as long as it takes, is that “future of our country” is the future of our children and grandchildren.
It isn’t just America’s intelligentsia who realize the kids are not OK. MAGA does too, its mommas if not its daddies.
Yes, we should beat the drum about egg prices, but we can also remind voters the world is becoming less safe for democracy — and less safe for our children — because America is in the hands of a president who ignores the rule of law.
Every issue – social, cultural economic, regulatory, even the United States’ role in international affairs – can be framed in a way that highlights the world we’re shaping for the next generation of Americans.
I believe we can bring passion to the upcoming election fights by reminding ourselves and others that “the next generation” isn’t some statistical cohort with its own amusing eccentricities. IT’S OUR KIDS!