Archive for August, 2018

254 – “Repeated”

Monday, August 27th, 2018

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

# 254 “History repeated?”

August 27, 2018

Sometimes I feel as if I’ve “heard it all,” so to speak. Then I listen to the latest in what has all the hallmarks of a poor B movie. Anger and envy has no bounds. Add to that the loss of what some believed to be a foregone conclusion in the 2016 presidential election and the scene is set for far more than better luck next time. We have what has morphed into more than what our president calls a “witch hunt.” We have all the hallmarks of a contest that is legend in the Bible.

The characters here are not one on one. Far from it….. They are one against many. Years ago when I taught at the college level I was a solitary figure among liberal faculty. I had sat on the opposite side of their desks for years as an adult undergraduate student, but my upbringing and maturity insulated me from pointed comments and socialist spin that had a far greater effect on the young people who were my classmates.

I really wanted to attain the next level above and secure a job at the college, but that was not to be. Looking back, it’s probably just as well; but that’s another story altogether.

Considering the ongoing current events, I recalled a statement that I often made to my students. I explained that, as voters, they had reason to question anyone in public office. After all, once out on their own, my students needed to understand that they were — in fact and in truth — those public servants’ employers. We don’t consider that often enough, do we? Oh, enthusiasm spikes at election time, but for most of us, the heightened interest ends at the voting booth.

I’ve seen those whom I wanted in office lose contests before, but the results didn’t determine my actions for months and years to come. Not so for the Democratic Party and its loss in 2016.

The decision to nominate Jeff Sessions for Attorney General may have rooted in his Senate experience and the fact that he was an early supporter of Trump. Trump’s firm belief in the “swamp” among the D.C. politicians was far more accurate that he could have imagined. Had he appointed a man or woman without campaign ties we would witness a starkly different situation today.

The crux of today’s bleak picture comes down to the fact that for the last fifty or sixty years our top elected officials had no business background. Oh, there are scads of lawyers and a smattering of other professions represented in the Congress, but people with deep business credentials were sorely lacking. What we have now is the fruits of that mix of people.

What was to have been a Social Security nest egg was cracked and scrambled into the “general fund” long ago. Lobbyists are a rich resource for information needed to assess pending or proposed legislation. After all, no elected official can be expected to be knowledgeable on every subject out there. Unfortunately, the core value of lobbyists blurred into a money-driven system of favors that exponentially wrecked objectivity among legislators.

When Donald J. Trump won the 2016 election, the cookie jar shook in terror. It’s lid — long off — was about to slam shut. Anyone who has owned or managed a business, met payroll, faced downturns in the economy, and struggled against regulations knows that you cannot operate at a loss. Yet, we not only operate at a loss, if we (the United States) were a business, we are way beyond bankruptcy. We are insolvent.

Everybody runs on about the “national debt,” and that is important. But that figure pales when compared to the unfunded liabilities this nation will face in the future. Couple that with the dumbing down of education, and we have a recipe for disaster. That is, if we don’t get our house in order.

Enter a man who knows how to manage a bottom line, who understands the value of law enforcement, who recognizes that no nation exists without a strong border, and who doesn’t owe any large donors a dime. The elites now face someone without fear. They face someone who puts the country first. They face exposure of inaction.

Interjecting a bit on sports, the NFL Commissioner should issue a firm rule. “You don’t stand? You don’t play.” They will scream like smashed cats for a while, but if they want to make all that money they can either stand for the national anthem and play or walk out. I doubt if their shoes will hit the pavement. There are, among the NFL players, men who return to the inner cities to help young people. Their actions speak volumes and make the disrespectful display of kneeling during “The Star Spangled Banner” look juvenile and foolish.

Inequality? Does it exist? Certainly it does, but that has been true throughout history. Inequality won’t evaporate because grown men refuse to respect the flag that guarantees freedom. If they want to move for change, then they need to take their actions to the neighborhoods desperate for male role models. Kneeling does nothing to assuage inequality.

President Trump knows inequality exists. He stood before inner city audiences and asked, “What do you have to lose?” Assessment of his popularity among minority communities continues to soar. If you take a critical look at the most impoverished and crime-ridden areas of the country, you will find — by and large — people who have lived under Democratic rule for decades. Promised progress and change with every election, they voted in hopes of attaining just that. But they only saw more of the same.

Patriotism is the heart of America. In the 1800s boys as young as twelve had to take over families when parents died. In the early 1900s children worked in factories, on ranches and farms, and ran errands in large cities to help support their families. When wars came, teenage boys lined up to volunteer to defend America.

Those boys were made of strong stuff. They knew how to work — and work hard — from an early age. I shudder to think what would what would happen if we required that kind of response today. What was commonplace for youngsters of my grandparents’ and parents’ generations is rare. That goes for my generation, too. In my mid-70s, I began to work at age 12. I’ve never been afraid of hard work and I’ve done jobs that a woman never should have attempted.

The link from this subject to the situation faced by the Trump family is not obscure. President Trump’s father took him out of the construction sites when he was very young. He learned to run heavy equipment and witnessed the day-to-day work it took to construct buildings. He continued this with his own children. They know how to work and maintain respect from their employees. Now Trump turns his considerable energies to rescuing this nation from decades of mismanagement.

This column’s title does not portend that we are bound to repeat history. Oh, no, it has a far different meaning from that.

This president unabashedly thanks God for this nation and asks that Americans pray for His blessing. Bite by bite, in nearly all media, we see faith labeled as a weakness. Christianity is under attack from all sides. Even the Amish are not immune. Ads now tout a new series that features these modest communities as drug dealers. Egad! Is there no shame among producers today? Evidently not….

Christianity and Judaism underwent a reformation. Both groups benefited from the adjustments. We are urged to be tolerant of Islam, yet it is the only one of three great religions of the world not to have undergone a reformation. When President Trump extols faith, the media attack him viciously. Despite the fact that he fulfills more campaign promises than anyone in memory, he is the scapegoat for all manner of ills.

Since Democrats cannot counter him on facts, they attack him personally. They attack his wife, his adult children, his friends, and now they use the Southern District of New York to target his business. They salivate at the prospect of finding some way to get rid of him.

Many swamp dwellers have little in common with the workingmen and women of America. Trump does. Democrats scream, “resist.” They squawk, “impeachment.” They are but the tip of the iceberg of the establishment that now faces a man they cannot control.

An uninformed, misinformed public is easily controlled. Liberals laid the groundwork for just this scenario and have nurtured it for decades. They have dumbed down education and polluted our youth with their pie in the sky descriptions of socialism. They have decimated humor. Political correctness emasculated men and robbed us of the joys of laughing at ourselves and others. Oh, yes, they did a good job. But, thankfully, the job isn’t finished. Why?

All of a sudden, the plan fails. All of a sudden emerges a man who threatens what they view as their destiny — total control. The word surprise doesn’t begin to describe their rabid reaction. They are frantic and it’s getting worse. Nothing is too despicable for them.

And the history I cited in the title? With a slight change of name, it is not David. It’s Donald. Donald and the opposition that seeks to destroy all he holds dear. Donald and the bloated, out of control government – the haughty behemoth throwing its dark shadow over the nation and looming as an existential threat.

It’s not a new story. But it has different characters. It’s not David, but Donald. It’s not a giant human. It’s a giant government.

Donald and Goliath. Let’s hope we get the same result. Donald wins. Think about it.