No one was happier than yours truly when the last presidential election was over. I publicly recommended the candidate that in my opinion, Donald J. Trump, was the best prepared to solve this nation’s growing problems, ($36 trillion national debt and growing, open border, lost American jobs, crime and inflation.)
Trump won the election and I heard an earful of comments regarding my published opinion that appeared in five local newspapers.
“How could you have done that?” said one incredulous person. “Well, I write opinion,” I answered. I felt I owed it to readers to make the call. Opinion writers can’t sit out elections even when an issue or election is ultra controversial. Sometimes the choices are difficult and one knows there will be plenty of flak from either side should one be so foolish as to risk a public opinion. Still opinion writers write opinion.
What I want to know is why do we feel so insulted, angry or threatened by opinions of others when they don’t agree with our own? I have never understood this. Yet we do. Somehow we think that we alone have the ownership of truth and others who have different views are not only dead wrong … but they can morph into “the enemy!” This is ridiculous!
Our society is as vibrant as it is because we all have different opinions and have the freedom given to us by our Bill of Rights that allows free speech. Many countries don’t have such rights and everyone must goose step to the same “approved” opinions. Government shuts down diverse opinions. What a way to live!
Then there are those that believe voters should vote not on issues but strictly on racial, gender and party lines. A woman suggested to me that we should vote for the woman candidate because we had to help elect the first woman president. What? What?
I also understand minority groups are expected to vote along racial lines. And perhaps many old timers still vote according to long held allegiance to a certain political party. But I believe the only rationale for whom to cast a vote should be based on a candidate’s stance on the issues.
I think the era of gender, race and party voting is over. A line from William Butler Yeats in his great poem, “Second Coming,” comes to mind. “The falcon cannot hear the falconer.” The voter is turned free, at last, to vote purely on issues. The era of gender, race and political party voting is over.
Something else I noticed in the last election. I sensed from various conversations that college educated people were expected to vote for a certain candidate. Just a touch of snobbery in such sentiment? I thought so.
“How could you support a felon?” one reader asked. As if he had once thought I was intelligent but now such concept was shattered.
I laughed. Yet, I have a brain. I saw the political makeup of the prosecutor, judge and jury. I read the charges, testimony and the judge’s instructions to the jury. I came to my own conclusions. Going after political opponents (and using the courts to do it) is not a pretty sight.
Most people stay off the subject of politics in hopes of keeping the peace, if not a few friends, who may not always understand freedom of speech and the right to hold differing opinions or the joy of living in a society where we cherish differences of opinion.
I ended up supporting a man that was entirely controversial. People either loved him or hated him. I did neither. I simply believed after comparing the two candidates that he was the better choice.
He cared about my issues. In the end his willingness to work harder than any president I have seen in my lifetime to meet these goals won my vote.
But he isn’t perfect. Unfortunately, like us, presidents come with flaws. I don’t care for his egotistic personality. I wish he could curb his outspoken bent. I didn’t need the Gulf of America, the Panama Canal, Canada or Greenland.
Yet he certainly made me think about the advantages of keeping China out of the canal zone and one day uniting with Canada and Greenland. Trump makes us think. It could very well be that countries will have to unite in the future in order to defend the free world from the encroachment of communism. I like that he forces us to think out of the box.
But his personality is hard to take. He is cocky, a smart aleck, once the kind of student any teacher would be pulling her hair out if he were in her class.
Yet he’s entertaining too. He loves to set up the opposition and force them into doing something silly. They keep falling for his tricks. He is a master at tricks.
And because he is so entertaining, one doesn’t know what he will hear next, yet people flock to hear him speak. All other politicians bore us. It is as if he is a drug that we need now to entertain us, as if entertainment is what has been missing in politics all this time and now that we have found it, we can’t give it up. We are addicted.
Trump is an historical figure, a phenomenon, a record setting Republican that has turned his party into the working man’s party and made a splash on the political stage like never before. Like him or not, we have not seen such a charismatic figure in a very long time.
He will go down in history like Paul Revere, the mythical Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Will Rogers, Mark Twain, Billy Graham, Jesse Jackson, John Wayne and many other original American characters.
His time has come, but it will also pass. Americans are fickle. They will eventually tire of Trump and although they will never forget him, he will be replaced someday with somebody new.
In the meantime, the opposition might become the loyal opposition. Listen to the issues that the majority of people are concerned about and start offering concrete ideas for programs to address these concerns.
One day Democrats will be in the majority again. Until then, let’s relax. Laugh a little. Enjoy every minute of Trump time. We understand in politics there’s constant turnover. One thing is for sure. Life is too short to miss out on any of the fun.
© 2025.
