Politics: Twenty Years Ago

Twenty years ago (September 17, 2005) my then 92-year-old friend George sent me an Email:  “This is from Me-George to Me-Hal.”  George was a staunch Republican.  He said he became a Republican back in the years of FDR and the New Deal, when his mother received a government check for “not growing corn.”  This convinced young George that Democrats were “out of touch” with reality since his mother was not a farmer and couldn’t grow corn even if she wanted to.  

George and I often talked politics in spite of our differing views.  People with different views could and did talk politics with one another twenty years ago.  Such talk didn’t splinter relationships the way it does now. 

On that day, twenty years ago, George was on a political rant.  “I will be glad when Roberts (now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) is confirmed.  Then we’ll have to sweat over another appointment and confirmation hearing.  That judicial committee is farcical.  Ted Kennedy!  An unconvicted alleged criminal—maybe guilty of murder—questioning the behavior of Roberts when he was a young lawyer!  And Joe Biden aching for time on TV, saying much that is not very meaningful to the issue.  Not giving Roberts time to answer a question he (Biden) himself has asked.  He blew his chances of becoming a nominee for the presidency right then and there.  The media will not forget it.”

“Politics is a farce. Unfortunately, that can hurt you and me and all Americans.” 

“I am going to shut up now.  Have a great weekend and send me a sermon that will make me less irritable about our political system.”

The years have gone by. George is no longer bothered with politics.  Biden was elected president (15 years after George said “He blew his chances).  We now have a biased Supreme Court.  The current president IS a convicted felon.  Yes, George, politics is a farce, but as you wrote twenty years ago—“Unfortunately that can hurt you and me and all Americans.”

America the Gullible

 In December 2019  I wrote:  “History will look back on this tumultuous time of political polarization and contentious presidency of Donald J. Trump and perhaps, through the prism of hindsight, we will be given the grace to see the present moment for what it is. At least, I hope so.  It really depends on who writes the history.  According to Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code), “History is always written by the winners.  When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books…”

So the big question is—who will win and write the history book?  Will “America the Gullible” write that book?  Will that history record that Americans accepted Donald Trump’s advice:  “…what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening…Just stick with us, don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news.”  Will that history ignore reality?  Will it simply say that what we saw, heard, and  what we read from 2016 to the present moment was nothing but fake news and a hoax?  

Have you noticed that every thing, every one, and every event that goes against Donald Trump is a hoax, a witch-hunt, a sham, a coup, a lie, unreal, and a crime?  Every opponent who disagrees with Donald Trump is unpatriotic, a traitor, a partisan, an enemy of the people and has a low IQ.” America the Gullible buys into it, repeats it, believes it, ignoring evidence and facts.  America the Gullible bows down in obeisance to “Just stick with us (me, Trump) and don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news.”  Will America the Gullible write the history?

Today, January 11, 2026, Donald Trump is again president.  He has been in office for almost a year.  The “Gullible” continue to be gullible.  George Orwell wrote in 1984:  “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.  It was their final, most essential command.”  Donald Trump announced this “essential command” during his first term:  “…what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening…Just stick with us, don’t believe the crap you see from these people…” and America the Gullible continues to buy it, repeat it, and believe it.