All of us Deplorables

Coming out of Left Field      10^th day of November, 2016      1255 words

Are you happy now, America ? Well, a fraction less than half of us, should be.

All of you deplorables and I might add knuckle-draggers who are in a state of stunned jubilation should be. 

 And I want to thank you for your steadfast vision; a vision of America united by common values, strong, independent, fair-minded and closer to the original vision of our founding fathers, as well as Betsy Ross. That vision needs to be re-defined and agreed on by more than just half of us, for it is not totally shared by all at this point. But I am willing to work and I am commanded as an American to embrace our new President, President Elect Donald Trump.

I have maintained for at least ten years that an America divided was putting us in great jeopardy in light of everything going on in the world. I still feel that way for I am a son of liberty and I love the good and great things about the land I grew up in. But I am also well aware of how deep the divisions are which divide us.

Right now I would like to write a letter to Mr. Trump, “the Donald”, the “Trumpster”, a man who came out of left field himself, who we will address in the very near future as Mr. President. But I think he will be mightily busy and there is no reason why he would want or need to read anything which this old hippie could dream up. That is, unless he really means what he said in his acceptance speech about uniting all Americans and helping us to reach again for 'greatness'.

For if he can do this, he will do what all of us should want: an American Nation again joined by a sense of mission for our unique role in the world based on our heritage and our history. As I have referenced before in previous writings, there are many things which I miss about the America I grew up in. But there are also many things which we should all be willing to leave in the past as we go forward together.

There have been many battles which we have fought for social justice which we should continue to embrace if we would be truly united. There has also been the dark under-current of differences in many areas, such as how we acknowledge God, for we are a nation founded on a belief in the absolute divinity of God, as I have also referenced in all of my writings over the last ten years. 

Defending the rights of atheists to have no belief in a deity, no belief in anything supernatural about the world, would seem to have our founding fathers rolling in their graves, as it would seem to be contrary to the spirit of the whole founding of these United States, but separation of church and state, and freedom to worship the religion or the beliefs of your choice should still be one of our most cherished principles. 

For the one thing which has always made America great is that we believe nothing should come between each individual and their religious preferences. And for followers of faith traditions, our claim to greatness flows from the Creator.   And this abstract concept has served us well, for the most part, and also kept us a free people. And I think the primacy of a belief in religious toleration is essential to our continued success.

When we forget the right of an individual to find their own way to God or their own way to a sense of what is holy or even their own way to disbelieve religion, we violate one of the fundamental pillars of what has made us so unique in the world.    For we are a safe harbor for all and function best when we allow all varieties of belief to flourish. 

By the same token, it is the private business of each person to chose their sexual preference and to keep it private and not wear it on their sleeve, as it were. We may not like it, but isn't it something that should be private and between two willing partners and their God if they have one. I do not need to know a person's religion or sexual preference to buy a car from them and I would thank them to keep it their private business. Consenting adults should be free to choose these things.

Also, it would be disingenuous to say these have not been contentious issues. Those who embrace 'family values' may not agree with same-sex marriages. But I think we would be better served if we let those waters seek their own levels. All things seek their proper place. If a person wants to be gay or believe in No God, I do not have a say in their choice, as long as they are fine if I chose to profess a belief in a Creator or want only one heterosexual partner. To each his own. As long as I do not seek to impose my beliefs on you and you do not seek to impose your beliefs on me, I say live and let live.    Life is too short.  And we have wasted too much time already arguing about it.

What matters is how we live and how we treat each other. If we maintain a tradition of civility and respect, we are much further along the path to a functional society.

If we become intolerant of all our differences, and fail to be civil to each other, and to give each other respect, we have already lost what makes us great.

There are many other issues, but everything rests on what I have already mentioned. I I think it is the job of the American people to start to learn to talk to each other again, for every person has a contribution to make. We succeed only to the extent that we keep in mind we are joined in a great enterprise and a great experiment, the unique experience of whether, as Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address:

 “testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. “

Isn't that the bottom line ? Whether the great American experiment can and will continue depends on our willingness to engage each other and deal fairly with each other and finally to work together. There is no place like home and there is no other place on God's Green Earth like the United States of America. I hope President Elect Trump feels the same way and he will foster an open dialogue and encourage all of us to talk to each other again. 

For I am just as deplorable as the most rabid supporters of Mr. Trump, and those of us deplorables on the liberal side, need to hear what has been said to us by those who have spoken up and voted for Mr. Trump. 

 And I am willing, America, to have a real conversation as long as we start using the same English language again and use our words to describe what is in our hearts, without the invective and arguments ad hominem and ad naseum. As one good Republican said, “if you give me respect, I will give you respect.” And I think that is a good starting point and a good bargain for all.

Newspaper, 'Arizona Republic', receives threats after endorsing Clinton

The  evidence is stacking up and people are making hard choices.  But there is no room in America for people making threats, personal threats, against individuals working for a newspaper which choses to endorse Trump's rival.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/nation-now/2016/10/16/arizona-republic-threats-endorsement-freedom-press-column/92201422/

And there is really no basis for making threats against the paper itself. 

As Voltaire said,
 "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

 Not only does making threats run counter to what America is about, but it is also just plain cowardly.   It is not worthy of a real man, at least the concept of a real man that I grew up with.

If that is the type of supporter Donald Trump has inspired, I would have to call into question the example Mr. Trump is setting.   If that is what America has descended to, then maybe all of the real Americans who are supporting Mr. Trump should ask themselves what road they are trying to take America down?

LONGING FOR THE AMERICA I KNEW GROWING UP

       As I have referenced before, I am just a clueless leftie, but I am one of many Americans who regard the path America has been on in the last several decades to be not entirely positive.  That may be the understatement of the century.

       And I long for the America I grew up in.   When we had a large and stable middle class and when a man's word was his bond.   We seemed to have moved quite beyond that now.   People generally do not reference the "Good Book", the Bible as the main source of truth and morality.   More's the pity.

      But we have to recognize the changes.  Pandora's box has been opened and it will take some effort to realign with fundamental values.   Sorry to say, we cannot wave a magic wand and simply return to our 'Andy of Mayberry" days.
But even if that was a Hollywood notion of America, there was quite a bit of goodness and plain American decency and even virtue modeled on the show as well as a lot of great music.  And even if Andy Griffith was a real person and portrayed a vision of America that we loved, nothing is static in the world.   We have to create the reality we want day by day and moment by moment.  There is always a choice to be made.

     The world is in a state of total confusion right now.   Some of us use the WWII expression to describe it- fubar - fowled up beyond all recognition.   I do not think I would get much argument about that now from most reasonable people,
on the right or on the left.   We all sense that the train has somehow gone off the tracks and it is hard to know how that happened and who is to blame.

     I think I see some of the things that went wrong, but I do not think it gets us very far to cast blame.

     We let our manufacturing sector abandon the US for one thing.  That decision was made in corporate boardrooms and in the halls of government.
     We let the courts mandate laws that contradicted the spirit of our founding fathers.  Defending the rights of atheists to worship nothing was not something that our founding fathers imagined.
     We have been blind-sided by a technological revolution that has enabled many wonderful things, like being able to share information widely, but has opened the door to many more forms of deception and subterfuge. 
     I could go on but the point is our Nation has lost focus.  Many have forgotten our heritage and the original intent of our founding fathers and what I think is the worst thing, many have forgotten to keep God in the equation.   For without God and a sense of reverence for Life, a positive vision of America is not possible. 

    And the most critical thing is:  a house divided against itself cannot stand. 
    And for that reason, I think we had all better start to see the ways we can work together and to realize there are very real dangers that we must address.
And if we refuse to talk to each other and to reason with each other, we are a lot weaker than if we establish a dialogue and are willing to listen to each others' concerns.   This leftie still loves America and sees it's greatness and I do not want to see us throw the baby out with the bath water.

I am a deplorable but I am also a decent human being. Several positive reasons to consider Donald Trump

    The real truth is that all of us, everyone is a deplorable.  We are nothing.
Without God, we are only a brief flash in the pan in the panorama of life.

    Only God and our faith in something greater than ourselves, a faith in God's spirit in all life, a faith that all of us are joined in a holy mission, and that there is something sacred about the life we share here on Mother Earth, this third rock from the Sun, is what makes us something special.  When we forget about God, we have lost our connection to what makes us Great. 

    Somehow I think the people who support Donald Trump know that.  I am not a bedrock believer in the Trump 'brand'.  I have come late to the party.  I am not totally sold that Trump is my only option, but I told you from the beginning I am a leftie.  But I am trying to be honest and I am trying to give Mr. Trump the full benefit of an honest hearing. I do not think he deserves less.
  
 I think he possesses several qualities we may need.

  1.  For one thing, he likes to win.  I like that.  Maybe we need that.  In addition,
he is a shrewd negotiator.  We also need that.

  2.   For another thing, I think he has shown he is capable of changing his spirit.
And he is intelligent enough to know he needs to get in touch with his spirit.

  I was a lost spirit myself and only came to see God very, very late in life.  So I understand very well the power of redemption.  And perhaps Mr. Trump has allowed his spirit to be touched by all the conversations he has had with people across this nation.  Good American people, people of belief and faith, people who are honorable, people who still believe in the common virtues, and who believe in avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins.   We could use a lot more people who are honorable because our civilization has become confused about what life is about.

   3.   Mr. Trump has shown a great discipline and focus in his pursuit of the Presidency.  It is probably true we need a model of discipline and focus.  We
need a champion to carry a torch, but I am not looking for a messiah.

   4.    Mr. Trump needs to follow through with a few specifics.   I understand that everything is a work in progress.  And we need to be flexible in how we deal with evolving situations, but we need to have some specific plans on how we get from point A to point B.  

   5.    He has dealt on the same level with those who regard themselves as the 
'elite'.   He himself thinks he is one of the elite.   That can cut both ways;  if he realizes that being part of the elite does not exempt him from being also one of the deplorables, like the rest of us, he can bring a greater understanding of how the elite think.  Perhaps he can retain a sense of being humble and bring that to the table and that could be a great asset.   On the other hand, if he becomes deluded with his own sense of power and importance and forgets that he is ultimately just a deplorable like ALL the rest of us, that would not be so good.

  6.    Mr. Trump seems to be able to recognize people who possess talent and intelligence  and to surround himself with high quality individuals.   That is a very valuable trait and takes a certain measure of modesty.   But if he can do that, then his chances of having a successful Presidency increase significantly.

  7.     I am also hoping the fact that Donald Trump is essentially a family man may come into play.   Give me a good family man everytime.   A man with a family implies a man who has some sense of responsibility to the future and some sense of the role he plays as a parent is similar to the role of the Creator in caring for His children.


    So for all of the above reasons, all more or less positives, I am willing to consider the possibility that Donald Trump may be the person America needs at this very special time in history.  I will have to decide by election day if those reasons are enough to give him this leftie's vote.  

WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER ?

    It seems that  two different sets of filters are being used to judge the candidates.
I think that says a lot about how muddied some people's values have become.  It is obvious that there is bias in the media.  Not to admit there is a high degree of subjectivity in the media coverage is to fool ourselves.

  And I think it is hypocritical to judge Mr. Trump on the basis of comments surreptitiously recorded eleven years ago as if no man ever demonstrated some degree of brain-dead and clueless behavior regarding women. Most have said worst things.
  We need to agree on a common set of standards that apply to both candidates.
  We have a problem in America deciding how men are permitted to relate to women and how to deal with our sexuality.  We do not deal honestly with these issues.   We do not accept the fact that we are sexual beings.  God gave us this awesome power to share with our marriage partners. It is part of the foundation of a great marriage. 
  We have gone through a tumultuous period in the last two or three decades of re-defining the role models that are expected of men and women.  None of us are perfect.  Until proven otherwise, I say Mr. Trump's remarks were the result of a somewhat immature appreciation of God's true purpose in giving human beings this awesome power to share with their mate.

   Even now there are massage parlors all over the US which are frequented by someone or they would not be in business.  Why do we have these places if everyone has such a healthy concept of a healthy sex life between men and women?   Until we put all the cards on the table, we will not be dealing honestly with these issues.

     Madame Clinton is no paragon of virtue either.  She has just been able to brush a lot of things under the carpet.  For some reason we do not question the highly irregular nature of her relationship to her husband.  We do not usually inquire about the private sexual lives of our leaders.   We believe it should not be germane to the issue of who will be the commander-in-chief.  Most of us regard it as the most intimate and personal part of marriage relationship.   Probably as the song, "I'm just an Okie from Mistokie", says "we don't make a party out of lovin'.

     But I just wonder if  we have the right to judge Mr. Trump by one set of elevated standards, and by insinuation, condemn him, but we do not question why or how Mrs. Clinton has maintained a marriage in which the husband has obviously sought out a multitude of partners.   Possibly that is all his problem, but something does not seem right about a marriage in name only.  Is Mrs. Clinton's example of a healthy marriage the one which should be emulated or Mr. Trump's monogamy?

Politics is as brutal as MMA

     
     American rough and tumble politics is as brutal as MMA, and we like it that way.

   In the name of American fairness, and in the name of full disclosure, I would suggest we give the candidate, Mr. Trump, a fair hearing, without  deprecating remarks, and efforts to denigrate his intentions, and ad hominem attacks.
      Considering what I have learned quite recently about Russian efforts to brainwash the world into thinking they are the new 'good' guys, and their recent deployments of websites, media outlets, and pseudo 'news' bureaus in several cities across the world and even inside of the USA, I suggest we look clearly at all the facts before we dismiss a candidate out of hand.  
     If we do not come together as a country very soon, no matter who wins the current election, we may not have a country.
     And there is always the possibility that the horse many Americans bet on and thought would make it across the finish line, may not be the one who can best lead us.