HenryBriggsColumn

I was thinking about the election the other day. Really. Between TV football games and Covid19 and helping my neighbor and his wife install a new mailbox post in the middle of pouring rain (don’t ask).

She is far more politically intense than he is. Their lawn is decorated with Trump signs she painted herself. They look pretty good, especially next to the official Trump/Pence signs nearby. And they thumb a nose at everyone who thinks Republicans have no artistic sense.

She asks if I am behind the Biden/Harris signs in some other yards, one of which is mine. I cop to it, but quickly compliment her signs. She smiles.

Her husband gives me a silent wink of approval as he skillfully packs the base with dirt, and then attaches the mail box to it. Clearly this isn’t his first rodeo with mailboxes or a politically passionate wife. 

Self-taught skills, whether in artwork or home repairs, have always impressed me. 

Of course, if I needed some major house repairs, or say some artwork for a the living room, I wouldn’t necessarily go to my neighbors for it. 

Which makes me think about the election.

Politicians at a low level are also do-it-yourselfers. I know because I was on my town Council for a few years. I knew nothing about politics or running a town. Fortunately the town manager, Pat McGuigan, did know about managing and politics, as well as leadership. He taught all three to all seven of us, subtly so we could think we were doing-it-ourselves, but effectively enough to prevent any grievous mistakes.  The town did quite well under his tutelage.

At a higher level the good politicians either have lots of experience or, if their constituents are lucky, degrees in Political Science. Politicians without any knowledge of politics or governing can do some real damage. 

Knowledge matters. That’s why doctors have medical degrees, lawyers have law degrees, teachers have teaching degrees, and so on.

And they all get tested before they can work. 

We lesser types get tested for our knowledge, too. We take tests to get into college, or the military. We take tests to get driver’s licenses. Your car mechanic had to pass some kind of test to get the job. Your pharmacist had to pass a test. The cop on the street had to pass a Police Academy test.

I think politicians should have to pass tests too, maybe even get a license. We all know what happens if they screw up: we pay one way or another.

The politician tests should include the Constitution, some history, particularly of this country, and every one of the 100 questions on US Citizenship Naturalization Test (the test immigrants must pass before becoming US citizens).

Then someone who, for example, didn’t know about the Battle of Belleau Wood in WWI, or that Frederick Douglas was an abolitionist, orator, and escaped slave in the 1800’s (not today), or that it was the English who burned down the White House in 1812, not the Canadians (Canada didn’t exist then), or that Russia made major incursions into Ukraine in 2015 or that the US is required to defend all NATO members from attack, or… well you get the idea… that someone would not have been elected President.

Yes. These are actual examples of the lack of knowledge of our current President. 

But I don’t mention them.  Instead, we joke about repairing a mailbox in the middle of a rainstorm as I help them collect their tools. I return to my yard and its admittedly unartistic signs. 

“Good fences make good neighbors”, said Robert Frost in 1914. 

“Avoiding politics makes good neighbors”, says the voice in my head in 2020. A sign of the times. Sad, isn’t it?

This is a man full of Business Success.

He says he’s worth millions, maybe billions, of dollars in property and licensing deals, but goes bankrupt six times. Then he tells the IRS he’s lost so much money from the  bankruptcies and other failed ventures that he doesn’t have enough to pay taxes for 10 out of the next 15 years. Which they accept.  Even as he lives like a king. 

Now that’s Business Success!

He uses TV Producer Mark Burnett’s skill to make millions as star of The Apprentice. Then he uses his Business Success and stardom to convince voters that he would be an even better President.

When he does pay the IRS, it’s only $750.00 for 2016 and $750.00 for 2017, the amount losers pay on income of around $16,000 a year!

That, is sophistication. That is panache. That is Business Success like we’ve never seen before! 

Here are some more examples:

1) The Debate

That’s where he really showed his talent! Biden didn’t have a prayer. T-Rump interrupted, insulted, and attacked him like Conor McGregor in a UFC fight. Even the moderator, Fox’s Chris Wallace, couldn’t control him. It wasn’t a debate. It wasn’t a discussion. It was a brawl. And T-Rump wiped the floor with Biden and Wallace. So cool!  

2) He has Tough Standards 

He expects really Tough Standards from those he works with. Take McConnell, for example. We know all politicians are just a bunch of lying hypocrites.  But McConnell makes other politicians look like choir boys when it comes to lying. He blocks Obama from choosing a Supreme Court Justice, saying, “Voters should have a voice”, then rams through a candidate for T-Rump saying “voters have already voted … for me and the T-Rump! Team”. 

And when the crybaby Democrats complain, McConnell simply waves a middle finger at them and says, “TS!”  

But even McConnell can’t touch T-Rump’s Tough Standards with the truth.  In less than 4 years, 20,000 lies! He’s actually triggered a brand new form of journalism, “Fact-Checking”.  

Lies flow from him like hope from an ICE refugee camp.

Who else could even begin to do that? Not Biden, that’s for sure. He’s way too much of a weak-willed, goody goody.

3) T-Rump is a Commie Fighter.

Here’s a guy who will finally get rid of Obamacare, that commie health insurance system.  

Now 22 million mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, uncles, aunts will have to stop clogging our health system and breaking the financial backs of our insurance companies with things like preventive healthcare and pre-existing conditions. 

Those losers will join the 19 million losers without health insurance, most of whom are poor, brown, black- or worse – immigrants!  

No tickee, no washie, I say. 

Of course, he can’t stop them from clogging up the ER, for say, a head cold or the flu, getting everybody around them sick, and then sticking the hospital with the $1000 plus bill.  Or getting Covid19 and tying up all those ventilators and medical professionals so regular people can’t use them.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m very sympathetic to every one of those 41 million losers.  

I just don’t want any of them in my health system.

4) Teamwork

T-Rump understands, more than any President before him, the importance of teamwork to achieve Business Success. That’s why he is constantly working on improving his team. He’s replaced 489 administration employees in a little over three years!

That includes three Chiefs of Staff, The Secretary of State, six different national security advisors and, this year, six different people leading the Covid19 effort.  

5) The Economy

This is where T-Rump’s Business Success really shines. Sure, Obama led steady recovery from the 2008 crash. But it was T-Rump who put it in overdrive by adding a trillion dollars of debt with his tax cut for the wealthy (including him). Clever, huh? Kind of like claiming business success based on bankruptcies.

Which leads us to…

6) The Pandemic

T-Rump did not, as many of you whiny progressives claim, mismanage the pandemic. In fact, he managed it beautifully. 

Rather than make arbitrary decisions like some South American dictator, he left the decisions to governors around the country.  Then, as they battled each other for life and death supplies, he calmed the country’s nerves by telling Americans the Covid19 would miraculously disappear. That’s Business Success!

And the biggest reason to vote for T-Rump. He’s been a failure in business, in marriages, and as President. But he’s always convinced himself and others that his failures were actually successes. 

That’s T-Rump – all BS.

I want to go on record: I don’t like surprises very much. My surprises are usually things like the heater breaking mid-blizzard, the dog pooping in the neighbor’s lawn, or, most recently, my newspaper editor censoring me based on her religious belief. 

No champagne celebrations there.

I was at dinner with friends the other night when one of them looked at her phone and said “Oh, this isn’t good.”

Ruth Bader Ginsberg had just died. 

We all knew Ginsberg was very sick, but that knowledge had been pushed into the background by Covid19, the west coast fires, a record setting hurricane season, Trump’s Trumpiness, the Post Office screwups, China, Russia, the economy… 

So when the death of this kind, perseverant, brilliant voice for equal rights pushed its way through all the other gnawing news, it was not a good surprise. 

And it immediately got worse.

Within an hour of her death Trump announced he would propose a conservative replacement right away. Shortly after, McConnell promised a prompt Senate confirmation hearing.

No surprise there, although I did wonder if Ginsberg’s body was still warm. 

McConnell has placed 30% of the judges in the federal court system since Trump came into power.  That is symbiosis: Trump gets acquitted of impeachment and McConnell gets his own judiciary. 

You know what would have been a surprise, and a big one? If the 2020 McConnell had stood by his 2016 reason for blocking Obama’s choice to replace Justice Scalia (“We must let the voters decide!”). 

But, hey, what’s a little hypocrisy compared to a packed Court? 

It was a touching surprise to hear Ginsberg’s deathbed wish, which she dictated to her granddaughter, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed”.

Another surprise was Trump’s reaction: “a little too convenient” and “I don’t know that she said that, or if that was written out by Adam Schiff, and Schumer and Pelosi.” 

Who would say that? OK, in retrospect, not a surprise.

No surprise that all those Republican Senators are falling over themselves to get in line behind Trump and McConnell. Let’s not forget: they were all politicians before they were Trumpites.

Trump’s plan to announce his choice on Friday, the day before Ginsberg’s funeral, or Saturday, the day of her funeral was surprisingly disrespectful, even for him. 

Like so many others, I’m wondering what the “October Surprise” will be. A new war? A vaccine? Congress and Trump produce a real rescue package for the country? Trump gets Covid? Biden gets Covid? The entire Senate gets Covid and can’t replace Ginsberg until February? 

Pelosi gets a new hair dresser?

You know what would be a really great October Surprise? If Covid19 actually did miraculously disappear.

When I was a kid I loved surprises: Good grades, scoring a goal, having a girl return my phone call.

When I had kids, my life was full of surprises…and surprises…and surprises…

Now that my kids are out of the nest, my surprises are fewer and farther apart. It’s nice in a way, although a little boring.

What has surprised me recently is the speed of things, like surprises. Who knew the west coast would explode in flames this summer? Or the Atlantic would produce so many hurricanes, they’d run out of letters for the names? Or the Russians would get away with messing in a second election? Or TV football games would have canned crowd noise? Or Hollywood would have to stop entertaining us? Or Brooks Brothers would go under? Or a virus would cripple the entire world in a matter of weeks? 

Or smiling would become a hidden art? 

Fall is here, right on time. No surprise there. Some comfort in that.

Imagine how comforting it would be to go without any surprises for, say, the next four years.  

Sometimes, when the fear sweeping the nation spills from the front pages of the papers and TV and into my psyche, I take refuge in the TV shows and heroes of my youth – when all things were possible and so much of today was impossible.

I find reruns of “Gunsmoke” or “The Rifleman” or “Have Gun Will Travel”. The vistas were clean, serene and endless, even if they were black and white. The good guys always won. Love overcame evil. Children did stupid things, but came away stronger every time.

One of the best “mid-century” movies was “High Noon”. Its story structure, directing, and cinematography were so terse and focused, they are still taught in film classes. The tension came from a sheriff’s fruitless effort for community help against four thugs who were coming to kill him and take over the town. There wasn’t a shot fired until the last 15 minutes or so. There were some bruises and a little blood, but Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly left the story and us secure in their happiness and the future. 

I miss other icons of the era, too. Like Andy Griffith and his son Opie. The worst thing they had to deal with was a well-meaning idiot of a deputy. Can you imagine that today?  

What I miss most about those shows wasn’t their reality. It was their aspiration. The lives they presented weren’t anywhere close to real, but they gave us some good examples to follow: honesty, loyalty, courage, gentle humor, a hopeful future.

I take refuge in the non-fiction heroes of that era, too, especially President Dwight Eisenhower. 

He was born in Denison, Texas and grew up in Abilene, Kansas. He loved the outdoors and reading the history books his mother had collected. He graduated from West Point in 1915, part of “the class the stars fell on”, because 59 members eventually became general officers

He applied for, but was rejected, for European duty in WWI. 

In 1919 he commanded an Army convoy that traveled from Washington D.C. to San Francisco. 80 vehicles, with breakdowns and natural roadblocks, took 62 days to get there, an average speed of 5 miles per hour. 

The Supreme Commander of the Allies in Europe during WWII, he coalesced a military from widely divergent countries, from Russia to Britain to the US, and aimed them unerringly at the Third Reich.  

He made tough decisions and always took responsibility for them. In the event the Invasion of France had failed, he drafted a memo ahead of time: “My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.”

His convoy to San Francisco and his post-war visit to Hitler’s Autobahn combined to inspire his bill authorizing the Interstate Highway System, which we are dependent on today.

In his first State of The Union address: “I propose to use whatever authority exists in the office of the President to end segregation in the District of Columbia, including th the Federal Government and any segregation in the Armed Forces”.

He expanded Truman’s integration of the Army to include the Navy: “we shall not take a single backward step. There must be no second class citizens in this country.”

He proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and, when Governor Faubus of Arkansas refused to integrate schools, sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to do it for him. That was the first time federal troops had been used in the South since the Civil War.  

He got us out of the Korean War, and kept us out of any war for both of his terms. He was the last President to do so.

Those were the days when most people felt the next generation would do better than they did. And we did. I’m not so sure of that for my kids or their kids.

Eisenhower, and the fictional heroes of the time, had integrity, compassion, and courage. We called that “character”.  And the country soared.

It may be wishful thinking, but I don’t see why we can’t have that kind of a leader again. 

The wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington, the triple digit heat waves in those states plus Arizona, Texas, and others – it all takes me back to those days of yore when we first learned about global warming.

Remember Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth? Remember all those people who called him an alarmist tree hugger and worse? Remember the Paris Climate Agreement, when so many countries got together to prevent Global Warming (or Climate Change. Potato to you; potato to me) ? Those were the days, right? 

When I was a teenager, you could go for a hike in the mountains and, if you were thirsty, simply drink from a stream. The only caution was to drink the water that bubbled through rocks – less mud that way. 

No one drinks from streams nowadays – too risky for your health.  

The smog in LA and, to a lesser extent, New York or Chicago was the big environmental worry in the mid-20th century. The term “smog” came from England, combining “smoke” and “fog”. LA appropriated it to describe their combination of air (ozone) and auto exhaust. In the 1940’s it blocked LA visibility as throughly as a dense London fog.

In 1969, I was in Cleveland, Ohio when the chemicals in the Cuyahoga River caught fire and Cleveland became a national joke. I left soon after for a new job (and a less humorous address).

Starting in the 1960’s, Congress enacted various Clean Air Acts, each one a bit better than its predecessor. Nixon’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Clean Air Act of 1970 established some environmental regulations with teeth, cleaning LA’s air and Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River on the way. The rest of the country benefitted too. The EPA has helped clean the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the waste we create, as well as protect wildlife. It didn’t take us back to the days when nature ruled, but it has helped slow the path to global warming.  

Until recently. 

Among other policies designed to cut regulations, the Trump Administration has seriously cut or weakened environmental protections. The National Geographic recently published a list of 15 changes he’s made just to the EPA. 

Here are a few:

Criminal prosecutions by the EPA are at a 30 year low.

In June 2017, he pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement, thereby weakening the worldwide effort against global warming.

In August 2017, he weakened the 1972 Clean Water Act which governs pollution of our water ways, effecting, not only our drinking water, but wildlife habitats across the country. 

In October, 2017, he rolled back the Clean Power Plan, which  required the energy sector of the country to cut carbon emissions by 32% by 2030.

Also in 2017, he narrowed the definition of what constitutes a federally protected river or waterway, endangering not just wildlife, but our drinking water too. 

In December, 2017, he removed climate change from the list of national security threats.  

In July of 2018, he redefined the Endangered Species Act to favor economic and commercial considerations over wildlife.  

In August, 2018,  he rescinded regulations about the release of methane flares. Methane traps heat, so even a little more methane in the atmosphere adds a lot more warming to the planet. 

Also in August of 2018, he lowered fuel economy targets from 54 miles per gallon by 2025 to 34 miles per gallon by 2034. Higher fuel economy would have brought lower car emissions, which would have slowed global warming. 

In August, 2019, he weakened the Endangered Species Act, which had brought the bald eagle, the American alligator, the California condor, the humpback whale, and the grizzly bear back from the brink of extinction. His action gave oil and gas companies access to more areas for drilling. 

These are just a few on the National Geographic list. And remember, their list is just a few from the whole list. Environmentalists from Rachel Carson to Al Gore, have been warning of the dire consequences of this kind of action for years. 

If you wonder why Trump hasn’t given more credence to environmental scientists from here and around the world, just tune into one of his press conferences about Covid19 (or Hannity, Carlson, or Ingraham). 

If you like hunting or fishing, boating or hiking, gardening, or just clean air and water for yourself or your family, you might want to think about four more years of this.