Has anyone else felt like they’ve been hit by a truck?
From the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump to the end of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, political upheaval continues.
Photographer and fellow geek Nicholas McPherson pretty much summed it all up in Threads Sunday .
“As a Canadian and long-time watcher of the American reality show The Election, I have to say this season really raised the bar. Kudos to the writers and cast. The idea of last-minute cast changes, great storytelling, truly captivating.”
“*Someone whispers in your ear*
“…What do you mean it’s true!?!?!?!”
While I wasn’t even born in 1968, the last year that a sitting president withdrew from a reelection campaign, and so have nothing to compare this to in terms of its seismic significance in my lifetime, January 6, 2021 might be one useful reference point, at least in the sense that it all seems completely surreal.
According to The Hill’s Brett Samuels, Trump posted 10 times to Truth Social between the time Biden withdrew and Monday morning, with one post declaring, “The Democrats picked Bad Joe Biden as their candidate, he lost miserably in the debates, they panicked and made mistakes, they were told he couldn’t win, and they decided to pick another candidate, presumably Harris. They stole the race after Biden won the primary. This is a first! These people are the real threat to democracy!”
In another post, she wrote, “Today is a new day. Joe Biden won’t remember dropping out of the race yesterday! He’s calling for a campaign schedule and arranging meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin about the possibility of starting World War III. Biden is ‘sharp, determined, energetic, angry and ready!'” She added, “Who’s running our country now? Not Crooked Joe. He doesn’t know where he is. If you can’t run for office you can’t run our country!!!”
Well, at least he hasn’t forgotten how to ridicule Biden, or anyone else with whom he disagrees. Can we ever get past this kind of rhetoric (and the overuse of exclamation points and capital letters)? Of course we can’t, and something much worse is sure to come.
Regardless of who you want for president, you’ve probably noticed that political rhetoric has gone too far. Or maybe you haven’t. Maybe the toxic rhetoric has drawn you in. If so, I suggest you reexamine your priorities.
I hope that what we all want most is to see government function as it should: a Congress fulfilling its law-making role (rather than focusing on hyper-partisan interests), a Supreme Court interpreting the law in accordance with the Constitution and precedents (rather than pushing partisan lines that don’t line up with its own decisions), and a President focusing on his constitutional executive functions.
There are some things that only government can do on the scale necessary, like addressing our infrastructure problems. That’s why we need government. We definitely don’t need hyper-partisan politics to survive as a country.
Let’s take a moment to think about where we are. Is what we’re doing now even remotely close to what the Founding Fathers, especially George Washington, envisioned for us? Some of the Founding Fathers were (ahem) pretty unrestrained in their rhetoric (Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, for example), but they still understood the wisdom of working for a cause. That seems to have been lost in the madness of the last decade or so. Now, political vilification, division, and worse, often prevent our government from doing its job, and our people suffer.
If we’re going to 250, maybe we should think about that and strive to be better and better. We can remove most of the toxicity from politics and learn to work together again. Then maybe every political news story won’t feel like we’ve been hit by a truck.
For me, there was another shocking piece of news this past weekend: my sister-in-law, Karen, died of a heart attack Saturday morning. Karen was a powerful figure in Republican politics in her county in Oklahoma, and was well-loved and had no patience for fools.
After Mom passed away in 2019, she essentially became our matriarch and our rock. She was always there to keep an eye on our oldest son, Mitch, to try to keep our little brother Kevin (her husband) in line (not easy), and to make sure our son, Dalton, was well taken care of. She was always a real big sister to me, in words and actions. When I lost my car keys to Dalton’s wedding, she came and found a locksmith friend for me and helped me out. When Corey passed away, she was there for all of us, making sure we were OK. Basically, whenever any of us needed to cry or help, she was there.
I’m managing for now by keeping busy with work, but I’d be lying if I said it’s not a struggle.
I love you, sis. I miss you already. Get some rest now.
Assistant Editor Brenda Looper is the Voices page editor. She can be reached at blooper@adgnewsroom.com and her blog can be found at blooper0223.wordpress.com.
