LETTER FROM AMERICA
Requests! Oh, i get requests. Busy littles bees around the world make nuisances of themselves wanting some reliable field intelligence concerning happenings in the “States”. (By the way, nobody here calls this country “the States”. You will hear “America” or “The United States”….but never “the States”. There’s a whole boatload of historical rigmarole behind our usage which is important to us and sure to bore you so: let’s just take it as it is.) Back to field intelligence.
Europeans of all stripes are genuinely puzzled by the
phenomenon of Donald J. Trump in America.
They are not so much surprised he actually exists as that such a person
could be elected President. I myself have
a high degree of understanding for their point of view. Indeed, when the original seventeen
Republicans took to the first party debate to slug it out to win the party’s
nomination to run against Hilary Clinton for the Presidency (given the nature
of the Democrat Party and the Clinton’s complex history of wheelin’ and dealin’,
even at the beginning of the primary season, it was clear Hilary had her
party’s nomination in the bag), Trump was my seventeenth choice. It was widely assumed at the time Jeb Bush was
destined for the party’s nomination and the big concerns in conservative circles
was 1.) Was the continuation of the Bush “dynasty” desirable and 2.) should we do anything to stop it? Trump pretty much was off the radar at this
point.
He was on no one’s radar except…the people who live in the
heartland, mountains and plains of America.
A lot has been made of the fact
that for several years Trump had been the host of a popular television program watched
by millions. At first, the insinuation
was that these silly people were showing up in the primaries and voting for a TV
character. That was the analysis of a
LOT very intelligent people (both left and right) and a fair-sized minority
still hold a modified version of this line of thought.
The first set of primaries totally rearranged the field. One republican candidate after another saw
their champaigns stall and then fail. By
the time the Republican convention came, there was little real doubt Trump had
the nomination. The path was laid for
him to battle it out with Hilary Clinton.
Oh, yes! Clinton. Hilary Clinton. Remember her?
I contend one can’t understand the Trump phenomenon without her—yet many
write about 2016 as if Trump just sorta rose to the surface of the pickle
barrel. “One day we woke up and somehow
we got Trump as President.”
This comes as a shock
to some on both sides of the Atlantic, but Hillary is not popular with a large segment
of America. Rightly or wrongly, she is
perceived as a lying crook. Now being a
crook is bad enough but THE FEELING was that she simply didn't care or LIKE much
of America. She made disparaging
comments in the past about all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds
and lifestyles, how they cooked, hunted and read their Bibles. She also made direct appeals (threats) for
ending people's livelihoods such as coal mining or gas exploration. (Some realize these people have to make a
living somewhere. So where do they
go? “Well, silly, they go to the other side of
town and work at the windmill or solar power manufacturing plant.) Then there is an issue with what she would do
with the rights of those who got in her way—particularly religious rights. There is certainly the perception that, while
she may not directly threaten the religious liberties of many, if others in her
administration undermined religious liberties one way or another, she would not
stand in their way. Now, one of these two of these things may not mean
a lot in a lot of peoples’ estimation but taking altogether as a whole they
present an ugly picture for many in America to vote against.
Trump was representative of a much larger cultural problem. There is the widespread perception that our institutions
and the leadership of both parties were either incapable or unwilling to solve
the basic problems that faced America. For many years people have crossed the
southern border. Immigrants by the
thousands came and they took jobs the meant for the poor and created
neighborhood displacement. (For many
Americans, they are not upset all these brown-skinned, Spanish speaking people
are here so much as they have the fundamental notion that the law must be
followed.) The idea to build a wall
across great expanses of the South had been making the rounds for several
decades. But not one plank had been set place. The national debt has been building up
steadily since the Second World War but there seems to be no resolution on how
to solve the heavy borrowing. (In the
back of most Americans’ minds is the notion that at some point the bill will be
due and at that point America will have to pony up to the bar and pay. When that day comes, the average wage earner will
find a new deduction on their pay stub.
Yet, the wealthy will still have ways not available to the common wage
earner to shield their gains from the new tax exposure.) The health care system is accessible and
expensive with an insurance system that is hard understand-- one doesn't have
to believe in socialized medicine to think that some kind of reforms could have
been set in place. But it seemed that each
of these problems had been left unattended for reasons that were not apparent.
These are problems America faces with great deal of
frustration. The suspicion was that
they hadn’t been resolved because it was to some nameless, faceless but powerful
person’s benefit.
Of particular horror to many Americans was the thought that
small children were being trafficked across the borders from city to city for
the sexual pleasure of those who could pay.
It is well known that young girls are often raped on their trek to
America. Once here, some are sold to
drug gangs for a life of prostitution. Such
a business is in constant need of “new flesh” to attract its customer; so a
continuous supply of new girls is in “someone’s” interest. The gang itself does all the dirty work; but
a continuous supply of money flows up to those who write the laws and direct where
the public treasury will spend its money
The reason why Donald Trump was elected is not hard to discern. You
don't have to strain your eyes over the subject. And we
don’t have to entertain vague theories about this or that population. You don't even have to agree with the people who
voted for Trump. But one can understand
their point of view.
America has been racially and politically divided at least
since the 1960s. I say, at least… In truth, factionalism has always played a
huge role in our national intercourse. We
have simply forgotten a great deal of our old animosities amongst ourselves. Perhaps,
this forgetfulness has benefits all to itself we don’t readily recognize. If we can’t bring ourselves to forgive, maybe
forgetting is the balm that preserves the union of the nation.
It is said that for the
average person history began the day we were born. Indeed, for the majority of us, we really
take no interest in what came before us unless it has relevance to a problem we
are dealing with now. So, as our elderly
day by day pass away, real “lived” memories are lost; the unwritten page is
wiped clean of the faint ink which seeped through from the previous leaves. Thus, the story begins again afresh with
seemingly new dramas and passions we cannot imagine having been experienced
before—and a past more peaceful and refined than the present.
I myself was born in 1953—about in the middle of the infamous “baby boomer” generation. The 1950’s were ostensibly a peaceful time. Of course, now I know the 50’s wasn’t so irenic. It had problems and concerns all its own. But in terms of a little boomer, we took it as it came to us and we hated it. Except rock and roll was born. Somewhere around 1954, new expressions came out our radios. There is a lot to enjoy in our parents’ music—but even now it is exactly that: our parents’ music. Rock and roll had a polarizing influence between the generations. The effect was much the same wherever one went. Whether in Europe, the Americas, or the United Kingdom, differences in lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language were fairly consistent. Unfortunately, Elvis got on the train and Buddy Holly got on a plane and rock and roll dried up for a time.
The 1960’s started off with Kennedy
defeating Nixon only to have Kennedy botch an invasion of Cuba. Two
years later, the whole world shook as Kennedy and Khrushchev drug all of us mere inches away from
nuclear war. A year later, President Kennedy
is killed by a left wing extremist on the streets of Dallas. (This was an event whose ripples and
aftereffects we still can’t account for.
A great deal of wrath was unleashed that day. The unthinkable became possible and the
possible became acceptable.) What followed was a decade of unsettling demonstrations
and violent riots. Martin Luther King is
killed. Then mere weeks later, Robert
Kennedy is assassinated[1]. Even
here in the heart of America there were serious questions even then whether democracy
could survive. The fact that we have
survived might give us some pause--but the fact that we cannot seem to address essential
questions of citizenship, health care and then the national debt does not bode
well.
I was born in the 1950s. In the late 1980’s, I had buried my
grandparents and my father. Driving home
from my grandmother’s funeral, my mind wandered around assorted memories involving
each of them. Abruptly. I grasped that the places my memories revolved
around also were no longer on the map. It was then I knew that the country I was born
in was gone. It was then I understood how my parents and
grandparents felt when us “boomers” started
to rearranged the world to our satisfaction.
We were so hard on them. We were
so certain that the world wouldn’t have been in the mess it was in if they were
only more like…us.
Well. We got our way and slowly the ways of the world
and the levers of power were passed to our hands—and what do we have to show
for it? The world is not a safer place. In many ways, it is not a cleaner place. Wars continue to rage in every corner of the
globe. The
living conditions of our poor may be better than in most places of the planet;
but they are by several measures worse than they were fifty years ago. I can only imagine what our children, our grandchildren,
and our great grandchildren will make of us will make of us in the successive
decades to come.
Trump’s successful 2016 election surprised a great many
of us; but even for those of us who weren’t exactly wild about him took pleasure
with the cries of grief and gnashing of teeth which arose from the denizens of
the left. That pleasure turned into
contempt as those cries and grinding teeth continued and grew louder with each
passing week. The bizarre dream of
subjecting Trump to an impeachment trial over purported conspirings with Russia
was perceived as a vicious insult by the right.
The idea that someone on the right would sell out his country begged all
reason yet even to this day many on the left regard it as proven gospel that
only fools would deny in spite of the lack of objective evidence.
Months would go by and the divisions across American
society intensified. Families became embattled open grounds which often
times resulted in depleted or cancelled Thanksgiving and Christmas feast gatherings. Politics became a forbidden topic at work. A stranger might choose to pick an argument
with you over a political sticker on your car.
Members of the Trump administration would be spitefully harassed by
leftist mobs walking to their car or while taking their family out to eat. One would have thought this would have abated
somewhat with Trump’s 2020 defeat; but Bidden seemed to have loosed a few demons
himself.
The thought that burrows beneath the skin of the left
that the right does not appreciate is that in spite of it all: Trump almost won. Indeed.
Had the Democrats committed acts of gross voter fraud? Oh, yes.
Enough to make a difference? On
this part, I remain an agnostic. I simply don’t have all the evidence before me
to make a fair pronouncement. So, for
the sake of the Union, I accept the determination of Electoral College.
And the Electoral College says Joe Biden won. For a conservative such as myself: bummer!
Also for a conservative such as myself: relief. I don’t have to “deal with” everything which
proceeds from the mouth of Trump. Indeed,
for so many of us on the right, if we just rode on the results of Trump
policies instead of the majesties of his personhood, our country would be
better for it.
At this remove, America is so much the worst after one
year of Biden. Gas casts more. Food costs more. Homes cost more. Inflation is high. China threatens Taiwan. Now, Russia has invaded Ukraine. This is not at all the calm, boring Biden who
campaigned from the basement of his house.
Most Americans of most political strip don’t like
thinking ill of the man that sits in the White House. Some may be more foolish than most; but none
serve without some deep love of the same country we share. how
some come out so much wealthier does make one wonder; nevertheless, at some
point, all eventually rise above politics—beyond Democrat and Republican—to a
place of pure Americanism. The process may
take a while. One thinks of the rancor
and resentment that followed Ronold Reagan as he flew back home to California
after George Bush won office. Then one thinks
of Bill Clinton speaking so well of Reagan at his funeral—twelve years after Reagan
walked out of the Oval Office.
Neither do we really want to think ill of Biden—even after
all the bone headed moves he’s made. But
no one else made those choices. In the
first year of Biden, we are no longer the world’s largest energy producer. Inflation is no longer a theoretical concern. Afghanistan is lost in humiliation. Ukraine
seems doomed. Taiwan by inclination may
fall as well. The world is a less
peaceful, stable place.
[1] In August of 1968, John Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi
Party was also killed. He is not
remembered nearly as well as the two Kennedys and King for obvious
reasons. When Dion sings of Abraham,
Martin and John, the “John” he refers to is definitely not John Lincoln
Rockwell. Nonetheless, the cycle of
violence was hitting out in all directions.
