Stop Me If You Have Lived This

Reflections from an unexpected conversation

It started as a glorious afternoon on the banks of the Tennessee River. A local downtown business development group that I am part of was putting on the second in a series of Sunday Sunset concerts as a means of community outreach. An atmosphere of good music, good food, and good company took a turn when politics somehow managed to be injected into the scene.

It started when a fellow board member let me know that a certain former president had given money to billionaires. I had the right to remain silent, but as comedian Ron White says, not the ability. So, I asked if this president had used her money or if there was legislation that meant people could keep more of their own cash.

I am one of those crazies who does not believe that every question or problem requires a govt answer or solution and that, as often as not, govt intervention makes the existing situation even worse. The point of taxation is to fund public services, which makes the flat tax the only fair tax. Deviating from that is more about social engineering than raising revenue.

It can be interesting and illuminating to engage with someone who holds different views and articulates them with logic-based points. It is neither interesting nor illuminating when the argument is the usual talking points one might expect from an MSNBC panelist. “You’re going to vote for a 34-time convicted felon who goes around grabbing women by their *%##@s?” as if voting for the one-time side chick now married to a guy who knocked up his previous family’s nanny is a great moral leap forward.

At no point did my colleague make an affirmative case for Kamala. No one else in her camp has done that, either; they just spout different versions of hating Orange McBadman. It was especially disappointing here as this is an intelligent woman. She runs a business, is heavily involved in the community, and is even a county commissioner. She should know something about making a persuasive case for the things she believes. However - and you had to know there would be a however - she is also what is known in these parts as a yellow dog Democrat. If Donald Trump ran with a D beside his name, there is every reason to believe she would be as vocally supportive of him as she is of Harris.

As a rule, I have modest expectations of elected officials and they usually live down to those expectations. It would be nice if govt could efficiently and effectively provide the services that we agree are best served in the public domain. As to the White House race, priorities are far more important than personalities:

·         I am for an end to the open border that currently exists.

·         I am for an end to our subsidizing the ongoing destruction of Ukraine and the killing of a generation of its young men.

·         I am for a vibrant First Amendment as the bedrock of a free society and a viable Second Amendment to support the First.   

·         I am for a govt that can create a culture of empowerment rather than one of entitlement.  

In fairness to my colleague, the same blind partisanship that defines the left also exists on the right, though there is nary a Trump supporter who is oblivious to the man’s faults. As best I can tell, he is the only candidate in our history to have spawned a “never” movement on his side. The man is neither a savior nor a miracle worker; he’s just a potential rudder that might steer the ship of state away from the rocks up ahead. Even that might be asking too much considering the entrenched interests that will fight any attempted course correction.  

There needs to be a stronger term than ‘counter-intuitive’ for people who openly want more of what is already happening, even the things they readily complain about, for nothing more than the sake of “owning” the other side. It is bad enough that people, especially those holding office, believe a president can unilaterally grant $25,000 in taxpayer funds to select homeowners. It is far worse to hear that this newest welfare program – and that’s what this would be – amounts to a good idea.

The riverside conversation triggered flashbacks to similar encounters with people I know. Or thought I knew. Not because I demand conformity among friends and acquaintances, but because I expect people to have an inner bullshit detector that works irrespective of party affiliation. One almost unbelievable incident involved a Marine-turned-lawyer I know from NC, who posted a graphic asking George W. Bush to join his former VP in Camp Kamala.

People with a memory span of longer than 15 minutes will recall how Bush, Cheney, and a host of other Repubs were regarded in mainstream Dem circles back in the day. I asked if the left’s new slogan was “war criminals for Kamala,” or “it’s okay; they’re our war criminals now.” There was no answer. I want to believe that is because even my friend recognized the absurdity of what he posted, but who knows.

Some of you, probably most of you, have had similar encounters involving people who are blindly supporting a candidate they and other party voters summarily rejected four years ago. They have conveniently forgotten that Harris is the same candidate who was seen as Biden’s biggest re-election liability until Joe was thrown overboard. This is the same candidate who acts as if she is new to the scene instead of a four-year participant. The same border czar who is now pledging to address the problem she helped create.

The downside to Sunday’s discussion, my Marine friend’s post, and the shouting matches that continue is that we will wake up in the same country on November 6^th. What will the country look like after then and in the days after? No one is asking that question. Few are even considering it. But there it hangs. Like a fart in church.

A good bet is that the losing side will cry foul and there is the possibility of violence. Whether this represents institutional failure or malevolence is an open question, but part of managing conflicts of any sort is considering the end state. Because there will be an end state. For the country, for families and friends, and for people who are members of a certain local board.