Sosbee.com

The notion that private enterprise can do a better job of running things than is possible through government bureaucracy is an ideology, not a fact. Witness the disaster of privately-run fire departments, the cost overruns and human rights abuses of private prisons, and the failure of private charter schools to outperform their public school counterparts. So, whenever you hear a conservative politician advocating privatization of anything to improve outcomes, simply say “show me”.

Are you a Republican or Democrat? Green or independent? Except for the way you are registered to vote, does it really make any difference? If your entire family: parents brothers sisters cousins aunts uncles nieces nephews, everyone, are rock-ribbed Republicans, staunch supporters of Donald Trump, but you simply cannot abide his many personal faults or regressive politics, does it matter? What if you changed your voter registration to “decline to state”? Could you limit your political discussion to specific issues: immigration, tax policy, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. without resorting to political party talking points? Could name-calling and hate speech be avoided altogether? What if you lived in a community where no one wore a label, where political talk focused on the issues, with emphasis on who wins and who loses? Would there be more serious discussion? Would more people show up to vote on election day? If we achieved nothing else, could we at least achieve understanding?

In the New Yorker magazine of May 22, 2017, writer Jeffrey Tobin had this to say: “it is a certainty that history will look unkindly upon the moral blindness of contemporary Republicans.” When you look at what McConnell’s Senate did to obstruct the Obama administration, and what they are doing now to repeal Obamacare, it is easy to appreciate the wisdom of Tobin’s prediction.

When Obama was elected, the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, declared it would be the Republican Party’s mission to see to it that he, Obama, was a one term president. There followed a massive, well-organized and financed campaign (elements of which continue to this day) to demean, degrade, and obstruct the Obama presidency. No opportunity was or is missed by any Republican politician to badmouth Obama, to blame him for any problem, no matter how remote or trivial, and to block any constructive effort lest Obama received credit. When the Democrats lost control of Congress in 2010 the government of the United States of America effectively shut down, making McConnell’s prophecy self-fulfilling. By 2016, the voting public was so disgusted with Washington, they voted for change, change in whatever form they could get. It came with Donald J. Trump, through the quirk of the Electoral College, despite an almost three million popular vote advantage for Hillary Clinton. Now, Trump’s pigeons are coming home to roost, and America is having a bad case of buyer’s remorse. Impeachment talk is in the air, and Trump’s very low approval ratings mean that he may not be able to count on popularity to shield him from this radical method of getting him out.

We knew Trump was a con man, a grifter, a demagogue, gifted in the art of delivering applause lines and appealing to the bigots in his audience. Republicans, for their part, also new that his fairly solid 37% of the voters, when combined with the tribal loyalty of registered Republicans, plus the unmeasured, but obvious anti-Clinton vote, would likely put Trump over the top. What we didn’t know was what kind of leader Trump would make, how he would operate as President of the United States. Now we know. We should not be surprised. In his years as a real estate dealer and TV personality, Trump has been known to snooker a lot of people,(contractors, employees, vendors, etc.). We can now add to those victims the entire population of the United States of America. We have been snookered, big time!

Was it not generally understood, when the State financed the purchase of the UP rail line, that the rails would be used for public transit? Heaven knows we desperately need better public transit in this county. The “trail only” concept would be great for bicyclists and hikers, perhaps numbering in the dozens or even hundreds. But a conventional trolley, fed by neighborhood shuttle buses, would serve thousands: students, seniors, shoppers, workers, tourists, you name it. Not everyone can walk a long distance or ride a bicycle, but everyone does need public transportation.

It is a complete waste of time to continue to enumerate the many elements of the weirdness of Donald Trump. As historian Eric Foner puts it: “he is the logical extension of the way the Republican Party has been operating since Barry Goldwater. This is how the Republican Party has gotten votes for 50 years – Trump is just tearing off the mask.” And when the party leaders finally realized this, their epiphany miraculously changed “never trump” to “ever trump” without a blink of the eye.

Is it “America first”? Or is it something else? Should a slogan reflect your ambition, your goals, your reason for being? Judging by his actions so far, his executive orders and tweets, but most of all his choice of personnel to make up a government, none of these appear designed to make America “first” in anything. In fact his personnel choices appear to directly oppose Trump’s other slogan as well: “make America great again”. You don’t make America great by emasculating the guardians of her greatness.

Nina Schlobohm’s letter of May 16, 2017, was a commendable attempt to get Americans to allow Trump and his allies the leeway they need in their attempt to make America great again. Never mind that, except for World War II, America has never been greater; the country, that is, if not the pathetic government it suffers under. The problem is: neither Trump nor any of his allies, in or out of Congress has any idea what to do about any of America’s persistent maladies, such as: gross inequality, poverty, housing, education, healthcare, or infrastructure. (Note that border walls, immigrant bans, tax cuts for wealthy, etc. do not make America one iota better in any respect.) Ms.Schlobohm has the right idea: don’t get in the way of those trying to make things better. In the meantime, it is fascinating to watch a genuine con man tried to run a country as great as America.

Headline, page 1, May 20, 2017: “Dems open convention with eye on Trump”. This is exactly what the Democrats should NOT, repeat NOT, be focusing on. Trump is not the Democrats’ enemy. He is his own worst enemy, and will continue to dig himself in deeper and deeper, and needs no help from Democrats in doing so. Further, there is the entire media establishment plus every blogger in the world on constant alert for Trump’s latest gaffes. There is no way in the world the Democrats can match that news-gathering or opinion-generating machine, so they should not waste 10 seconds trying. What Democrats should recognize is that the true enemy of America, those doing the damage, is anyone, on any ballot, local or national, with an “R” by their name. The Republican Party, the GOP, has doing its damage to American small “D” democracy ever since Reagan convinced them that government, taxes, and regulations are “evil forces” to be blocked at every opportunity. So, every message put forth by Democrats from now on should be a recap of some Republican misdeed. Forget Trump. Keep your eye on the real enemy: Republicans!