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