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    

GETTING A GRIP

 By Edwin Cooney

Hello All,

Last week I wrote that much of America is in pain and "that's a shame."

So, how are we Democrats getting a grip? I hope we're not spending a lot of time regretting President Biden and his administration nor the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris or Governor Tim Walz. Of course, some analysis is healthy and even relevant, but let's not scrutinize them to the point of pushing them out of the party as 1981 Democrats sought to do to Jimmy Carter. The main things to keep in mind are twofold:

First, now that Donald Trump and his ilk control the House, Senate, and the Supreme Court, they are solely responsible for what works and what doesn't work. Naturally, there are fissures in the GOP just as there are in the Democratic Party that may well modify the president's nominations and his legislative proposals.

Second, how the president and his minions do what they propose to do will have an effect on how popular they remain. Every administration has a social and political flavor.

Harry Truman was all about “a fair deal at home and abroad.” Ike's administration was about protecting us from Communism. JFK was about youth, glamour and, late in the president's term, civil rights and a nuclear test ban treaty. LBJ was about a bigger and better Rooseveltian new deal. Nixon was about establishing a new "Southern political strategy” and "peace with honor” in Vietnam. Ford sought to "whip inflation now” and protect Nixonian Republicanism. Carter was about everyone's human rights, even in the Middle East! Reagan was about conservatism ending the Cold War. George H. W. Bush was about enlightened conservatism (”read my lips, no new taxes”). Clinton was about neoliberalism. George W. Bush was about stopping terrorism after September 11th, 2001. Barack Obama was about creating healthcare for everyone. Trump's first term was about halting liberal carnage. Joe Biden was about building bridges to sensitive liberalism.

Over the two plus weeks since the election, President-elect Trump appears to be about stripping away needless government and installing procedures that best benefit the wealthy.

What concerns this observer is this department of “Government Efficiency.” Government isn't for the poor and disadvantaged. Government is for the “happy-go-lucky” among us. When government works for the Republicans, it is as American as J. Edgar Hoover once was. When government primarily helps the disadvantaged, it's socialistic, communistic and non-Christian.

The bottom line today is that President-elect Trump, by securing the popular vote, has earned the chance to do things his way rather than mine.

For the present, it's President Trump's bat and ball. If he doesn't get it right, Lucy will demand that Charlie Brown jump on his Democratic donkey and go snatch it away from him!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

MUCH OF AMERICA'S IN PAIN AND THAT'S A SHAME!

By Edwin Cooney

We proud Democrats are in a lot of pain! After all, last Wednesday morning, Donald Trump achieved popular election to the office of President of the United States. Of course, we didn't want Mr. Trump to win at all, but we might have felt a tad better if he'd won in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. All of us are now forced to live (notice I don't say surrender) to Mr. Trump's reality. Now is not the time to debate the differences between democracy and republicanism. The majority prevails in a democracy and, for the present, Donald Trump has prevailed.

Living with reality is distinct from surrendering to prevailing conditions. President-elect Trump also will face limitations and conflicts just as Lyndon Johnson ultimately had to face even in the wake of his 1964 “mandate" and just as Franklin D. Roosevelt did with his 1936 mandate. FDR stumbled when he sought to “pack" the Supreme Court. LBJ faltered when he sought to prevail militarily in Vietnam.

Already, there's a potential conflict between congressmen representing fossil fuel "drill drill drill" constituents versus clean energy companies expecting to manufacture and profit from the sale of those environmental and energy-saving electronic vehicles.

One of the lessons history teaches is that the more responsibility one seeks and accepts, the more accountability one will have!

As for your and my political and social preferences, for our own well-being we can't root for the failure of our national leadership without wishing failure on ourselves. The well-being of our constituents is as legitimate today as it has been. Their time and ours will come if we're conscientiously vigilant!

There was one very tiny phrase in Mr. Trump's victory statement  that gave me a little encouragement. Rather than asserting that he would make America "great again,” he stated that he had to make America better! All of us, individually and collectively ought to strive to be "better!"

Emotionally, I detest Donald Trump and almost everything he stands for and promotes. However, with his victory last Tuesday he has become an historic figure. Should he achieve as few as three of his stated objectives, his presidency will be as significant as those of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, FDR, Truman, LBJ, and Reagan.

Mark Antonio Wright, who today edits The National Review, the magazine founded and once edited by William F. Buckley, Jr, recently asked a set of very intriguing questions about the outcome of last Tuesday's election.

Why, Mr. Wright wondered, didn't Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the rest of those Democratic “goons” cheat this time? Didn't they have control of the Justice Department, the FBI, and the rest of the “deep state’s" intelligence and law enforcement agencies? After all, didn't they successfully cheat President Trump out of his re-election straight from Joe Biden's Delaware basement back in 2020? It just doesn't make sense to Mr. Wright, whom we must assume is no friend of Biden and his liberal Democratic ilk!

Still, Mr. Wright wonders why, in the face of January 6th and Mr. Trump’s criminal convictions, the Democrats decided not to “cheat” and thus deny Donald Trump another term. How can that be?.

As for Vice President Harris, her heart may hurt a bit, but she'll land on her professional and political feet. She's already achieved the honor of her party's nomination. Count the number of people who have sought that highest of honors and compare that to the number of people who have even achieved that honor!

Soon, President Biden will greet Mr. Trump at the White House and offer a smooth transition — not because he should, but because he ought to!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

STRAIGHT FROM THE SHOULDER!

 By Edwin Cooney

Tomorrow, I will go to our town hall and cast my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. I fervently hope you will do the same!

I've been a Democrat since 1976 when I abandoned the Republican Party in favor of Jimmy Carter and I have only occasionally glanced backward to ponder my affection for favored old Republican heroes.

What appeals to me about the general trend of the Democratic Party is its insistence that John and Sally Q. Citizen ought to be continuously considered when determining the best path to be taken in every aspect of national policy, foreign or domestic. Harry Truman used to say that the rich legitimately pay for influence at the highest levels of government. That's all well and good, he went on to say. However, working men and women who lack the capacity to pay for influence need the president and an active Congress to do their bidding. Thus, we all start out with the ability to elect imperfect men and women who invariably disappoint an imperfect constituency.

Over the years, millions of Americans have been disappointed  by the leaders of both political parties, whether it be by the teenage whims of Bill Clinton or the willfulness of President George W. Bush determined to go to war in Iraq to avenge the sins of Saddam Hussein against his father, George H. W. Bush.

Thus, millions of Americans recently have sought a leader who would be determined enough to cut through conventional ways of evaluating events and circumstances. Such a man was to be Donald John Trump, a "mighty hard little crabapple" out of "The Big Apple."

Determined to "Make America Great Again" without defining what that really means, Mr. Trump leaves it up to the most unhappy constituency to make that determination. Since history demonstrates again and again that the new comes from altering the old, anger toward the old is the best pathway toward significant or even fundamental  change.
Many years ago, columnist and comedian Will Rogers, who used piles of ink making fun of politicians, once observed that our system of checks and balances was so perfect that no person could deliberately destroy it. Sadly, as we get ready to go to the polls tomorrow, we  aren't as certain as Mr. Rogers was even during the Great Depression. (Rogers joked that America was the first nation ever to go to the poorhouse in an automobile!)

About two weeks ago, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens suggested a closing argument that Vice President Kamala Harris could use to close her case against Mr. Trump. He asserts that if Mr. Trump wins, we will be a bitterly, vocally, emotionally, exhaustingly divided country. You know this because whatever you thought of his first term, you remember how that division became a part of your daily life. She could point out:  "Thanksgiving dinners you stopped going to -- because of Trump. Friends and neighbors you stopped speaking to -- because of Trump. Topics you wouldn't broach -- because of Trump. There was no getting away from it. Trump is a human jackhammer pounding outside your window at 6:30 a.m. The noise is incessant. It's in the ad hominem tweets, the nasty nicknames, the disparagement of anyone who disagrees with him as an idiot, a weakling, an enemy of the people. And let's be honest: the noise also came from the enraged reaction that Trump provoked, whether on cable TV or the streets of many of our cities. Trump brought out the worst in everyone, not just his most ardent fans but also -- yes -- his most acerbic critics. In the four years of his presidency, he turned us into a nation of haters. He'll do it again if you elect him next month."

Through my lifelong experience of people’s natural behavior, I’m convinced that the vast electorate is deeply and genuinely sick and tired of Mr. Trump's emotional vamping. However, history may be about to tell me that I'm badly mistaken.

After all, the history of our British cousins demonstrates that they too often were ruled by selfish kings, jealous kings and even murderous kings. A king was usually the strongest warrior imbued with majestic royalty. In 1199, King Richard the Lionheart was succeeded by his youngest brother John who wrecked England's economically and militarily so badly that Pope Innocent the Third temporally prohibited England from participating in all spiritual ceremonies and rights. This was devastating to a medieval society that so depended on the blessings of God for a sense of spiritual equity. The result in 1216 was the Magna Carta which denied the king the right of absolute rule. Later on, came the Wars of the Roses between the Yorks and the Lancaster during the 1400s.

Still later, King Henry the 8th clashed with Rome and the struggle between the Catholics and Protestants put Britain in an economic and political tailspin for decades to come.

Now we in America  could be on the verge of a twisted form or version of democracy. We may learn the lesson that a majority may well be wicked enough to choke itself to death via its own resentment of the conditions in which it is currently living!

However, as near as we may be to an economic and moral disaster, we're not there yet.

What you and I are still free to do in the privacy of the voting booth tomorrow, November, 5th, is to bring  this lunge toward oligarchy to a screeching halt.

Back in 1976, Christians nearly rejected a presidential candidate because he told Playboy that he sometimes had lust in his heart. Today some Christians (although I don't believe that it's most Christians) are about to support the presidential candidacy of a man who stands atop a political platform to openly discuss the significance of a dead golfer's manhood.

I still believe that there's a lot of good sense within the conscience of the American people. Certainly no one would insist that Vice President Kamala Harris represents all that's pure and good. However, any political movement that spreads suspicion and hatred among a free people demonstrates a lack  of regard toward the constituency it seeks to govern.

I'm convinced that tomorrow, November 5th, 2024, the fair-minded and the “lionhearted" people of the United States of America will say no to Donald Trump.

If fair-minded Americans say yes to Mr. Trump, then I suppose we all deserve him.

As for now, I present to you the dismissal words uttered by Oliver Cromwell when he decided that the Long Parliament of 1748-1760 had lasted too long. This dramatic and powerful rejection applies to Mr. Trump in 2024:

"You have sat too long here for any good you've been doing. Depart, I say,  and let us have done with you. In the name of God---Go!"

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY