A Lot of Maybes

            On any given day it is possible to scan the nation’s major newspapers and find a virtual thesaurus of derogatory terms applied to President Trump. In just one such exercise I found: impetuous, brash, naïve, crude, sniveling, whiny, shrill, weak, self-pitying, and finger-pointing drama queen. And these were from a Republican.

            Of course, his opponents were worse: sadistic, paranoid, demeaning, humiliating, obsessed, mean, cruel, vindictive, cynical, impulsive, inept, immodest, and the all-too-familiar sexist pig. The list goes on, even without quoting Maxine Waters and others who have called for Trump’s impeachment.

            This gross disrespect points to a President Trump who has become isolated by his ill-conceived decisions and unrestrained communications. He has enough enemies who thoroughly despise him; he doesn’t need to antagonize his friends and loyal supporters. He began his presidency by surrounding himself with very good people. Now Spicer and Priebus are gone, Sessions is mortally wounded, Tillerson is rumored to be on the verge of quitting, as is Price, and his defense chiefs are wondering what’s next after being undercut by the President on transgender policy?

            We can forgive President Trump for his political inexperience; we can put up with his strutting braggadocio; we can survive his poor judgment on major domestic issues. But we should be extremely concerned about his dangerous lack of self-control in an increasingly dangerous world. Russia, Iran, and North Korea grew in strength and in contempt for America as a result of Obama’s whimpering withdrawal from the world stage. Is a maladroit and impetuous leader what we need to meet the challenges this country now faces?

            All is not lost. Maybe the appointment of General John Kelly as the new Chief-of-Staff will bring order and discipline to the chaotic White House. Maybe congressional Republicans will rise from the ashes of their humiliating defeat on healthcare to pass meaningful legislation on tax reform. Maybe China will finally realize that an unrestrained North Korea is not in their best interest. Maybe Donald Trump will concede that he is not as cool and tough and smart as he thought he was.

            That’s a lot of maybes.

Red Sox and Republicans

            I was born and raised only forty miles from Boston’s Fenway Park. Naturally, I became a Red Sox fan. During those early years, the Yankees always seemed to beat the Red Sox and win the World Series. I grew to hate them.

            After college, I was an immature idealist with liberal convictions. I even voted for Lyndon Johnson. But after realizing that his Great Society was doing more harm than good and was really a vote-buying scam, I became a Republican. Like the old saying says, “If you aren’t a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative when you’re older, you have no head.”

            The parallel between this year’s Red Sox and Republican politicians is uncanny. After a slow start, the Red Sox began to play well and rose to the top of the division by the All-Star break. The Republicans, all but doomed by pollsters, captured both houses of Congress and the Presidency in the last elections and found themselves in a commanding position to reshape the country, and they actually got off to a good start. But since the All-Star break, the punchless Red Sox have surrendered the lead back to the Yankees, while In Washington, Congressional Republicans have proven that they cannot govern. Worse, the chaos in a White House presided over by a clueless pretender is making any course correction improbable if not impossible.

            Here’s what has to happen. The Red Sox need to start winning again, and they won’t do that until they start swinging bats that don’t have holes in them. The Republicans need to start winning again, too. With healthcare reform dead in the water, tax reform has become an imperative. And winning again won’t happen—not for the Red Sox nor for the Republicans— unless they work as a team.

            To win their division the Red Sox shouldn’t count on the Yankees losing. And for the Republicans to deliver on their promises, they shouldn’t expect any help from the obstructionist Democrats. In both cases someone has to step up to the plate and carry the team. Who will that be?

Three Freedoms

            Celebrations on the 4^th of July bring back memories, one of them from half a lifetime ago when I was asked to give the commencement address at my local school district’s graduation ceremony. I took advantage of this special honor to deliver a simple message to the graduates: cherish and protect the freedom this great nation has given you. At the same time, I cautioned the students to protect freedom from abuse. I think if I were to give a commencement address today, I might repeat the same message, because I see our Constitutional freedoms under assault today in ways I could not have imagined 40 years ago.

            Freedom of religion is under attack by secularists who mock people of faith whose lives are guided by their belief in a Supreme Being rather than by “enlightened” principles embraced by the favored elite. Ironically, many of these same secularists scream Islamophobia at those who oppose the extreme ideology of radical Muslims.

            Freedom of the press is eroding from within at the hands of those who use its protection to report and opine dishonestly to advance a biased agenda. This is not new; the press has been used for political propaganda since the founding of our republic. Today’s abuse of this freedom, however, is much worse. The irresponsible and cowardly use of unnamed sources and leaks, and the repetition of known falsehoods by a press almost uniformly dedicated to the removal of a sitting president it despises, is far more corrosive of this freedom.

            Freedom of speech is probably in greatest jeopardy. It is denied to Conservative speakers at campuses radicalized by Leftist professors and governed by administrators more concerned with offense to the sensitivities of their snowflakes than with the benefits of vigorous debate. Outside ivy-covered walls, “victimized” groups appropriate loaded words like sexist, racist, homophobe, and fascist to deny the very expression of contrary opinion.

            “These are the times that try men’s souls,” said the great patriot Thomas Paine of our fight for independence. If he were alive today, I’m sure he would recognize the growing threats to our precious freedoms and challenge us to fight those who would destroy them. As we celebrate this Independence Day, we should all think about what we are willing to fight for.

Complaints

            Should I complain about the crabgrass that has taken over my lawn in this hot and wet weather, when most people don’t even have lawns?

            Should I complain about the goose poop on my golf course’s fairways, when the only fairways most people ever see is on television?

            Should I complain about having to take out the trash in the rain, when people in some countries go through trash dumps to find enough food to survive another day?

            Should I complain about the tick that gave me this disease I can’t even pronounce, when so many children die because they don’t have access to health care?

            Should I complain about growing old, when so many victims of violence will never get to be my age?

            I’ve been blessed with a long life and reasonably good health—ticks notwithstanding. I’ve never known real hunger or been without a roof over my head. I’ve been so lucky to have had had my wife and best friend by my side for over a half-century and for us to now enjoy playing patriarch and matriarch to our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

            Life has been good to me, so I shouldn’t complain. At least not about crabgrass, geese, and ticks. But I will never stop complaining about those hypocrites and buffoons in Washington who are doing their best to ruin the greatest country in the world. One side controls both houses of Congress and the Presidency, but can’t get anything done. They stand in a firing-squad circle, as one wag put it, while the “Just Say No” Democrats cheer at the mutual executions.

            At a recent Mets baseball game, New Jersey’s Chris Christie, perhaps the most unpopular governor on the planet, was sitting in the third row when he caught a foul ball. The crowd booed lustily. Had they been sitting in the Senate gallery when Republicans self-immolated, the Mets crowd would have given them the same well-deserved treatment.

           

           

           

It's Treason!

            The Constitution of the United States of America, Article III, Section 3, states: “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” The operative word here is “only.” There’s a reason the Founders wrote it that way. While under the thumb of George III, any infraction by the colonists was viewed as treason against the Crown. The Founders knew that unless treason were narrowly and specifically defined in the Constitution, it would lead to chaos.

            How many Americans, I wonder, have read the Constitution. Probably not many. Among those who have not is Senator Tim Kaine. Otherwise, he would not have suggested that Donald Trump, Jr. had committed treason by meeting with Russians during his father’s campaign. Call it naïve, clueless, ill-advised—even monumentally stupid. But the meeting wasn’t treason. It wasn’t even a crime.

            By suggesting it was treason, the former Democratic candidate for the vice-presidency may have been demonstrating his ignorance of the Constitution. But what if he knew better? What if he was consciously using treason to raise Trump-hating hysteria to the ultimate level? What if he was betting on others on the Left picking up the baton and running with it? Enter Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and a media wild at the scent of fresh blood.

            Like a mad scientist who thinks he has found the “theory to everything,” John Harwood of CNBC proclaims he has found the key to the Trump-Russia connection. As Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal reads Harwood’s insight, “President Trump’s every word and deed…must now be understood as payback to Russia for helping him get elected.” How cynical and over-the-top is that? And how far is that from redefining treason?

            Jenkins adds that it’s high time for the press and on-air media to rein in their supercritical hysteria. He’s right. As we used to say as kids, “Enough already.”

           

Trum[ Nails It in Poland

            One of the best trips I’ve ever taken was a two-week visit to Poland a dozen years ago. Two weeks may not be long enough to really get to know a country, but I remember how I came away impressed by the wholesome and friendly attitude of the Polish people.

            Poland is a country with a long history of foreign invasion, occupation, and oppression.  After losing its independence in 1795, it was successively overrun by Prussians, Russians, and Austrians before regaining its independence in 1918. That lasted until 1939, when Germany invaded Poland to launch World War II.  When the Nazis were finally driven out in 1945, it was only to see Russians move in.  

            Poland is also a country of resistance and rebirth. In 1979 Pope John Paul II was allowed to visit his homeland and speak to millions about the spiritual unity of Poland. Without mentioning the Soviet Union, he was telling his people that their faith would deliver them from their Communist oppressors. Twelve years later the Soviet Union collapsed and Poland was free once again.

            My hat’s off to the speechwriter who crafted Trump’s speech in Warsaw last week. When the President recalled the response of the crowd to the pope’s speech 1979, he nailed it. “We want God,” the millions had shouted. When the crowd heard the President speak these magic words once again, they knew they had a friend in Donald Trump.    

            Another word that resonated in the President’s speech was “culture.” Culture is what binds a nation together. Conversely, when culture breaks down, so does the fabric of society. Poland is one of several Eastern European countries that have resisted the invasion of Muslims. For good reason. These countries have seen what can happen when a country opens its doors to people who have no desire to assimilate and to adopt the culture of the country that received them. The Muslim invaders of Germany, France, Great Britain, and Sweden are waging war on the West, not by the sword but by corroding the culture of their hosts, followed by conversion to their own culture and ideology.

            Through the centuries Poland has experienced wars of invasion and subjugation. This is one war they want no part of.