Making America Americian Again

Making America American Again

By Charles E. Kraus

My father rarely voted.  Once for Kennedy.  Once for Regan.  Once for anybody but Regan.  He was a contrarian with strongly held political beliefs that shifted.  Were he alive today, he'd be sealing the envelope right now, pounding the stamp into place and marching his ballot, his message of dissatisfaction, to the postal box.  If he could locate a postal box.

My generation really does want to make America great again.  Great meaning normal.  These past four years have been anything but that.  When you've been around for decades (I've been handicapping Presidents since 1968; prior to that I was allowed to share my father's opinions with anybody who would listen), you've obviously developed a sense of the American process.  

Wasn't there a time when politicians avoided scandal, or at least the appearance of scandal?  Didn't we go for long stretches without news events so riveting that they competed with one another for headline prominence and space in our heads?   Weren't there clear cut ways of doing things?  Holding elections, for example?  Yes, the world had dangerous rough edges.  We knew this.  We were working on it.

Seniors have the kind of perspective that allows them to understand how off course we've gone.  We are veterans of history.  Of wars and depressions, recessions, polio epidemics and assassinations.  Of Presidential elections that were landslides and others that were squeakers. In each instance, the country found itself on solid footing and was able to absorb the dilemma.

We've benefited from Social Security.  Medicare.  Civil Rights.  Healthier foods, better medicines, safer cars.  A sense of advancing.   Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson,  even Nixon.  Left, right and center. 

Living in Washington State, where voting has been accomplished exclusively by mail for many years, it is easy for me to urge distant friends to cast ballots.  

        In the oldest of jokes, the wealthy matron hears a beggar say, "I haven't eaten in days," and responds, "My good man, you should force yourself."  Sure friends, I can advise you to stand in your Covid infested lines, in the rain, in the snow, with vigilantes stalking, pardon me, closely observing the voting process.  Or, if you live in California, urge you to do your best when it comes to distinguishing between real collection boxes and actual collection boxes.  

Fortunately, I don't have to rally seniors to turn out the vote. The necessary energy and stamina is being accessed from the same well that feeds fight or flight responses.  Everyone I know is angry.  Real angry.  And that is leading to action.  They are upset enough to withstand the discomforts and dangers, submitting their ballots as a kind of scream.  A demand for common sense.

We are seniors.  We look back and see what the current administration has dismantled.  Seems to me there are competing approaches to making American Great Again.  One is fake.  One is not.  We know the difference, and we'll vote accordingly.

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