Working on an art piece entitled “Truth, Mangled” … but it’s not finished.
The photo, however, captures the point of the essay.
In the 70’s I registered as a Republican
And I never missed a Bill Buckley TV episode or a Fitzpatrick and Kilpatrick Sunday debate. Of course there was also John McLaughlin but I got tired of his shouting “WRONG!” throughout the show.
Then along came Nixon sweating like a pig in his first debate. When Goldwater said Nixon was a liar and didn’t like him, I was free to not like him, either.
Because I did like Goldwater.
During this time, I was also enamored with the Dagny Taggart, the heroine in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Dagny was my first exposure to a strong female executive – and specifically – a woman with enough brains to sometimes outsmart the men around her. And be allowed to.
But tracking back to the 60’s for a moment…
I was too young to vote when Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson, but if I could have I would have voted for Barry.
Why you may wonder was I so politically passionate before I could vote?
Frankly, I had little choice. In our house politics was discussed continually and we ate dinner watching the news.
I was required to “stay up” for both Democrat and Republican conventions once we bought a TV in 1956. The conventions often went past midnight, and I always made it to the end, waiting with baited breath for the final vote to be announced.
Also my grandparents, having lived through the depression, were staunch Democrats who put Roosevelt on a pedestal with Christ.
During my late teens my mother became concerned about my interest in Goldwater since he was a Republican. I’m not sure how I calmed her, but if you look into Goldwater’s early background and ongoing record, you’ll likely admire the man as well.
As Goldwater’s path traveled to the center, I followed
Later Goldwater supported civil rights but opposed mandating states to comply. That’s when he started to lose me. But he brought me back when he led the campaign for Nixon’s resignation. And he kept me at his alter when he spoke against Falwell. And I bowed when he supported environmental protection, and took on companies that were polluting the nation.
In the 90’s he told Republicans not to ban homosexuals from the military. I looked this up recently to make sure I remembered correctly and found his confirming quote: “Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar” You don’t need to be ‘straight’ to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight.”
It’s no surprise he wasn’t pleasing Republicans.
Goldwater had schooled me to be independent and that’s what I officially became – changing my party affiliation. I felt very grown up to have not automatically followed my family’s passion for the Democratic Party.
Good old’ Barry bit the dust but one of his quotes should live on
[The] Republicans are selling their soul to win elections. Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. The government won’t work without it. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise.
Moving beyond our current Trump fixation…
Today? Our deeper problem is the Republican Congress. Concession has become a habit, and ultimately it will do congressional members in.
Conservative writers (you can read online) such as Bill Kristol, Yuval Levin, David French, George Will, and Robert Kagan – people who have spent decades defending conservative principles – have warned about the concentration of presidential power, the erosion of due process, and the weakening of constitutional protections, not to mention the threat of losing our NATO alliances.
Robert Kagan, a traditional Republican foreign-policy thinker as written:
Americans are neither materially nor psychologically read for this future. They are accustomed to the “basically peaceful, prosperous and open world.” And have come to think it is “the normal state of international affairs, likely to continue indefinitely. They can’t image it unraveling, much less what that unraveling will mean for them. If Americans thought defending the liberal world order was too expensive, wait until they start paying for what comes next.
Ironically, the voters enamored with MAGA seem unaware of how seasoned respected conservatives view the current political environment. And equally unaware of how the Democratic Party, in fact, shares many of their issues, just not their methods.
250th Anniversary
Watching a bit of the recent celebration, I remembered July 4th when I was 4, 5, 6 years old – riding in the small town parade to the cemetery on my tricycle with red, white and blue crepe paper threaded though the wheels.
If someone had asked me about the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness or whether every American is born equal – I would have giggled.
I was happy little girl.
If asked if I believed the US would become a non-white majority in 50 year or so years, I would have shrugged, turned away and pedaled home.
NOW?
The question that haunts me: can our country survive losing the truth to the degree we currently face in the upcoming elections?
The psychological warfare flooding the country is overwhelming. Trump is counting on his ongoing fabricated ranting to confuse, exhaust and numb Americans to point of apathy. Once done, we will be easier to manipulate.
In response to this chaos, we often push aside critical thinking in lieu of accepting a story. Stories feel emotionally true, don’t they? But this is a time for facts, not stories.
Critical thinking doesn’t mean I push intuition aside but I do need to acknowledge that the loudest person is not always the one I should follow.
Before I vote, these are the questions I need to ask and answer:
- Do I know what’s true—or am I simply accepting what I already believe?
- Am I thinking first about people—or about winning?
- How independent is my thinking, really?
… genuine change agents are rarely saints. They are simply people who have glimpsed another shore and feel compelled to help others find it. – Thich Nhat Hanh
AI didn’t write this post