“Do you want to go to a lavender farm?” my wife asked. My honest answer was, “Absolutely not. Why would I have to do that?”
But we were in northern Michigan with only a few hours to kill before the weekend wedding celebrations began. I often make mistakes, but my wife has a superpower: she finds out where we’re going and what to do when we’re there. So her suggestion is an approval, practically a command. So, of course, let’s go. If I hadn’t followed her instructions, I’d still be a single guy living in a studio apartment in Oak Park, and I wouldn’t be the father of a groom.
“Of course,” I replied, and soon we were marveling at the purple wonderland of Lavender Hill Farm.
This is truly a beautiful country, with countryside that is as captivating as our national parks, coastal waters, or the incredible skylines of cities like Chicago, and you’re reminded of that wherever you drive.
I know. The Democratic Party must be writhing in agony right now, as it hurtles toward a cliff, Joe Biden gripping the wheel tight, Donald Trump escaping death (either through the direct intervention of the Lord God Almighty, as he puts it, or through the same perpetual good fortune that came with being born into a real estate mogul in 1946), and disaster is near.
But honestly, I don’t feel that way. Neither president will last long, so I’ve already forgotten about them and turned to their representatives. Biden’s greatest achievements so far have been repairing America’s crumbling infrastructure (bridges and roads like the ones we used to glide across) and mobilizing Europe to help Ukraine. Moreover, he claims to be full of energy, but he is polite and sincere.
Trump represents an America that not only lashes out in the face of dictators, but also imitates them. For that matter, are you enjoying the Republican National Convention? I didn’t watch a second of it. News reports are passing off completely stupid policy concepts, like signs saying “Mass Deportations Now!” I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but businesses can’t staff up in the current situation. If the US actually went through with their proposal, deporting millions of immigrants who were not allowed to legalize would not only be a huge human rights issue, but it would destroy the economy.
So are the tariffs Trump likes, whether they are imposed by Trump or by JD Vance. Chicago should be especially sensitive to this. Remember the candy company? Remember Black’s, the 24 hour business on the West Side? That company was wiped out by the stupid sugar tariff that supported Louisiana beet farms. It’s estimated that for every sugar job saved, three candy company jobs were eliminated.
But that’s not all. One of the reasons Christian fundamentalists support Trump, who married three times, flirted with porn stars, and continues to lie is because he appointed the Supreme Court justice who voted to overturn Roe, leaving us with a patchwork of state regulations and prohibitions that may grow into a national ban. Reproductive choice has already been taken from a third of the women in the country, and is on the way to being taken from the other two-thirds. The idiot they just appointed as vice president wants the government to register women’s menstrual cycles so they can know if they’ve had an abortion. Call me a pee-wee liberal if you want, but that seems like a bigger infringement on civil liberties than banning .50 caliber bullets. I don’t want to live in a country like that. What do you think?
So why am I optimistic? Forget about personalities. Forget even about Joe Biden, who trembles like the last leaf on a tree in the November gales. In short, people generally do not want to be slaves. Americans in particular, because we have a tradition of freedom. After the collapse of the USSR, democracy flared up in Russia, then died out, because Russians are used to being serfs and are unhappy with making their own decisions.
Many Americans have a disastrous love for telling others what to do, but also a tendency to chafe at being told what to do. That will become clear — hopefully by November, but certainly after that. Every time the question of whether to take away abortion rights has been on the ballot, the vote has failed and will continue to fail. Tough moral choices are not made easier by having a sharp-eyed pastor make them for you.
The fever will subside. America is a blessed, beautiful, prosperous country, and the only enemy that can destroy us is ourselves. I cannot believe we could plunge our country into a totalitarian nightmare so that we no longer have to hear Spanish at Walmart. Fear addicts who create constant panic, constant shadows for us to cower in, will not win. That future is not possible. I cannot believe it.
