As protest of the Trump presidency began all across the country, Trump and Obama met, for the first time ever. That is surprising, in and of itself, given the whole "birtherism" connection that these men share. Then again, that was a pretty one-sided connection, and it appears to have served it's purpose. The current sitting President, Obama, reassured America that his team would do everything possible to insure the success of the Trump team. Even going as far as saying, "Success for Trump is success for America". I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment, but it is not lost on me that many have not shared Obama's sense of unity over the past eight years. While that is exactly what Americans should expect a current president to express to his successor, and it is something that former President George W Bush afforded President Obama as well, it still feels as though something is missing. In the coming days, should I expect a prominent member of the Senate to step before microphones and say "his number one priority, over the next four years, will be to make sure that Trump is a one term President". With our current news cycle, such a tantalizing loop would surely be played time and again, on every major news outlet, making certain no one missed it, and setting the tone for national discourse for years to come. I'm glad our leaders realize the power they hold and use a more disciplined approach, or at least some of them.
Speaking of disciplined approaches, someone needs to do something about these nagging protest. They do not constitute the return to "law and order" that so many have been anxiously awaiting. My Facebook and Twitter feeds are filled with memes about the childish, crybabies who have taken to the streets, in protest of a reality that will not change for at least four years. What a waste of time and energy! I am also assured that no such protest occurred four or eight years ago, which is at least "partially" true. If I ignore the rise in talk radio and internet shows (insert Tomi Lahren or any of the plethora that now exist) created over the past 8 years, specifically for the purpose of feeding the "anti-Obama" cancer, I could get on with castigating these street-walking protesters as completely out of line. Personally, I have been trying to forget that time, earlier in the Obama term, when I went into Academy to buy my wife a gun for a special occasion. Somehow that became an "in thing" to do in red states recently. On my visit, I was underwhelmed by the public conversation between the clerk and another customer about how both guns and ammo were flying off the shelves since Obama took office. To hear the clerk tell it, the Tuesday delivery of .22 caliber rounds was selling out by lunchtime with each weekly delivery. Yes, someone please get these kids off the street and back into Academy, where people exercise their right to protest in a way more suitable for Capitalism and the second amendment. No one respects your first amendment childishness. If anyone missed it, that was sarcasm!
Does anyone else remember that early State of The Union address, where a sitting member of Congress yelled "you lie" at the sitting President on national television. No one really saw that, of course, because the State of The Union is not one of the President's largest audiences. Right? It is hard to know which is more damaging to our republic, normal people walking down the street yelling profanities, or breaking with tradition and decorum to yell during the SOTU address. One of those things happens every day in America. The other has happened once in my lifetime. Please, no one mention the over-the-top, visceral criticism hurled at the soon-to-be exiting President from day one. The blatant disrespect which built to the point that even during national disasters, sitting Republican governors refused to meet the arriving President on the tarmac for the traditional photo op. That break with modern tradition is hard to explain, especially if the tradition resumes immediately with a new President. Meanwhile, the talk radio arm of the Republican party amplified this into the new conservative 'chic'. As recently as the Republican debates, we were reminded by the debate participants themselves, of the unpopular mistake it had been for Chris Christie to meet and, how dare he, even hug President Obama as he arrived to coordinate federal relief efforts following Hurricane Sandy. Maybe I, as many of my conservative friends are choosing to do, can pretend that all never happened.
As I am writing this, I realize that many will say "well you are no better than anyone else who spends time stoking the flames of discord in our nation". You are just choosing a side and pouring gasoline on the fire. That would be true except for one small detail, I am not lambasting the other side. Instead, my energy is spent trying to improve my side. I have spent my entire voting life on the "Right", extolling the virtues of balancing the budget, lower taxes, smaller government, and a more controlled manner of dealing with even the most difficult of issues. I have been in large auditoriums, filled with mostly white, mostly male, and mostly older followers of a local, statewide, or national candidate. I have contributed to and subscribed to groups supporting small businesses, Chambers of Commerce, or policy groups shared from the national level down. That being said, I feel perfectly suited to point out the hypocrisy which took over the Republican party during the Obama years. When I registered Republican during my college years, the party was working toward "expanding the tent" and often said as much publicly. Over the years, the pendulum has swung back and forth, showcasing the talents of a J.C. Watts, at our national convention. Even daring to bring in a Michael Steele, as the party chair, shortly after the Obama election. I was there to recognize and applaud those efforts. I was there to interpret for myself, the degree to which the party was not being undermined by the undercurrent which has been ever-present since the Civil Rights Laws were passed in the 1960's. That culminated in the 1980's with The Reagan Revolution, which seemingly found ways to appease those who truly aspired to find a balance between the elements of the party seeking diversity and those who truthfully, would rather go a different direction.
In the years that followed Reagan, we (Republicans) had "a thousand points of light" and "compassionate conservatism". I knew what those were and I fully appreciated the outreach, which highlighted talents like General Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. I also knew that there were portions of the party which neither agreed with or wanted to see more of the same. Those voices built to a crescendo during the Obama years. An ugly, critical loudness always threatening something more. Some at the top, felt the current changing and tried to find ways to control the venom and animosity that can still be seen daily on social media, as some people refer to our sitting President as a POS (and NO, I will not translate). What I will do is remind anyone reading this that our actions today are always building toward something. Something connected, like a house of cards or a line of dominoes. The tact and empathy that is used when our electoral coin lands on heads, cannot be disconnected from the tails side of that same coin. When the coin is flipped again (read as the next election), the result may differ, but the emotional energy remains woven into our national discourse. As redundant and familiar as this may sound, there is only one America. Despite all the red and blue mapping, and all the juxtaposition of cities versus towns, and black versus white; America is a single place. It is fact that WE, Democrats and Republicans, are the opposite sides of the same coin. That FACT provides us our own instant Karma.
In the coming days and weeks, it will be the turn of the Democratic leaders to stand and denounce rhetoric that goes beyond the norm, and seeks to discredit or undermine our latest President-elect. That request would be awkward, coming from Republican leadership, given the fact that much of that same discord was promulgated from the highest levels of the Republican party during the Obama term. Even as those on my side, confidently offer advice and counsel, on the best ways to tamp down the marches and protest. Those at street level, on the other side, will surely meet that advice with reminders of the past 8 years. Those memories are still fresh! However, at some point, someone has to be the BIGGER person. Even if it is left to people who profess not to believe in God, someone has to exemplify our collective WWJD. Even if politically, this is the perfect time to throw caution to the wind and demonstrate how easily uncontrolled anger can be drawn out of the public at large, where does that end? After all, being out of power, even if only at the Presidential level, completely justifies a scorched earth approach. Right?
STOP!
JUST STOP!
BOTH SIDES....STOP!
We are fully capable of repairing our broken political discourse. But that starts with a genuine understanding that this game has gone beyond damaging our political parties and entered the realm of undermining our institutions. Everyone in America does not know, nor do they need to know, that our Presidential elections are always won by someone who gets about 25 percent of the people inhabiting our GREAT country to vote for them. It is critical that our political leaders know that. Everyone in America does not know that Obamacare was an attempted answer to a question being asked as far back as the 1980's. The average American doesn't need to know that if Obamacare, as that answer, were repealed today, the healthcare cost question would still remain. Yes, it would continue to impact our national debt, the long-term stability of medicare, and the ability of American corporations to justify keeping jobs here rather than export them. Even though everyday citizens don't NEED to know that, our congress does. The average American does not need to know that leaving seats vacant on the Supreme Court, even for 9 months..ish, actually removes the power of the third branch of our government. It's perfectly OK that most Americans don't realize we just had a predictably close election, much like the one we endured in 2000, which was resolved by the Supreme Court. The fact that the Trump campaign filed suit during this actual election, citing irregularities in the electoral process, knowing full well that the benefit of a 5-4 decision was not available because his side (my side) chose to leave a Supreme Court seat vacant, is not reassuring. It is critically important for those in power to make mental note of the bullet that was dodged. We cannot have a constant spinning of the chamber and pulling of the trigger, because Russian roulette always ends ugly if you play long enough. It is a seemingly small thing to have the FBI weighing in during voting. It is an equally small thing, judging by the reaction of the voting public, to have a foreign government attempting to influence an election using Watergate-like stolen campaign files (electronic though they may be). It is a dangerous irony that the benefiting candidate decried daily "this is bigger than Watergate", seemingly failing to understand that some, allies and enemies, were making that same connection.
All these things are behind us today and are things that we need not revisit, especially to the point that they become our norm. However, it is critical (I mean like super-important) that we not allow our politics to degrade our polity and our national discourse. Obamas and Trumps will come and go. We will have ebbs and flows with our parties and our politics too. I recognize, more than most, that often a small subgroup of Americans can pay a large price for the carelessness of a few leaders. Accidents occur most often because no one saw the accident coming. If bending the rules is allowed to become the norm, the accident is no longer an accident. It is a willful and wanton disregard for the importance that government constitutes. Even those who want as little regulation as possible, know that NO order (read as regulation) is not an option. Once that threshold is crossed, being Democrat or Republican ceases to have importance. At that point, the 25 percent of us who feel victorious, and the 50 percent of us who have a party to support and see that as important, will find ourselves outnumbered and overwhelmed by the 75 percent who either lost or did not participate. That larger group will truthfully say and honestly believe "he/she is not my President", or worse still, "I believe this system is unfair and rigged". When random citizens speak in those terms, it has some impact. However, Presidential candidates are not random citizens. Their words and actions are seen, heard, interpreted, and acted upon by varying groups within the citizenry. That is an awesome power, but when misused, it can become awesomely destructive too. WE ARE ONE!
