To the Editor:
In the daily cartoon, Non Sequitur, there is a character, Eddie, who “extends” reality. His boat that flies is called Anoesis. That name caused me to ask my wife how/why folks continue to follow Trump. Anoesis may be a factor that dramatically divides our country, but there are issues that makes people angry/sad:
Over the past few decades, Congress has been deadlocked and very few laws/changes have occurred. Members have not attacked major problems (e.g., immigration … even though we have the German blueprint, Gast Arbeiters, or Guest Workers, which allowed (mostly Spanish and Turkish) workers to immigrate to Germany to do jobs that Germans wouldn’t do.) Although more than 80% of voters don’t want assault weapons such as AR-15s in the hands of citizens, Senators and Congress-persons are fearful of the NRA and NSSF.
Helicopter parents have strived to keep the reality that gay children exist from their own children. Some states, such as here in Florida, even prevent specific books to be in schools. Even universities have had their management overturned by governors. Sounds like 1936 Germany.
There is no method to remove a Supreme Court judge when he or she acts against conventional norms.
In 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a decision was made that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections. Now, money rules democracy.
News agencies have become very left or very right. Thus, people turn to the internet which provides truly unregulated, often fanatical, information. Not only do we have domestic misinformation, but thousands of enemy (e.g., Russian, Chinese) bots misinform voters to vote for the individual who will do their bidding.
Our forefathers wrote the Constitution, hoping that church would be separate from state, but didn’t incorporate that separation into the document. That separation is no longer the case. Thus, the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade. Currently, neither the federal nor state governments have determined which way to turn. Now, enormous evangelist churches have become powerful voting blocks not only with money but with guilt-ridden messages to huge flocks.
Democratic and Republican administrations have made horrible decisions and have lied to America. Johnson told the Gulf of Tonkin lie that killed over 58,000 soldiers in Vietnam. (It also killed over two million Vietnamese.) Bush told two lies (Al Qaeda was in Iraq and WMD was being made there.) and thousands died in Iraq. Five to eight trillion dollars were wasted. Wouldn’t we like to have those soldiers and money back….
In 1953, we killed the only elected head of state in Iran in all of that country’s history, and brought in Pahlavi to take over. Iran has hated us from that point on.
See a pattern here? I didn’t until much later in life. I should have figured it out, because the U.S. had overturned governments in Guatemala, Haiti, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Surinam, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Congo and Grenada.
Think about it … after WWII, Korea was divided into two pieces: North and South because of the Pottsdam Conference in August of ‘45. Does that month sound familiar? Six days after Pottsdam, we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. We gave the USSR North Korea … even though they had not fought the Japanese at all. (Korea had been a colony of Japan from 1910 until VJ Day.) A friend and classmate of my father, together with Dean Rusk, had decided upon the 38th parallel. I don’t blame them. They were under orders from the president.
My antecedents fought in every war from the Revolutionary War, most attending West Point like my brother and I. My father, in WWII, landed at Normandy, fought in the Bulge. Didn’t come back to us until VE Day. My brother and I were in Vietnam for two years. My company killed over four hundred Vietcong with no American losses. Knowing what I know now, I wish we hadn’t been in ‘Nam. Those 58,000+ American soldiers and several hundred thousand Vietcong would have lived reasonably normal lives. Ho Chi Minh was really the Thomas Jefferson of Vietnam. He spoke, read, and wrote several languages, had worked with America during WWII, saving pilots’ lives. We saved his life at that time. Irony. Sad.
Sure, there are many who have always voted GOP or Democratic party lines, regardless of where these parties are headed. Thus, presidential candidates are put forward who don’t have the capabilities to lead/manage the country. One thing is for certain. Candidates running for president certainly must have huge egos. Maybe we deserve Trump. After all, he has the biggest ego of them all. Maybe we should elect a narcissistic, mysogynist once again into the White House. We really don’t need the FBI, the Department of Justice. Hey, we don’t even need the Rule of Law. Yeah, let’s Make America Great Again.
Do I love Biden? No, but I don’t think he would hurt America. Would I share a foxhole with him? Yeah. I think he would have my back. Would I share a foxhole with Trump? No. I think he would run when the first shot rang out.
William Little
Village of Amelia
