Where Have I Been?

It has been a while, but I am still alive, in case anyone was wondering.  I appreciate your patience.

In early March, I had heart surgery (I will post the write up for that later) and anticipated using the required healing time to blog voluminously as well as work on my forever-forthcoming second book.  None of that happened, as I instead used a lot of my healing time sitting in a chair staring at the wall.  Even at 51 and in decent shape, heart surgery takes a lot out of you.  I was spared the “hey, let’s break his sternum,” approach, but still, lots of discomfort and healing involved.  Thankfully, also lots of drugs involved, but the end result of all of that was that I did almost no writing (or anything else, actually) for a long time.

As I picked up the proverbial pen (not sure anyone actually does that anymore), I was going to write about the continuing farce that is our political system.  I thought it would be best to wait until after the debate to see what fodder that provided.  But then we had the assassination attempt, so I decided to wait a little longer, and then of course our current president dropped out of the race, so then I couldn’t even decide on which aspect of this comedic tragedy I should write about.

Before I go on, for those that don’t know me, a brief introduction.  I’m a proud graduate of the US Naval Academy (’94 sir!), and after graduation spent twenty years in the military, which is VERY Republican.  After that, I have spent eleven years (and counting) in education, which is VERY Democrat.  So I have been on both sides of the story.  I am fairly conservative in most things.  Mom and Dad did a decent job of raising me with a sense of right and wrong, and I’ve always had a fairly strong concept of personal integrity and honor in myself and in others.  I know I’m far from perfect, and my wife, daughter, and mother-in-law appreciate reminding me, but I at least try to do the right thing most of the time.  I now spend my days teaching high school, where I use my Junior ROTC class to teach discipline, integrity, accountability, and a little bit of close order drill. 

With that sort of background, you can imagine there is lots about our former president, who is going  to be our future president, that upsets me.

Fact Check!

First, some facts.  And these seem to be real facts, not made-up facts.

First fact…the definition of fact:  a thing that is known or proved to be true. 

Second fact…according to the first fact, “Trump lost the 2020 election” is indeed a fact.  He didn’t win the popular vote, he didn’t win the electoral vote, and despite 60+ lawsuits, countless investigations, etc. etc. no legal evidence was found to suggest that the election was corrupted in any meaningful way, and certainly not enough to change the outcome.  The “Krakken” of lawsuits, the “undisputable proof” of the Pillow King, Rudy Giuliani’s hair-melting assurances to the contrary…none of it panned out.  It was proven, and affirmed, sometimes by judges Trump appointed, that Biden won and therefore Trump lost.  Yes, some people claim it was a conspiracy by the Democrats to steal the election.  As I have said before, that is giving the Democratic party too much credit.  They, as a group, could not plan and execute stealing a ’99 Volkswagon with the keys in the ignition at midnight on a dark streetcorner.  They are every bit incapable of unified action as either the Republicans or the Legislative branch in general.  No conspiracy, no corruption…Trump just lost, and was a VERY sore loser, and I can’t respect that.

Third fact…Trump says dumb sh#t.  A lot.  Trump says things so dumb that if he was your neighbor, you would probably stop talking to him.    And yet for some reason he gets a pass.  It’s not just in interviews or at rallies; it is during debates too. I don’t fact check during the debate, as that would interrupt the entertainment; I wait until the next morning and read the fact checks by others.  I stick to NPR or CNN, or maybe BBC.  New York Times can be good as well.  After the one Harris Trump debate, an article on CNN.com debunked 30 different Trump statements (and a much smaller number for Harris).  Some of those were open to interpretation, and some were just blatantly false.  BBC, which has no reason to be on either side, fact checked both of Trump’s debate performances, and concluded that both participants said things that were false, but Trump’s were more numerous and more “less true” (geez, I’m even confusing myself).  I’m not friends with people that say dumb sh#t and can’t back it up, so I don’t want one running my country.

So, having established the facts above, I don’t like Trump.  I see him as a dishonest liar who likes to stir the pot and will do anything to attract the camera.  Just like 94% of our politicians seem to be. 

But for me, there’s one more thing.

It’s not his brash exterior, and it’s not even his bad hair (I should talk).  What gets me, what I can’t look past, is his constant and ever continuing push to avoid accountability. 

It’s evident in his business practices, it was evident in his first term (very notably at the end), and it’s evident in the time since.

Bad and…Badder?

Of course, if it was just the case of voting for the better person, this would have been easy, but it was not.  God bless the Democratic party, because they certainly put up a candidate with policies that everyone could get behind…oh wait…this is NON-fiction.

The Democratic party had no good plan on how to win the upcoming election.  Vice President Harris was a step up, I think, but she was in there more as a hired free agent than as someone who was groomed to take the reins.  The Democrats basically spent the last two years betting that Trump would be held accountable so they wouldn’t have to worry about him in the election.  Bad plan and epic fail.

So, now that the election is over, I’m a bit disappointed.  Not because Republicans won and Democrats lost.  What really bothered me on a personal level was that since my military retirement I have spent a lot of hours teaching young people to be responsible, honest, and accountable, only to watch most of the country rally behind and eventually re-elect a man who demonstrates none of those things.

Finding a Smile

However, on the bright side, I’m also a bit amused.  Here are some observations that made me scratch my head, or in some cases chuckle just a bit.  Feel free to research all of these; fact-check them if you must.  You will find them more on the mark than many of the sound bites put out by the president-elect during his campaign.

Trump, a man who has never had to hold a blue-collar job and has repeatedly remarked how he tried very hard not to pay overtime, somehow appealed to working class voters.

Harris was blamed because she “didn’t do anything” while she was in office.  This argument makes no sense to anyone familiar with the role of Vice President.  The Vice President has two main jobs; President of the Senate (tiebreaker) which comes up not very often, and to take over if the President becomes temporarily or permanently incapacitated (also, thankfully, not very often).  Basically, he or she is on the bench most of the time.  How many people would blame the back up quarterback for losing the big game when the starting QB took all the snaps? 

Consumers who cheered tariffs are now shocked to find that the cost of their sneakers is going to go up.

Latino businessmen who voted for Trump because of the economy are now finding out that their undocumented family members may be eligible to be deported.

Trump was apparently “very concerned” that the election was being stolen again, and that it was rife with fraud.  Until he won.  Funny that he hasn’t mentioned it since.

Writing on the Wall

I think there might be a fair amount of Trump fans who might feel some buyer’s remorse in the coming years. I hate to be all doom and gloom, but on a more serious note there are some warning signs that I think were overlooked in the run-up to the election and immediately after (fact check these, too).

First, in the run-up to King Donald’s return, many high-ranking generals came out and said that his being re-elected would not be in the best interest of the country (paraphrased mildly).  You have to be familiar with the military and senior officers (I am) to know that this is about as common as a snowball in Florida.  It just doesn’t happen very often.  While on active duty and even in retirement, the unwritten rule is that flag officers remain apolitical.  When they break that silence, and en masse , they don’t take it lightly, and neither should we. 

After the election, several black voters and even young black children received extremely racist texts regarding cotton picking.  Ask yourself why the senders would feel empowered to do that.

Also after the election, a white nationalist posted “your body, my choice,” which is now being used by far-right men to taunt women.  Go say that to a woman you currently get along with and see how that goes. 

The states that spend the most on education were more likely to vote blue.  Ask yourself why that is.

Now What?

Several people were trying to cheer me up at various times this week, and one thing they suggested I do was “pray.”

No thanks.  I prayed every night for the past four years, before the election.  Look what that got me.  And don’t tell me to have faith, and it was God’s plan, because that means it was God’s plan that a narcissistic misogynist got voted back in to office.  That seems iffy.  So no more prayers from me on the subject.

Instead, I will teach. 

I will teach young adults to be educated voters, which is the only thing career politicians are probably scared of.  I will teach them to do their political homework; to ask questions.  To read the material.  To know the issues; to look at both sides.

My own personal voting routine is that I read through the bipartisan material put out by the government.  It’s the one that lists the candidate statements, the pros and cons of each ballot measure, who endorses what, etc. etc.  Every registered voter or registered household gets something similar, usually one from the state and one from the county. Everything from the federal level down to the local level is covered.  I don’t only read it, I make notes.  I talk about it.  I do my own thinking, and my own research, and come to my own conclusion.  Then I vote my conscience.

It takes hours.

Many supporters on both sides did something similar, and I applaud them.  If somebody spent the time and read the material and did the homework and decided to write-in Bugs Bunny because they felt he was the best choice, I won’t argue.

But a lot of people didn’t do that.  A lot of people were “one plank” voters.  Whether it be immigration or the economy or abortion, they looked at one issue and used that issue to decide who they wanted to vote for.  Or worse, they didn’t even do that, and just voted based on a gut feeling or something they “heard.”

Personally, when all the “newness” of the incoming administration wears off, I think we are in for a rough patch. I’m a bald white middle class male; I might feel a little pinch, but I’ll probably be fine.  But some of the rest of us might not be, and that seems pretty unfair in a country that at least used to be something more.  I hope I’m wrong, but if I’m even just a little bit right, we brought it on ourselves.