An exhausted America waits. Who are we to be? I've got a hunch.
It seems a galaxy away now, but there was a time when I could not wait for the next campaign season. I was young and thought politics was America's greatest spectator sport. We've all changed.
Sure, I've gotten older, but the game has gotten rotten. Money will do that. Electoral politics now belongs to the election industry including their bunk mates from media. Big time media was a sophisticated call girl. Social media is an alleyway, dirty-leg influencer. It's that same little screen in the hand with its random, fractured, non-aggregated, stream of untethered, untested reality that defines information flow and one on one targeted messaging. It's madness, it makes no sense and that's how voters these days are being informed. It's the old folks who watch what's left of broadcast news and it seems intent on only predicting who's going to win. America was greater when there were lines of newspaper boxes on corners.
It's not just that. The quality of politician today is to public service what a bad virus is to your long planned bucket list trip.
There are so few with a sense of honor, integrity or who seek to serve. Most, the vast majority, are on the make. The republican party has become a morality tale of what happens when you let a dominatrix smother your conscience and then make you a whipping boy or girl. They have become a beaten, locked step marching army of nasties being manipulated by a convicted fraudster. They are a mob of big time wrestling style evangelicals who are huffing man-tan and hair spray and who believe Col Flynn is the new Moses.
So who's got the game? Who are the real influencers? Who's going to make it count?
On this side, people who think. Those who reason.
Over there the fantasy land, where lies live and no one has to think. Just be angry, aggrieved, bigoted, or trying to settle a score for the rotten deal.
I've thought the key, in battle ground and swing states and from sea to shining sea are women. They have been the most offended, and are the people with the most to lose by what used to be Donald Trump and what is now his unholy carnival freak show. Republicans are dangerous it is true, not only because they are spineless, have grown fond of the whippings, have no integrity, they additionally have no respect for America and not enough sense to understand the role of a world stabilizer. They are a bat shit cult and especially out to make women's lives awful.
On this side are Americans, who believe in the American way. Even with its faults there is nothing comparable. Rather than revenge, and turning troops on people, and making enemy lists, they want to make it work.
How it ever got to this point should keep you all awake at night, until you get blinded by the light.
I think I'm losing grip on reality. It's like we are living in a dark Marvel studios film where the spoiled little lard grows up to become the king of the evil high rise and continues to build his power until he takes over the government and eventually unleashes armageddon. Oh the man-tan and hair spray holy huffers love that.
All things pass, but before America dies, I'm counting on that innate wisdom of woman, that special blend of God, life, nurture, and love.
Women suffered to even gain a vote in the game. My late mother worked in state government and was active in politics in the 1930's. She knew their time was still coming, but she hung in there. I'm a husband and father of two daughters and I've always been partial to women because I think they are smarter, more capable and have what the Fins call Sisu. It's a strong will, a perseverance, determination. I'm thinking this power of women will be the factor, the force that defeats a real piece of chump evil. I think that edge of women, especially mature women, maybe the silver stake.
Hope and pray I'm right.
1964 was the first Presidential campaign I reported. Now I live with ghosts; all those years, all those bus rides, plant gates, conventions, crowded cafes, mayors races, senate and house campaigns, Gubernatorial elections, debates, wheels up and wheels down, morning baggage calls, waiting in cue for satellite feed time, weeks with no sleep, eating on the run, waiting for a pool report, gathering around the press compound in basements, old ballrooms, empty warehouses, clearing security, late nite drinks and debriefs, waiting to see what the AP or the NY Times was leading with, hours of speculation, crunching numbers, deadlines that never ended, door to door interviews, on air analysis sets, back room experts, victory parties, concessions, inaugurations, and it started over. Those spirits are stored away now with old photos, press passes and badges, and memories of some of the greats I was lucky enough to work around or grab a moment with.
We all loved the game. Not so much any more. But I could get excited about President Harris and watching what a woman in charge could do for America. It might even change the game altogether.
See you down trail.
