A few years back, Gen. Honore told a persistently obnoxious reporter something like: You’re stuck on stupid. We’re moving forward. In the month since President Trump’s inauguration, we’ve been witness to an equally persistent, obnoxious, and baseless tantrum by seditionists, some Democrats, and much of the news media. Bad behavior by the media is nothing new (i.e., yellow journalism) but an entire Senate caucus behaving like unsupervised toddlers is new to me.
Beyond those pandering to their base and liberal groups going into coordinated attack mode, we have seen thugs rioting in cities and on campuses across the country. We’ve witnessed two “women’s” marches in Washington. One with a coherent message and conducted with dignity and the other spewing incoherent obscenity and spreading as much physical as intellectual trash. We watched as many Democrats “boycotted” the inauguration and multiple cabinet hearings. The list could go on, but these examples, I submit, demonstrate that we’ve reached a time of choosing.
If the number of governorships and the number of legislative seats that have changed hands are an indication, it’s clear the people were unimpressed by the prospect of continuing the progressive rampage led by President Obama. Across the country, the people made a clear choice last November and demonstrated that the massive concentration of progressivism in a few urban centers was foreseen by the founders, who wisely created the Electoral College to prevent exactly this “tail wagging the dog” corruption of our elections.
The hissy fit being pitched by much of the left has gone on for too long and it’s time for reasonable people to decide whether to further indulge these toddlers or to move on. As with the 2-year-old screaming and writhing on the floor, the tantrum will continue until the parent leaves the room, demonstrably withdrawing attention.
While the snowflakes rant and riot about their electoral loss, their bruised egos, or their safe spaces being breached, adults must choose whether to focus on the challenges our country faces after eight, and I would argue 24, years of inattention to our economy, infrastructure, health care, international relations, public safety, and education.
I would hope the sane among us have concluded that progressive tax-and-spend solutions fail, always and everywhere. That redistributing wealth does not create prosperity. That “righteous” discrimination does not produce fairness. That mewling does not produce peace or international respect. That one speed for all does not maximize the results of our children’s education. That suppressing law enforcement does not produce safer streets, and that demonization does not produce unity and civility.
To those like myself, who experienced the darkness of the 1960s and ’70s, then Ronald Reagan’s “morning in America,” it feels like the sun is once again rising. Others who voted for Donald Trump because they felt forced to make the best of two bad choices may worry that things will change too much and too fast. To them I say, worrying won’t help, but there is now an unprecedented opportunity to make a difference.
Responsible adults seek out both sides of issues, but continuing to listen to the rantings of those we find have abandoned all pretense of truth and fairness is just masochism. Withdraw attention from those presuming to tell us what to think, and seek out those who explain, in civil and rational terms, what they believe.
Only by engaging our neighbors and elected officials can we judge whether they are principled advocates seeking to craft solutions providing the most benefit for all with the fewest unforeseen consequences or self-serving materialists seeking to advance their own interests at others’ expense.
Such engagement does require effort: “I love spending time at political and civic meetings,” said nobody (who is sane). Communicating with elected officials, especially those in Washington, is exceedingly difficult. Despite being told to call and write to legislators, I’ve been told that postal letters go to the shredder unopened; emails, like phone calls that reach the answering machine, are deleted; and even phone calls answered by staffers are reduced to yellow message slips that follow unopened envelopes into the shredder. In my experience, local officials do read and often answer their mail. All I’ve spoken with say that face-to-face discussion does influence their decisions.
Despite the inconvenience, the effort to get out and involved is also rewarding and reassuring. No politician is quite as evil as some may portray them and neither is any “spotless.” That is doubly true of our neighbors. There will be the occasional insufferable boor, but most are surprisingly like-minded, decent, rational people whose values, principles, and even interests we share.
(Ken Frederic is a Maine native and alumnus of Brewer High School and the University of Maine at Orono. Before retirement, he worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense. He and his wife, Betty Ann, now live in Bristol and volunteer with several community organizations.)
