By Edwin Cooney
Opening his second presidential nomination address at San Francisco in late August of 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told the following story to the assembled delegates.
Two new Republican office holders were riding in a Washington, D.C. taxi early in 1953, when one of them glanced up at a building bearing a sign that read: "What's past is prologue." “What does that mean?" one of them asked the learned taxi driver. "Oh," said the cabbie, "that's just bureaucrat talk. All that means is you ain't seen nothin' yet!"
There are 8,760 hours as of today remaining in President Donald Trump's term, realistically assuming his likely acquittal of impeachment charges in the U.S. Senate. (I could offer the minutes and seconds as well, but that would be absurdly absurd!) The question is: Who will use the time left most effectively, Trump or Trump's opponents?
On the night of November 6th, 1984 that Ronald Reagan was re-elected, referring to his upcoming term as compared to his nearly completed first term, he said "What's past is prologue" right out loud — "You ain't seen nothin' yet." However, rather than balanced budgets and lower taxes, what was next was Iran-Contra, the 1986 tax increase, and a debt three times Jimmy Carter's 1980 one trillion dollar record deficit!
The key to America's socio/political and economic future is invariably our national attitude toward one another. Attitude governs outlook, which together constitutes socio/political and economic results.
In a critical commentary against Bernie Sanders last week, columnist David Brooks observed that Sanders and others live in an era of "theyism - that's T.H.E.Y.i.s.m.” In other words, there are groups (outside the rest of us) who are doing this or that to the national body politic. There's President Trump's theyism, which consists of all who disagree with, or oppose him. There’s Conservatism's theyisms consisting of gun grabbers, LGBTQ types, pro-choice advocates, socialists, and, of course, secularists and climate change suckers. Liberal’s theyisms are: exploiting capitalists, racists, anti-choice protestors, and sexists, as well as climate change deniers. All these “theys" are deliberately doing America socio/economic harm. Bernie Sander's personal theyism, according to Mr. Brooks, is his ongoing charge that capitalists are exploiting workers. Brooks says the flaw in capitalism is a lack of productivity rather than an abundance of greed-inspired exploitation. Brooks scolds Bernie Sanders for purposely exaggerating the capitalist's genuine productivity dilemma. If we feed that which produces, employers and workers will all be profitably productive according to David Brooks. Thus, socialist exploitive theory constitutes Senator Sanders’ theyism!
"Theyism" is apparently everywhere and crosses ideological lines. Just the other day I received two emails from a reader who doesn't think much of my "far left-wing BS,” but at least this reader looks forward to it. In one missive this reader sent, he/she expressed utter contempt for Barack Obama calling him scum, even though this reader voted for Obama in 2008. Pointing out that his/her family were once "Kennedy Democrats, but are no more.” this critic's theyism's are liberals like me who've "drunk the Kool-Aid of socialism instead of the tea of liberty.” Finally, this reader expresses regret for his/her past political choices. That's especially sad. I voted for Nixon and would have voted for Goldwater at one point except that I was too young to vote for Barry. I don't regret past choices as they constitute what I understood and how I evaluated what I knew then. I highly recommend that this reader give him or herself credit for voting his/her conviction in 2008 or any other time. I look forward to hearing from this reader again and again so that we might have a mutually enhancing dialog. All of your responses to these musings make writing them worthwhile.
What none of us knows, as the final months, days and hours of President Trump's term begin passing by, is the effect his behavior will have on how people vote. As I see it, Donald Trump's conservatism is the least of his offenses. His conservatism is enough to prevent my voting for him. The question is whether Donald Trump really and truly is a conservative! I know some conservatives who've told me that they doubted Richard Nixon's "conservatism" but for them his political instincts were sufficiently superior to John Kennedy's, Lyndon Johnson's, Hubert Humphrey's or George McGovern's liberalism to suit them. Ironically, there are apparently a number of prominent 2020 conservatives who doubt President Trump’s conservative credentials!
Change in times of tyranny or exploitation is what has kept this republic afloat since 1776. Federalism replaced confederacy in 1788 with the adoption of the federal Constitution leavened by the Bill of Rights in 1791. Slavery was abolished by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution in the 1860s and ‘70s. The 16th Amendment brought about the progressive income tax replacing the government's reliance on tariffs. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. All of these changes followed eras of limited opportunity for Americans.
If liberty-advancing change is the true prologue that dominates in 2020, we'll be well served. If the era of "theyism" prevails, which once represented 18th Century confederacy, then the best days of our republic may well be the new prologue which indicates regression into confederacy and perhaps into a new era of medievalism.
I don't know whose “theyism” is likely to prevail. What I am sure is that tomorrow's nation and world will be different from yours and mine.
Even more, that's the way it ought to be. History only informs, it never dictates. Tomorrow belongs not to us, but to our children, who hopefully will take the best of us and make a world suited to themselves, which they may regard as being better than our own. If they don't, perhaps their children will outdo even them!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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