(c. 26 Aug 2023) As my flight from New York to Tampa proceeds south along the Atlantic coast to spend my birthday with my daughter, my mind switches from travel to wondering where our country is headed. After 80 years, I now wonder, no, I worry, what life will be like in America if we continue our present course. The radical left and the woke have taken over our government and our daily lives, and they have nearly completed the process of destroying everything that this once-amazing nation represented, and their actions continue practically unabated as these pied pipers of doom lead us into oblivion.
In my 80 years I have seen several mediocre presidents and some who should not have achieved the presidency. There have been a couple who were remarkable, and both were Republican. Considering that my recall of presidents begins with the late days of Harry S. Truman, the list of outstanding presidents is quite paltry.
Truman inherited WW-II when Roosevelt passed and made the tough decision to end the war by dropping atomic bombs on Japan. This decision was not an easy one and considering the inhumanity of literally roasting thousands of Japanese civilians where they stood, was a good decision as the war likely would have dragged on for much longer with the additional loss of thousands of American and allied troops if the invasion of the Japanese homeland were to have happened. Truman made the tough choice, and we knew the buck stopped at his desk.
Following Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower brought his military reputation to the White House. If nothing else, he was a good leader, and we all knew that he was a good general and a humanitarian. I was not tuned into American politics at that point- I was in high school and was more interested in social life, cars and other teen activities. Unfortunately, it was Ike who began our involvement in Southeast Asia, and our involvement in Cambodia, Laos and French Indochina began during his Presidency.
When John F. Kennedy came along the country responded to this young, dynamic war hero in a big way. He was a dynamic speaker, and having Jackie by his side didn’t hurt his popularity. However, part of his unpopularity was due to his agreements that brought us into the Vietnam War. Of course, it was called an advisory mission, but our military were called upon to do covert missions into Laos and Cambodia. They carried no identification, military or civilian, and would have been shot as spies if captured. Kennedy’s administration also, under the influence of Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, got us even more deeply involved in Vietnam when they brought Vietnamese national, Ngo Dinh Diem, out of Ossining, NY where he was living and placed him in Saigon to lead the South Vietnamese government as a puppet of our administration. This cleared the path for Diem to ask the US for military assistance and hence the Vietnam War. Despite Kennedy’s work on civil rights, his legacy was Vietnam.
Upon JFK’s assassination, Lyndon Johnson advanced to the presidency, and after completing the term was elected to his own term as president. Keeping the war going guaranteed his victory in the election- historically there has not been a wartime president who was not reelected to at least one new term. Granted, Johnson got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed into law, but only as a device to keep Black people in line. He threw this bone to them to win their votes but sent so many to serve in the Vietnam War that he actually lost much of the Black vote. Either way, his involvement in Vietnam proved to be his political undoing.
Along comes Richard Nixon to save the day! Well, almost. Nixon had served as VP to Eisenhower, and he knew the ropes at the federal level. Unfortunately, his continued involvement in Vietnam was quite unpopular, and the pressure of reelection caused him to rethink some type of peace agreement. With the assistance of Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, Nixon brought the war to a close in 1975 – he referred to it as a ‘dignified withdrawal’. He likely would have been elected to a second term, but the Watergate scandal proved to be his undoing when he tried to cover up the evidence that his henchmen had broken into the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. His resignation in shame allowed his VP, Gerald Ford, to occupy the Oval Office for the balance of Nixon’s term. Fords campaign to be elected failed, and the Democrats provided our next occupant of the office.
Jimmy Carter was the best the left could offer. A peanut farmer and a southern gentleman, he was clueless when it came to national strength and backbone. The economy fell to its worst point since the Great Depression, and his failure to obtain the release of the Iran hostages who were held captive for 349 days showed his weakness. His only real accomplishment was getting Egypt and Israel to agree to the Camp David Accords, truly a milestone in Middle East politics. The country dismissed him after one term in office, and he is probably remembered more for his weakness than anything else.
Enter Ronald Reagan, the old cowboy and one of the most famous actors to emerge from Hollywood. He was witty, patriotic, and a symbol of everything great about America, and was also a staunch anti-Communist. Under his leadership, our country thrived politically and economically, and his powerful stand for military might and readiness convince the Iranians to release the hostages immediately. Reagan brought American industry alive, made us energy-independent, and stood up to all the world’s dictators and kept them in their places. Among his greatest accomplishments was getting Russia’s President Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall allowing free passage within Berlin and eliminating the division of the people of Berlin.
George Herbert Walker Bush, the elder statesman and long-time senator entered the White House with little difficulty. Nothing of note stands out in my mind as an accomplishment, but his campaign promise of, “Read my lips- I will not raise taxes!” turned out to be a complete lie.
Enter William Jefferson Clinton, silver-tongued Democrat, who managed to get elected on the heels of Reagan. His terms were scandal-ridden, but he somehow survived, and the economy was relatively sound. Of course, we all shuddered when Hillary entered the picture- her shrill outbursts against the Secret Service and all staff members was well known and documented. A personal note- we can all understand why Bill had sexual interests elsewhere, but that’s his business. Monica simply became a distraction in his life. What we remember most from Bill is his “It’s the economy, stupid!” Does anybody understand how the Democrats have forgotten those words? It may prove to be their undoing in the ’23 and ’24 elections.
The next player was George W. Bush, a.k.a. Dubya. Unfortunately, he will likely be remembered for getting us involved in war in Iraq based on likely false intel. It was never proven that Saddam Hussein had any WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). His major accomplishment may be losing American soldiers in a useless war. The only good thing to come from this involvement was the termination of Saddam.
Enter Barack Hussein Obama. From his beginnings as a community organizer in Chicago, his activities all pointed toward trouble. Unfortunately, his oratorical skills pulled the wool over many eyes, eyes too blind to see. His Black heritage made him appealing to Black voters, not because he offered them any real progress or hope, but they believe his hype. It’s likely that his promise to ‘fundamentally change America’ was completely misunderstood by those who embraced his candidacy, but those of us who still believe in the American Dream were not swayed. While I am happy to see that our country was finally able to accept a Black president, I am totally disappointed that Obama was the person to achieve this.
Our nation was shocked, yet receptive, when Donald J. Trump threw his hat in the ring. Although may thought that this brash New York businessman and TV personality did not stand a chance of attaining the presidency. Somehow, he succeeded, likely because the voting public did not like the emotional state of our nation. Obama quickly identified as the ‘Divider in Chief’ as he pontificated and emitted statement after statement which could only be described a racially motivated. Worse, his backroom/underhanded style was highly offensive to true patriots. His financial dealings with the Saudi’s also raised more than one eyebrow, and his low bow of subservience when greeting Muslim presidents prompted questions of where his allegiance lay. The appearance of subservience did much to damage his persona. More on his operations further down in this essay.
Donald John Trump came into the picture at a time when the US needed someone to pull us up and restore our pride in being American. Trump was no gentleman. In fact, the word ‘bully’ entered conversations on many occasions. Financially, he was a streetfighter who had turned his family inheritance into quite a fortune. He was brash, arrogant, and all of those things one is taught not to be, but he was what we needed to lead our country back from the brink of economic oblivion and the racial discontent and disharmony that we had not seen since the 1960s. Obama had turned Black against White, condoned discrimination (even promoted it, in this writer’s view). He had returned our country to the pre-civil rights era.
Under his watch we got ‘the squad’ of representatives who fed hatred into all their activities and speeches and hid behind their official titles to get away with their hate speeches and hateful deeds. If there was a shooting, they did not wait for any type of factfinding, but immediately sowed the seeds of hate. They condoned riots and arson, burglary and violence, but attacked anyone who challenged their ‘standards’ of behavior, especially Whites. Donald Trump stood up to them despite their constant fraudulent attacks on his office and his credibility. Any observer with at least half a brain has to see that this was their way of preventing him from making any headway as our president. Despite their best efforts, Donald Trump was able to bring our economy into its best state in history- energy independence, low energy costs, high employment rate- and brought back the pride that our nation needed. He was truly a bully, but his unpredictability may have been one of the factors that kept China and the Russians in check. He got the rest of the UN member countries to raise their contributions supporting their membership, and he reduced taxes here in the US while increasing import taxes to favor US production.
The benefits of Trump 's leadership were not destined to last. The list of those who undermined his authority during his entire four years of his presidency is so lengthy that I don't have room in this essay to name all of the coconspirators- there were too many! He had the constant bashing by Nancy Pelosi, the lush from Sacramento, Hillary Clinton and her Russia Gate challenge based on false, contrived information from a page stooge. That only made it into the books because of collusion within the FBI, DOJ and the Congress aided by the likes of Adam Schiff, one whom I believe should be brought up on charges of insurrection for trying to destroy the presidency using false accusations, lies, and fake documents. The fact that the press corps followed the liberal progressive propaganda line produced enough fake news that uneducated voters were steered to the left. This led to the unfortunate election of our current cabinet. And whether or not you believe that the election was stolen, there was plenty of evidence of ballot box stuffing, ballot harvesting and major failure to purge voter rolls. It is not coincidence that people now remember the phrase, “vote early, vote often.” With all of the cover ups and fake news, we may never know the truth, but it is necessary that we move on. The fact that some media outlets are even beginning to doubt the Biden administration is a positive sign of some return to legitimate standards of news reporting.
Three years of the Biden administration are finally beginning to grate on Americans. The question is how much will they take before there is a rebellion- physical, electoral, or both. During 2 1/2 years of the Biden presidency we have seen the loss of American independence, an increase in the jobless numbers, inflation in large numbers and the decrease in the value of the dollar. This is due to the progressive influence of the left on government policy.
From his first day in office, Biden signed executive order after executive order to reverse all of the progress that had been made during the previous administration. The closure of the pipelines dried up our oil supply, and we have now become reliant on petroleum imports from Saudi Arabia, OPEC and even the Russians. Putin, who had likely been held in check by Trump, immediately became emboldened and invaded the Ukraine. It may be speculation, but most don't believe that Putin would have had the stones to invade had Donald Trump still been in office, yet that is also open for discussion.
Our ‘president in name only’ has, with the assistance of all of his incapable appointees, opened our now-nonexistent southern border to hordes of illegals who continue to flood, practically unchecked, across our open border to be bused cross country into blue cities who are now tasked with finding housing for them and feeding them, providing medical services to them, and thereby draining our tax dollars that we have earned and handed over to our ‘government’. These are dollars that are lost that we will never benefit from as originally intended under our laws. We literally have returned to ‘taxation without representation’, the same condition that sparked the American Revolution!
On every front it becomes apparent that our commander in chief (intentional use of lowercase) is weak in body, mind and lacking patriotism almost to the point of treason. Each day we are reminded of his incompetence in some way, and he is the laughingstock of the world. This poor man in his advanced state of failure decline has ascended to the most powerful position in the world bringing with him the least amount of ability. If our nation has ever been in a more susceptible position, I cannot remember when. The only two times that I can remember that even come close or during the Cuban missile crisis and when Benghazi was attacked. We are now sitting ducks in a nuclear world!
Unfortunately, the calculated attacks on Donald Trump continue from an administration that is out of control. They have weaponized the FBI and DOJ against the American people, and the attack on Donald Trump is only the tip of the iceberg. As trump reminded us, they're not coming after him-they're coming after us and he is simply in the way. The current administration will stop at nothing to keep trump from running for office- they are that frightened of him. But what are we to do?
The 2023 midterm elections are upon us and we need to select very carefully those candidates whom we support. RINOS abound, and it takes a very clear mind and an astute eye to be able to spot those who should be left by the wayside in favor of true representation. It has been said that all elections are local, and I have seen no proof otherwise. The only way to beat these people is from the bottom up. While I have few issues with my grandfather's Democrats, the group will run today on not my grandfather's Democrats. Most of them I would not even label as patriots have you seen the damage that they have done over the past several years. As a New Yorker for my entire life, I would the thrilled to see the defeat of Chuck Schumer, Jerrold Nadler and their like. Of course, there are many more across the country who deserve the same defeat- people like Pelosi, Newsome, Cortez, Omar and the rest of the ‘squad’.
It is everyone’s responsibility and patriotic duty to get involved in one or more campaigns to get candidates elected or reelected who are willing to work to restore our nation, at every level, to where it should be. Join an activist organization and write to your representatives, regardless of their party affiliation, to let them know where you stand regarding current issues. Write, email, phone their offices, but don’t let them rest until our wishes are responded to. Write letters of protest to those who need to change their paths and write letters of support to those representatives who are doing the right thing.
Get involved in local school boards and community groups, and don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. We cannot have a silent majority- we must galvanize our communities for the common good. After all, can you honestly say we are better off today than we were three years ago? I doubt it. It’s time for all of us to act if we are to regain our American lifestyle and the freedoms that are being taken from us each successive day by a government that is truly out of control. Stand up for freedom now or lose it forever.