Morning Thanks

Garrison Keillor once said we'd all be better off if we all started the day by giving thanks for just one thing. I'll try.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Fire away


For saying this, I'll get blistered, I know, but here goes: I thought the Democratic Convention was a triumph. But then, I think Obama was a wonderful president. (Okay, flip the safety off those flamethrowers). 

It's just sad that we're so horribly split.  Robert Costa and Karen Tumulty, in this morning's Washington Post put it this way: "The country’s two major political parties, emerging from their conventions to square off in the general election, are speaking to Americas unrecognizable to each other. . ."

People came over a couple nights ago and sat outside on our patio. We've got no trees, so the ball-of-flame sun in the southern sky made it hard to sit outside if you didn't have sunglasses or a visor. I told people I had a host of caps, walked in the house to get a couple, and picked up one that said "Obama '08." I knew very well that two of our guests were died-in-the-wool Republicans, felt their torrid heat before, so I left the Obama cap inside.

Then, the next night, at the city park, a man my age, huge chest, walked up in a gray t-shirt big as a bed sheet that announced in big block lettering, "Hillary for Prison." There it was, across his chest. He walked around proud as a bully. 

I told myself I was a wimp, scared to unveil that already historic Obama cap in front of a couple of men who likely would have loudly admired the condemnation boldly proclaimed across the wide chest of that Trumpian in the middle of the park. He wore that thing proudly. 

Maybe you've seen the Dick Morris video, commended to me yesterday via Facebook and posted there by an old friend. Ten minutes of undiluted hate from a man Fox News once fired for lying, a man whose mission has been devoted to hate since then-President Clinton cut him off the payroll. Later, I read a FB note from someone who believes that the Clintons are cold-blooded killers, having murdered (among other enemies) young women Bill got with child. Not just murderers, mass murderers--Bonnie and Clyde or whatever. Believes it. The media is simply in on the whole plot, even Fox.

My distaste for Donald Trump is worse than distaste. I don't think he's murdered anyone, but his lies swell beyond all imagination. No one, not even his disciples, believe he's going to create a ten thousand homeland cops to grab 11 million people and put them on buses or whatever and send them south, do they? No one in his or her right mind anyway. 

But then, people don't love Donald Trump for what he believes. That's not why. Nobody knows what he believes, and he's got no track record. People love Donald Trump the full-throttle way they love Chevys or I-phones or John Deere. They just do. They just love him. He isn't a politician, he's a kind of god. Discrediting him means trying to break faith itself, and that's no easier job than it is breaking the faith of some ISIS suicide bomber. Right here in my neighborhood Trump told a crowd he could kill a man on Broadway and his admirers would only fawn. He was right. He isn't a human being, he's a empowering, dear feeling. 

Lots of Bernie supporters walked away unhappily last night because they somewhere along the line they felt the burn. They believed him and in him and bawled when he backed up into the open arms of the enemy. He and Trump weren't so much men as movements.

We believe. You're not going to convince me that Obama wasn't one of the best Presidents we've had in my lifetime. You can try, but it won't happen because my faith was in him--and still is. 

Some of us--most of us really--are true believers. 

No matter who bests the other come November, half of the country are already sworn to hate whoever occupies the Oval Office, so here's the real sadness: we'll go through another four angry years, our ire aroused only by each other, four more years of slashing and bashing and huff-and-puff stalemate. Gridlock.

Keep those flamethrowers gassed up, folks. The infernal battling goes on.

9 comments:

Larry said...

Interesting. Taking what you say concerning Dick Morris at face value I guess I am to assume he has much in common with the Clinton's, they both lie. Only difference is the Clinton's did it while being sworn in under oath which is a felony.

Ron Polinder said...

Friend Jim--I still marvel at your silence regarding Hillary's dishonesty, rivaled of course by Trump's. But Hillary's lies to Congress and to the American people regarding her emails, the Benghazi parents, the Clinton Foundation-so easily dismissed by Democrats. Baffles me!

My grandpa taught me years ago that first of all we must believe what we are being told--thus I never voted for Nixon.

And today I learned that she will try to override the Hyde amendment which would mean taxpayers would again be paying for abortions, including partial birth abortion. And she twisted Catholic Kaine's arm, so after decades of supporting Hyde, now he is against it.

Jim, can you at least acknowledge how distasteful this is--and surely there is more. Do you think "free college" will include Dordt?

How can we vote for such people? These are the worst of times, politically, in my lifetime. At this point, I will do a write in.

Ron Polinder

Anonymous said...

Hi Jimmy: [I do not call you by your childhood name to be distastful or disrespectful... your mom called me Johnny and you Jimmy all through our formative years so I figure if that was good enough for her it is good enough for me and secondarily, to appeal to the foundational thinking and beliefs we were both taught as youngsters.]

I am not concerned about who you are going to vote for or support politically as I am about what you would have me accept as moral absolutes that would prompt me to support Obama the way you do. This is binary for me. No gray. The light switch is either on or off... How is it that you and see things exactly the opposite and confess the same foundational beliefs for the most part. The virgin birth is the virgin birth BUT If I say black you will say white, if I say off you will say on and so on...

There was a fork in the road and you went left and I went right... I looked ahead of me and I spotted your parents who were on the same fork I took... what happened?

Romey

Anonymous said...

Mr Schaap,
I guess you knew the comments would come....
I agree with you, and living in a tight Reformed community I have the same feeling; afraid to wear the "Obama" hat.
Where does all this hate come from?!
My Grandpa taught me to love!
....I must have followed the same fork as you...

Rika Diephouse said...

Anyone can point fingers at either candidate. I would like to see thoughtful writing about the pros and cons of both candidates.

Anonymous said...

I get a kick out of the Jimmy's student who feels afraid to wear the Obama hat. Obviously it is a race to victimhood by arrogant person who believes that policy difference are hate... sad day when we are reduced to this type of "group-think".

Jerry27 said...


I know someone else who was traumatized by the Birch society. Professor Revilo P. Oliver became bitter and came up with the advise "do not be flattered by non-whites immitating the white man. The talmudic tribe brought them here to cut our throats at the most opportune moment." It is a shame how far a professor of classics had fallen.


Was it the Jesuits who said give us a child the first seven years, and we do not care what you do with him after that?

In the bible it says be wise as serpants and gentle as doves. Because there are wolves in sheep's clothing. Maybe even unremorcefull wolve packs in sheep's clothing. My limited experience has taught me the hard way that the rhetorical flame thrower is counter-productive. I try to keep my thoughts to myself, because only God knows what is in someone's heart.


thanks,
Jerry

Anonymous said...

By the way, did Obama ever release his Harvard transcripts?

Was he admitted to Harvard as a US citizen or as a foreign student?

Just asking... If he is out on the road campaigning for Hillary he is fair game, right?

Jerry27 said...

THE KANSAS CITIAN has confirmed the identities of the two male journal editors who complained about Obama but, for privacy concerns, is not publishing their names.”

Barack Obama served as the president of the Harvard Law Review while in law school there, and during his tenure in that position, he was allegedly accused of sexual harassment. Two editors at the law review filed complaints with the university administration alleging that Obama had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior. The university allegedly settled the cases and offered them agreements that allegedly included financial compensation and required them to remain silent about the nature of the settlements.

Who needs transcipts when males can be paid to keep silent.

I saw this at voxday.blogspot.com and searched for "Harvard Obama."

thanks
Jerry