When Edward R. Murrow did his famous See It Now broadcast on CBS that helped expose Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), he ended the program with a quote from Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves." His point being that for McCarthyism to have succeeded, it required an acquiescent public to support him and accept it.
I wasn't thinking of Murrow yesterday when I sent a tweet, but afterwards I realized that the connection was apt when I wrote, "Let's be clear, while Donald Trump & Dr. Ben Carson have said reprehensible things, their success is far more a condemnation of today's GOP." Donald Trump keeps exceeding himself with racist and near-fascist comments about Mexicans and Muslims, with calls for building a border wall and registering people of a religious faith he doesn't apparently like. And Dr. Ben Carson keeps making racist pronouncements like referring to vetting Syrian refugees as being similar to that of "rabid dogs." But in the end, the only reason comments such as these have even the slightest resonance is because the two men sit as the top two leaders among Republican voters. If they didn't have the huge GOP support that they do, what they said would have little substantive meaning, or (especially) media coverage. Dingy bars across the country are full of sloppy drunks where such sentiments are heard every day, as are barricaded homes full of angst-ridden reactionaries on the far right, yet those thoughts remain on the tavern stools and in the private rooms without a camera or microphone in sight. So, as reprehensible as are the words of Mr. Trump and Dr. Carson, they would be close to unheard if the two candidates had little Republican support. It would be not much more than the craven rantings of two would-be demagogues. That we do hear those rantings, though, is a mirror of today';s Republican Party -- an embarrassment to its founder Abraham Lincoln and its longtime leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, even the very conservative Barry Goldwater and more, like Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, and Jacob Javits. That Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson can continue to try to undermine the foundation of the United States and its most-impactful credos, like "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," along with "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" -- and most importantly, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution holding high freedom of religion -- only has meaning because half of today's Republican Party supports them. Let's repeat that: half of today's Republican Party supports the two wildly unqualified men who keep pronouncing these outrages. It is that Republican support that that allows such outrages to exist. And to be clear, it's not just that Mr. Trump and Dr. Carson continue to spew their racist, hate-filled, thoughtless, un-American, near-fascist rantings (and if you are angered by that description, you have a very poor definition of registering people for their religion), but almost more to the point, they largely go unchallenged or criticized by their opponents. On occasion, a rival like John Kasich (R-OH) will speak up in opposition, but it's rare and Gov. Kasich's poll numbers are so low as to make his criticism almost meaningless. The point here is that the bulk of today''s Republican Party seems to accept this. I am sure that not all Republicans do, I am sure that there is a significant portion of the GOP that is horrified by what their party has become -- and for all I know they might stay home on Election Day depending on the nominees, or even vote Democratic out of patriotic defense of their country. But right now, it is not possible to look at the success of Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson and not say that the majority of today's Republican Party is giving their support to two men who are pushing their agenda towards a foundation based so much in racism and hate, that it dances on the edge of fascistic outlook. I'm sure that there will be many people enraged by what I write here. That doesn't refute what I'm saying, it merely supports it. Donald Trump spoke on behalf of registering Muslims because of their religion. Dr. Ben Carson made a comparison of Syrian refugees to "rabid dogs." And more. So, anyone who supports these two men are supporting their positions. Which brings us right back to the point here. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson, it is in those who support them.
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This week's contestant is Stacy Fahrion from Denver, Colorado. The hidden song was on the tip of my tongue, and I knew I knew it, but I just couldn't place it. And then I did. Some will likely get it far earlier than I did, because the tip of their is much clearer. As for the composer style, it's one of those styles I just don't know well enough and mix-and-match about four or five different people. So, I didn't get it.
There's something I really love about visiting my dad at his independent living facility, where the general age of most residents is probably in the 80s and 90s. I most especially discovered this when I stayed with him at the place for three months after my mother passed away, but it's reinforced every time I'm here, usually for a couple of weeks. It's that you learn a seriously valuable lesson in life about patience. You learn not to slow down, because running around or even walking fast can cause problems is someone is ahead in the hallways -- even if you pass them safely at a brisk pace can surprise them and risk their falling (which is extremely problematic at that age). You also learn to that you should expect to repeat yourself numerous times. And mostly you learn to be prepared to hear the same stories over and over and over, endlessly -- often during the course of a single meal.
There's an absolutely lovely fellow here, sharp and active, who's in her upper 90s, who has told me about his grandson the lawyer about 30 times. At dinner the other night, he asked five times when I thought my dad who be released from the hospital. (The answer was, of course, the same each time. I'd think a moment and then reply, "I'm not quite sure, it might be tomorrow, though they might want to just observe him for another day.") I'm not remotely being facetious about this being a great learning experience. There really does seem to be something Zen-like in pausing and composing yourself and either listening as if it's the first time or coming up with an intensely polite way to cut a very long story short by explaining that you believe you may know how it ends, as if it's such a great story you're glad to have had it brought up again. Yesterday, there was about as good an example of this as I've come across. From another perspective, it might have made a great sketch on SNL, But I liked that it was more one of those occasions that helped reinforce the learning experience of Zen and put one's training to good use. I had gone to the mail room alcove and saw that a resident appeared to be having some difficulty getting into his mailbox, though I couldn't be sure and didn't want to pry. Eventually, though, he was getting more frustrated and spit out something about them "making these goddamned things so difficult." I've seen him before over the past couple years, so I knew he was well-experienced with the mailboxes here, so maybe it was just one of those bad days when all cylinders aren't firing. I walked over to see if I could help, and immediately saw the problem. For reasons inexplicable, he was using his room key card and trying to jam it in a non-existent slot. "Are you having some difficulty? I asked, and he grumbled again about the thing not working. His hands were full of items he may have pulled from his pockets, one of which I could see was his mailbox key that was on a wrist chain. I suggested he might try that. He took me up on it...though rather than just slide the key into the slot, he (for reasons inexplicable) tried to first take the key off the chain. Something that was causing no end of difficulty. So, I offered to help out, if he'd like me to. He was more than happy to let me, and handed me the key. He had been trying to open box 427, I believe, so I went to open it. "You're box 427, right?" I asked, and he said yes, he was. As I was about to insert the key, I heard him mumble in an annoyed voice that seemed to lay the blame for all this with bureaucracy, that it actually should be 407, since that was his room number. "Well, let's try 407, then, okay," I said. And yes, the mailbox opened. As I handed him his mail, he was so pleased that it all worked out so well. We said our goodbyes and happy holiday greetings. And as I wandered off, I could only hope that this was indeed one of those random very, very senior moments, because otherwise he's going to have a whole lot of mail building up in his little box. (Fortunately, there are always other people wandering into the room to help...) I just think, though, that if everyone had to spend six weeks a year at a senior residence, the world would be a much more beatific place. The elves taking care of the homestead back in Los Angeles took a very different lesson from the story, I must admit and I have a feeling that they were writing it up as a sketch... It was a quiet week. Pastor Kohler leaves town after his email is hacked, Clarence Bunsen experiences an embarrassing medical condition, a group of deer hunting widows attends a male dance revue in Hurley, Wisconsin, and Mr. Hansen finally burns down an old outhouse.
Still a week before Thanksgiving, this is what I woke up to this morning. And it's early in the morning, of course. They're predicting four inches of snow in Chicago today, and the flakes are continuing to drift down. On the other hand, there's no snow forecast for tomorrow -- though, well...it's supposed to be 26 degrees. (At the moment, it's a balmy 33.)
The elves back taking care of the homestead find this all amusing. They wanted to talk longer, but had to rush out to the pool and get a space before it gets too crowded, since it's supposed to hit the lower-80s later in the day. I've written occasionally about my friend Valerie Alexander, who writes and lectures about "happinetss," including her book,Happiness as a Second Language (which you can get here...), among otherss One of the topics that Valerie has been particularly outspoken about is that of online bullies who post horribly mean-spirited "shaming pictures" of others. She just wrote and directed an interesting, enjoyable short film on the subject. Here it is -- |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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