MY POLITICAL RECESS

By Edwin Cooney

Since yesterday was Groundhog Day, I guess I'll equate President Trump with Punxsutawney Phil. The very idea is a bit scary, but let's have a little fun!

My first thought has to do with what might happen to Phil if President Trump should realize that the Pennsylvania hibernator is getting more national attention, even for a single day, than he is. After all, Mr. Trump is the President of the United States on his way to perhaps eventually becoming America's first king. Little Phil is already vulnerable to larger rodents. Come to think of it, however, since Mr. T. is America's #1 in every category every day, he may well regard himself as an even greater rodent than Punxsutawney Phil. Additionally, Old Phil is even sleepier than “Sleepy” Joe!

Another thing that makes me worry about Phil is that he may not realize that he is one of the leaders of the “Deep State.” After all, he's been a celebrity since 1887. Hence, Punxsutawney Phil has been in office during the administrations of those crooked presidents who have tolerated socialism, presidents who have cheated on their wives, presidents who have taken advantage of White House interns, and presidents who have given away our Panama Canal for the benefit of the Chinese. One must keep in mind that the 138-year-old Woody has been a celebrity longer than the mere 78-year-old Great American Savior — but that's why it's way past time for Donnie Johnny to do something about him!

As for convenient political labeling, have you ever heard a Conservative refrain from labeling Liberals as being on the “far left”? Since there is a far left, doesn't there have to be a “near left”? For the last twelve years we've heard about the “deep state.” Shouldn’t there then be a “shallow state”?

Woodrow Wilson, one of my least favorite presidents, once began a speech with the words: We stand in the presence of an awakened nation impatient of partisan make believe.  George Washington, in his September 19th, 1796 farewell message, warned against the creation of political parties. However wise both of these two statesmen were, they were noninstructive. Without a competitive political process, how were free men and women supposed to pick their leaders? Of course, money has always been at the center of both public and private and even religious affairs. Hence the rich will always have the advantage when it comes to making choices and setting policies.

It's time to let President Trump do what he will, but that doesn't mean we should put our collective consciences in our back pockets!

It is time, however, to be ready for the next time it is our turn to set the agenda.

Remember, if we cheapen the presidential office, we can hardly expect it to work for us when we're atop the summit once again!

Even more, let's be sure we're ready when recess is over!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY      
 

HE’S THE MAN ON TOP, LIKE IT OR NOT

By Edwin Cooney

I didn’t and don't like it at all, but Donald John (I often refer to him as "Donnie Johnny”) Trump occasionally is unpredictable enough to be interesting. The bottom line is that he's real and must be taken seriously! Mr. Trump finally won America's popular vote by a percentage-and-a-half, but the heart of the problem is his permanent anger with the land and the people he insists he loves.

Just a word about my personal perspective. Much of my life since my late teens has been learning about the lives of the men who have served as president of the United States. I'm not as knowledgeable as Jon Meacham or Michael Beschloss, but over the years, presidents have become real people to me. I have favorites like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, TR, Calvin Coolidge, FDR, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. My least favorites are Andrew Jackson, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Grover Cleveland, and Woodrow Wilson. My mind has occasionally  shifted regarding Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and Harry Truman. In order to reach reasonable conclusions about these presidents, it requires one to objectively learn about these men and measure the socio/political environments from which they came.

 Back in 1979, I heard British Prime Minister James Callaghan announce in almost a cheery voice that Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher had toppled his government by one vote bringing a nationwide election that would sweep “Sunny Jim” from the prime ministership forever. Donald Trump has given two inaugural addresses, both of which show nothing but contempt for most of his predecessors — certainly including the four living presidents who honored him by attending his second inaugural last Monday, January 20th, 2025.

These men, according to him, have appointed crooks to the Justice Department, taxed Mr. and Mrs. America in support of socialistic or “woke” causes, allowed foreign criminals to thrive here in America and, worst of all, have encouraged the slaughter of police officers in the name of civil rights.

The most blatant irony is that right after expressing what FDR used to call "crocodile tears" about the shooting of police, he proceeded to pardon some 1,600 people who defied the law on January 6th, 2021. In other words, shoot a police officer on behalf of George Floyd and you're a crook worthy of prison or even capital punishment, but do that on behalf of President Donald Trump, you're a proud patriot.

A personal friend of mine says he's “cautiously optimistic” about the path President #47 is taking, but he's not sure I'm making an effort toward optimism about President Trump. This gentleman is really and truly a fine Christian. Just as I would, he'd come down like a brick if his son deliberately insulted people due to their religious beliefs or even gender identification, but he requires nothing but standard tax cuts from his newly inaugurated Republican president.

In the late 1960s and well into the 1970s, people named Angela Davis, George Jackson, Stokely Carmichael, and Huey Newton claimed their personal patriotism every time they were accused of breaking the law. Sometimes they weren't guilty of breaking any law, but were merely guilty of protesting as a black American.

Last Inauguration Day, I heard a president straight out of the 19th Century. I heard Andrew Jackson justifying The Trail of Tears along which the Cherokee Indians were driven into Oklahoma. I heard James K. Polk out of Manifest Destiny going to war with Mexico, thereby bringing about the Civil War. I heard Grover Cleveland being thirsty for Hawaii, Teddy Roosevelt stealing the most important part of Panama, and I heard the United Fruit Company making its claims to lands in Central and South America. Beyond that, I heard an appetite hungering and thirsting for Canada, Greenland and, of course, Panama.

Let's be clear!  President Trump is right about a lot of things and those things have been presented to the public more dramatically and effectively than have the cases and causes raised by his opposition. However, there's a huge difference between recognizing a problem and the capacity to solve any problem. Sometimes what constitutes a problem is a solution to someone else's need. Donald Trump's insistence that there are only two genders, male and female, only belittles other people's feelings.

Identifying something that angers or threatens you is a different problem for someone else. The practicality that faces a family seeking to emigrate to the United States is a life-saving venture. Our immigration rules are legitimate for the purpose of controlling or managing our domestic affairs, but it's equally true that people don't walk hundreds of miles across one or two countries just because they feel like taking a hike. If we send troops to another country's border, to them that's a threat as much as it is self defense for us.

These days we are entrenched in conflict for both good and bad reasons. For example, President Trump comes across as sympathetic to hurricanes in North Carolina but blames the governor of “liberal California” due to the wildfires in the Golden State.

My biggest overall problem that stultifies my effort to be optimistic about President Trump is my lack of confidence in his ability to effectively comprehend other people's legitimate needs if they aren't sympathetic to Donald Trump's own social, political or spiritual agenda.

Last week's inaugural was a proclamation more than it was an understanding communication!

There are 1,461 days in most presidential terms and as of today there are 1,456 days remaining.

Mr. Trump, act like a president rather than like a king  and America will treat you the way it ought!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY    

JIMMY'S WAYS

By Edwin Cooney

As we prepare to celebrate Donald Trump's second inauguration, America is pausing to honor a former president whose ways of wondering, thinking, and worshiping vastly differed from that of President-elect Trump.

Fifty years ago as James Earl Carter began his most unlikely quest for the presidency, he introduced himself to you and me as "Jimmy" rather than as “James” as in Madison, Monroe, Polk,  Buchanan, and Garfield. In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Jimmy's political commitment was his personal integrity as his bond of public trust — thus promising never to lie to the American people.

A “born-again Christian," Jimmy generally avoided proselytizing his religion thus allowing his behavior as a Christian — rather than his reputation as such — to demonstrate what he was all about.

The fact of the matter was that he was offering his services to the public as a politician rather than as a saintly figure, which is actually quite ironic.

Although Jimmy was successful enough to outdo other politicians for the presidency, his ultimate failure was as a politician. Having been elected as an outsider, he needed to be a successful insider to get his agenda through Congress. His clash with Teddy Kennedy and the liberal element of the party ultimately cost him the November election of 1980. On the very night of his defeat, he conceded to Ronald Reagan sufficiently early to defeat a number of would-be Democratic Party congressmen and women which almost caused him to be literally read out of his party. The convention that nominated Walter Mondale pointedly ignored Jimmy Carter in 1984.

As for Jimmy Carter's ways of thinking and working, consider the following. The Panama Canal Treaty in September 1977 solidified and strengthened Central American peace that resulted in the Arias Peace and Unity Agreement in 1987. The Camp David Accords and the Israeli Egyptian Peace Treaty of 1978 and 1979 still prevail in the most contentious part of the world.

During his inaugural address, Jimmy Carter made it clear that how nations handled human rights would primarily affect our relationship with them. Former President Nixon insisted that holding the Soviets to human rights expectations was both pointless and naive. However, the Carter Doctrine issued following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979 warned Russia that further territorial expansion into the Persian Gulf would result in a possible military response and ultimately stultified Soviet advancement throughout Western Asia. His recognition of Communist China while insuring the security and safety of Taiwan upheld America's commitment to the maintenance of international freedom.

To his ultimate detriment, Carter’s commitment to free the American hostages was far more personal than it was political. (Note that with the exception of FDR, Harry Truman, and perhaps Mr. Reagan, no president had a greater positive effect on American foreign affairs than President Carter.)

As for domestic Carter achievements, on January 21st, 1977, President Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders. That commitment was originally a political risk! It was a decision he announced during a campaign appearance before the annual American Legion Convention which was held in Seattle in September 1976. Candidate Carter declared that in order to put the divisiveness of the Vietnam conflict behind us, he would pardon American draft evaders upon becoming president. His declaration was booed by his audience, a response which must have discouraged many of his political supporters.

 In 1977, Carter deregulated cargo-carrying airlines. In 1978, he deregulated commercial airlines and the sale of natural gas. In 1980, he deregulated the trucking industry. That was followed up by the president's deregulation of "Ma Bell.”

In 1977, President Carter outlawed the dumping of raw sewage into the ocean. The following year he signed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Finally, following the 1980 election, Mr. Carter signed the Alaska Land Control Act, setting aside some 140 million acres of land for national parks and the establishment of wilderness areas.

In 1977, President Carter signed a measure making food stamps free to everyone who qualified to receive them. In 1978, he signed the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act sponsored by Hubert Humphrey, Democrat from Minnesota, and Augustus F. Hawkins, Democrat of California, setting a goal of 4 percent unemployment by 1983 and requiring the president to issue public reports on employment, unemployment, inflation, and production. In addition, the development of energy-saving and climate-improving strategies were put into practice by Carter, demonstrated by the installation of solar panels in the White House.

Jimmy and Rosalynn held opposite positions on capital punishment. While visiting inmates in state prison, Rosalynn met and was impressed by Mary Prince who'd been wrongly convicted of murder. The Carters were sufficiently impressed with her to make her their daughter Amy's caretaker. They ultimately brought her to the White House where she became part of the Carter family. Mary Prince would be officially pardoned by the State of Georgia. Like Thomas Jefferson before him, Carter believed that capital punishment could only be applicable when it could be perfectly utilized.

What's fascinating to contemplate is how Jimmy Carter's dedication to person-to-person care only began to matter following his 1980 defeat for re-election.

During the first months of his forced retirement, Jimmy was genuinely at sea as to what to do with the rest of his life. In March 1982, he awakened suddenly in the night thus startling Rosalynn who feared that he might be ill. However, what had awakened the 57-year-old former President was the sudden realization of what he should do with the years ahead.

The Carter Center would be established so that Mr. Carter could use the reputation of his former office on behalf of political and social needs, not only for his former constituency but also for people all over the world. Henceforth, he would study the effects of diseases of which most Americans had never heard. He joined businessman Millard Fuller's Habitat For Humanity to built homes for the poor. He monitored contested elections and encouraged peaceful competition everywhere.

During his 1977 Inaugural, he made it clear that the establishment and strengthening of human rights regardless of whom it disturbed would be the main goal of his public service.

Only Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt approach Jimmy Carter's passion for people.

Scholars may perhaps continue to separate the significance of his presidency versus his post presidency, but this observer insists that like love and marriage, “you can't have one without the other!”

Today, Americans of differing political persuasions have come to appreciate and love "Jimmy Carter's ways” just as they ought. From this day onward, his deeds as President of the United States will have finally caught up with his reputation as an outstanding humanitarian who just happened to become President of the United States of America.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

A SET OF INTERESTING IRONIES

By Edwin Cooney

One of last week's major headlines (aside from those having to do with President-elect Trump's incoming cabinet selections, the change of government in Syria, or the murder of an insurance company executive) has to do with a rather significant American phenomenon. That phenomenon is the contentious selection of 26-year-old outfielder Juan Soto by the Mets, effectively stealing his services from the mighty New York Yankees.

The free agent acquisition of Soto by the Mets was obviously a good decision as the young left-handed slugger is a splendid baseball commodity. However, there are several truths about this transaction that diminishes its significance.

First, it guarantees the Mets absolutely nothing since the "World Champion” Los Angeles Dodgers, the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies will have something to say or do about the Mets' success in the National League next season.

Second, American League teams such as the Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, and other league franchises will have much to say about the fate of the Yankees next year.

However, in New York sports culture which is so dependent on comparison and competition, the Mets undoubtedly won a public relations coup over the mighty Yankees on Sunday night, December 7th, 2024.

There's nothing new about this, especially in New York. Back in 1915, under manager John McGraw, the Giants were the kings of New York. Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston, two ambitious entrepreneur friends of Mr. McGraw, scraped up $460,000 to purchase the lowly Yankees as McGraw suggested. Thus, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery, who had purchased the team in 1903 for a mere $18,000, made a handsome profit. Within eight years, the Yankees were not only outdrawing the mighty Giants, they defeated them in the 1923 World Series in their brand new Yankees Stadium which was just across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds. Jacob Ruppert, the son of a brewery magnate who was born in 1867, rose in New York society to be elected to Congress from the "Silk Stocking District” of New York. Owner Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston, a native of Texas, made his money in the reconstruction of Cuba following the Spanish American War. Once the two were in charge of the Yankees, they disagreed about everything except spending to increase the value of the Club. Huston disliked manager Miller Huggins whom Ruppert backed over the whims of Babe Ruth. The two split up in 1923 when Ruppert paid Huston a million and a half dollars to gain sole control of the Yankees.

Competition between the Yankees, Dodgers, Giants, and, eventually, the Mets was inevitable. In 1965, the Mets under Casey Stengel signed Yogi Berra who had just been fired by the Yankees after losing the 1964 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. (Not that it did them much good: the Mets ultimately fired Yogi 10 years later even after he'd taken them to the 7th game of the 1973 World Series against Charley Finley's Oakland A’s.)

The key factor here, as in the past, was the willingness of exceedingly wealthy owners such as the Steinbrenners and, now, "Uncle" Steve Cohen to please Mets' fans.

Another intriguing question is: will an Uncle Steve Cohen "World Championship equal that of the 1969 “Miracle Mets” championship glorified by such names as Donald Grant, Joan Payson, Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges and, of course, Yogi Berra who was their first base coach at the time?

Ultimately, there remains the question, what value does any major league team have to any sports fan? Sports entrepreneurs and even sports writers insist these days that fan support matters above all, but does it really? Are the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and other teams really yours or mine?

A few years ago I insisted that I wasn't going to allow George Steinbrenner to ruin "My Yankees.”

Hence the question: who was I kidding?

Ah, but sports is merely entertainment! Therein lies still another question! What's the ultimate value of entertainment?

You tell me, please?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

AMERICA, A PEOPLE OF PURPOSE

By Edwin Cooney

Perhaps our innocence was blown away by the assassination of President Kennedy that Friday, November 22nd, 1963, but our purposefulness as a people was more than enhanced. The vital person of the  presidency was shown to be mortal, but the office was an institution authorized and owned by a free people and was not to be denied to them. Hence, we would seek to solve the crime by our own means and in our own individual ways.

Beyond law enforcement, there were suspicions to be investigated. There were political theories to be exercised. Was the rifleman a communist, a racist, a gangster, or even a drug-induced fanatic?

Was the cause too many guns, too few Secret Service personnel, a lackadaisical Dallas police force, or perhaps the existing political divide within the state of Texas?

Who most immediately benefited from the deed? Was the government a party to the assassination? How about the Mafia? Did government and organized crime have a joint stake in JFK's death?  How could "we the people" prevent this deed from ever occurring again? After all, we were a purposeful people.

We demanded to be safe, secure and, above all, a satisfied people.

As to who we are, it depends on what anyone who seeks to serve us wants. Politicians call us "taxpayers.” Professionals call us “clients” or “customers.”

We are parents, teachers, the educated, the laborer, the patient. In fact, we are so many things to so many people with varying needs and demands. History has demonstrated that the presidency of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson marked the close of 20th Century liberalism going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal during which our parents, teachers, and preachers were intellectually and spiritually educated. The political institutions, the colleges and universities, churches and synagogues, lawyers and doctors would struggle for the next thirty to fifty years to meet ever changing expectations.

On November 22nd, 1963, Donald Trump was a rebellious teenager. Joe Biden was attending the University of Syracuse. Barack Obama was two years old. “Shrub" Bush was in high school. Bill Clinton was a teenager who had visited President Kennedy that past August and shaken his hand.  George H. W. Bush was planning a 1964 run for the House. Ronald Reagan was a less than prominent actor. No one had even heard of Jimmy (who?) Carter down there in southwest Georgia. Gerald Ford was about to successfully run for GOP House Minority leader in 1965. Richard Nixon was practicing law in New York City and his presidential prospects were pretty gloomy. As for Lyndon B. Johnson, he was Vice President who a few believed was about to be dumped by the Kennedys.

What none of us could know in 1963 was how our values and understandings would clash during the coming traumatic decades of war, scandal and social upheaval. Sixty one years of politically stormy weather were to pass to get to election day of 2024.

With all of our “ohs" and woes, living in America has been and remains a pretty good deal. As for the immediate future, Democrats may have serious doubts. However, quick as a wink, the ins can become the outs!

Very soon, this willful and purposeful people will ask the powers that be  that inevitable question: "what have you done for me lately?"

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

AMERICANS INNOCENT: REALLY, TRULY?

By Edwin Cooney

Last week, I quoted CBS newsman Bob Schieffer as observing: "Americans awakened on the morning of Saturday, November 23rd, 1963 stripped of their innocence.”  Are any people truly innocent?

Does any nation, despite its advertised ideology, possess a conscience?
Can there be a national consciousness? Ought there to be?

What would that mean and how might it express itself?

If America indeed awakened on that historic Saturday in 1963 stripped of its “innocence," of what was it innocent? Of what was every other nation guilty in 1776 that newly independent America was not?
 
Although this country had just celebrated its 187th birthday, America was just a baby compared to France which was approaching its 1,263rd  or England (America's mother country) which would celebrate its 897th birthday that Christmas of 1963. Still, like its two European predecessors as a contiguous people, America had developed a set of expectations according to its history. After all, young America was the first Republican form of government free of royalty.

As a newly 18-year-old lad that fall, I had a sense of some of the both admirable and regrettable behaviors of my fellow citizens.

We had fought the South and the Union had prevailed in a Civil War that had set slaves free back in the 1860’s. We had defeated a virulent form of autocracy in World War I and Nazism and Japanese imperialism in World War II. We had established and internationalized the Red Cross. We had assisted Japan in the 1920’s after a devastating earthquake. We had established the new United Nations to prevent future wars and sent some of our sons to Korea to stop the advancement of Communism. We were about to halt Communism in Vietnam.

True, “Jim Crow” was still pretty strong in the South. Northern liberals (later called human secularists) had just relieved our public schools of official prayers. Secularism was growing faster than Christianity and Judaism. As for Islam, hadn't medieval kings, knights and popes settled the hash of that ancient society centuries ago via three crusades?

Summing it all up, we were a pretty decent and fair people with a pretty extraordinary president who was handsome and very personable. Certainly the FBI, CIA and the Secret Service were determined to protect him, weren't they?

About that time in my life, I had learned how to peruse maps. I would look at the capitals and nations under Communism and I would wonder what those sad peoples had done to deserve their police state existence! Did they feel enslaved as some members of Congress suggested during their annual call for the banishment of Communist totalitarianism?

If we weren't innocent, what were we? Good, bad, fair, selfish, grasping, money hungry, all of the above or perhaps none of the above? Did God really “bless America” (as Irving Berlin wrote for Kate Smith back in 1938) just because we were America and not Russia or Yugoslavia or India?

How could we be any closer to God than, say, Israel? After all, Moses came from Mount Sinai where he had received the Ten Commandments  prior to fleeing Egypt for Israel. George Washington came from Westmoreland County, Virginia where he had pruned a lot of cherry trees --except one, of course!

So, if we're not either innocent nor guilty, what are we? Even more, who are we? Do we even know each other as well as we ought?

I've one or two ideas! I'll share them with you next time.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

AMERICA, STRIPPED OF ITS INNOCENCE

By Edwin Cooney

Today, November 25th, 2024, marks 61 years and 3 days since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Bob Schieffer, one of the few newsmen living today who'd covered the assassination story, observed on CBS the morning of November 22nd, 2013, the 50th anniversary of the assassination:

"Americans awakened on the morning of Saturday, November 23rd, 1963 stripped of their innocence.”

I've believed that observation since that weekend. It seemed to be true at the time. After all, it wasn't until the shooting of President Kennedy that civil rights divisions hit their full angry intensity. It was after JFK's demise that the Vietnam War divided America under the very man, Lyndon Johnson, whom JFK had selected to succeed him. Next came Dr. King's and the late president's brother Bobby who were swept away. After that, Richard Nixon swept himself away by internalizing antiwar criticism by his "liberal" enemies.

Today we live in a socio/political society that has turned political opposition into criminality.

Not that the world had been perfect up until then.  After all, America had enslaved Blacks and committed wholesale genocide against Native Americans. Even religious prejudice was a part of America's story, but many of our accomplishments did overshadow our sins.

Still, America had saved its Union from a bloody and divisive civil war. Twice, America had saved the old world from itself. We had populated a continent through "manifest destiny” during the 1840s. We had established great unions strong enough to counter the forces of very wealthy corporations. We had mastered science enough to rid ourselves of disease despite the observation of the president of a major college who insisted that if God wanted us to be free of smallpox he wouldn't have invented smallpox! Fortunately, George Washington didn't agree and inoculated his troops against the disease.

America was blessed when it established the Red Cross and eventually internationalized it. Although Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley had been assassinated, their reputation was within the powers and potentials of their presidential offices. Meanwhile, Americans could relate to Jack Kennedy’s personality on their living room television sets and in  glamorous newspapers and magazines of the day.

Presidents were, of course, mortal, and one was even physically crippled, although intellectually and spiritually powerful. In the fall of 1963, the Secret Service and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI were certainly  dedicated to keeping this vital young president safe from any harm ---were they not!

Then came those six seconds in Dallas shortly after 12:30 central standard time. Within minutes, who was responsible became as significant as the deed itself!

Yes, there were still good and wondrous things yet to happen here in America. However, they wouldn't come with the anticipated expectation that they once did.

Before Friday, November 22nd, 1963, we expected the best to happen to us. Since that historic date we've been merely privileged, lucky if you choose, when wondrous things do occur.

Next week, the topic will be: we, the innocent!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY