What's Missing

As I listen to some of the divisive noise that passes for a national discussion, I come away at the end of this most polarizing year with a simple question.   How many people with such strong opinions really take even a moment to consider why someone else has a totally opposite view of an issue?   It's one of those "walk a mile in my shoes" observations, to be sure, but consider how we often we fail to follow that adage.

I noticed that in the local talk show at my radio station.   The racial divide is so evident, and the callers were mostly oblivious to other views that we know are out there but were not being heard in that  forum.   No, don't jump to the conclusion that I'm calling all our callers racist.   What is alarming is more what you don't hear: Why do "those people" feel and act the way they do?   If a few more people would ask that question, maybe we'd actually get some answers from the other side.   This lack of diversity on many levels is even more pronounced on syndicated talk radio.

Two of the more enlightening bits of journalism this past year came from Ted Koppel, one of the best veteran reporters to ever be on TV.   For CBS Sunday Morning, he did one piece on the gun culture in Wyoming and how it seems to work in this rural landscape without big problems.   In another segment, Koppel interviewed residents of an economically depressed West Virginia mining town who told him why they overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump.  This is the type of reporting that gets less noticed in a landscape dotted with talking heads full of agendas who don't prioritize facts.   Koppel's stories were eye openers.   Did they change my core beliefs?   No.   Did they make other perspectives more understandable and harder to demonize with a broad brush?   Absolutely.   Suddenly the gap between liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican seemed less like a no-man's land.   Happy New Year!

Creeps and Power

Roy Moore (NBC News)

It's beyond creepy.   Allegations of sexual harassment and assault have been flooding the news cycle non-stop for the past few weeks.   They may add to the ongoing cynicism felt by many people, as many react by asking, "Why now?".   I've heard people insinuate that these accusers are just publicity seekers conspiring to get a fat monetary settlement and fifteen minutes of fame taking down celebrities we thought we knew from Hollywood to Washington to Alabama.   "Why did they stay quiet so long?"   That was asked in the Catholic church child molestation scandals while the cover-ups were sanctioned or ignored from the highest positions of power.   What's the real difference between these scandals and the abuse and cover-up at Connecticut's major mental institution just now coming to light? 

Power is the operative word here.   The abusers usually had it while the victims were among the most vulnerable.   What did these accusers have to gain in a society where bragging about sexual assault is viewed by many enablers of this twisted behavior as "just locker room talk?"   The saying, "You can't fight City Hall" could be expanded to virtually every part of our society when it comes to sexual assault and harassment.   First, it must be intimidating as all Hell to come forward with these allegations against wealthy and powerful people who can threaten to litigate most complaints into oblivion.   Second, society has not historically been very sympathetic to people who seek redress in one form or another for incidents that may have taken place decades ago.   In the end, they often bring up this traumatic experience when they can no longer stomach the arrogance and hypocrisy of people who may have done them wrong.   It usually takes one brave person to get other victims to summon the courage to face people with every motive to keep it all under wraps. 

Roy Moore is hoping the people of Alabama will cast their lot with his Senate campaign, casting himself as their defender against outside forces in the Republican establishment, the media and even folks who don't live up to his intolerant concept of Christian values.  Extremist demagogues in Alabama and elsewhere throughout history have tried clinging to power stoking their base painting others as "invaders".  That approach ultimately fails.  We hear nothing from the President.  His own dismal and shocking record is keeping him quiet as a moral authority.    I hope Democrats will be more out front in investigating Senator Franken than Republicans have been in holding President Trump accountable for boasting about groping women.

Denying the Racial Divide

(NY Times)

"Those people should show some respect!"   That's the bottom line from older white callers to the talk show on the station where I work.   They piled on this morning, complaining about these rich NFL players failing to stand for the national anthem, saying, "I believe in free speech, but..."   What lacked in the pile-on left me a little sick to my stomach, feeling pessimistic over whether we'd ever move beyond this and hoping that the next generations would understand it all.   

If I ever got in the middle of that one-sided conversation and stated that the reaction to yet another weekend of Trump-generated breaking news was proof that a racial divide in this country exists, you know what the reaction would be.   They, almost to a person, would take that as a personal attack painting them a racist.   Calling someone racist just fuels the backlash.   Is Donald Trump a racist in his heart?   I can't say that.   Is he trying to take advantage of a racial divide?   Hell, yeah.  He knew just what he was doing with his double talk about blame "on both sides" at Charlottesville and his weekend "fire the son of a bitch" offensive against the NFL which predictably got push-back by players, owners and the NFL commissioner.   That mattered little to Trump, who then praised the NASCAR crowd for "respecting" our anthem, flag and the servicemen who fight for our country.   He literally pitted one sport and its ethnic demographic against another.   Slumping Fox News and right wing talk radio smell blood in the water.

Getting back to this morning's call-in show, I didn't hear one serious attempt to remotely understand why Colin Kaepernick and a few others risked their careers to make this statement calling out police brutality in the black community    You don't have to like "taking a knee", but at some point more people in the white majority have to at least ask why many minorities feel the need to resort to this.   Remember too that Trump was the one who caused 200 players on one Sunday to join what had been a very small group.

Really, is this pattern of right wing denial any different than the NRA refusing to even enter into a discussion about our gun culture or vested interests not wanting to even admit the existence of human activity hastening climate change?  

Wrong About History

General Robert E. Lee

Mr. Trump is wrong about this one as well as just about everything else.   His meltdown Tuesday at Trump Tower should have been enough for any reasonable Republicans to call him out by name and cut their support.   For a man so supposedly concerned about people rewriting history and wanting all the facts before assigning blame for the alt-right act of terror in Charlottesville, nobody in his position in my lifetime has ever shown such cynical disregard for the truth.  For someone who pays lip service to the glory of our past, Trump's one focus has been to erase all traces of his predecessor out of existence.   That level of vengeful obsession is itself scary and beneath the dignity of the office. 

History is being changed all the time. Public displays of Confederate flags and statues came into prominence when reactionary forces regained control of the South by the arrival of the 20th century. The Jim Crow era that resulted was a concerted effort to rewrite Civil War history as some noble lost cause. Lincoln and Lee wanted to heal the nation's wounds after a devastating war and would've stood against these divisive symbols. That said, a respectful and peaceful resolution should involve moving these statues and battle flags to a more appropriate setting than the public square.   

That said, I hope we don't get a replay of the mob who tore down the Confederate statue this week.   That evokes memories of Iraq in 2003.   Peaceful transition is what democracy should be all about.   

A Big Joke?

I've withheld comment here, but my occasional radio criticisms and those of others who are horrified by our 45th President seem to have little effect on Donald Trump supporters.   Beyond the outrageous tweets that even confound many of his own backers, alternate facts, "swamp" cabinet appointments, executive orders, uneasiness overseas, juvenile predecessor trashing, cruel budget cuts and now disastrous "health care" proposals, 36% give him a pass.   Just last week, someone who just heard me engage a Trump supporter on the radio couldn't figure out why I was worried about Trump and right-wing radio conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones.   After all, a bunch of other people he knew weren't concerned and Hillary was the devil herself.   It's all a joke, right?

Wrong.   I don't go around bringing up politics in casual conversations these days knowing that changing minds can be a fool's errand.   I do talk about the need for respect and facts when polarizing issues do present themselves, and I am not ashamed to say I'm concerned about the turn of events from bad to worse.   Our 45th President is in way over his head, most notably with a lack of understanding of what our democratic republic is all about.   I can still laugh at aspects of his personality, but his agenda and that of his enablers is no joke.   We can't just ignore someone who gets talking points from Alex Jones, a man who said 9/11 and Sandy Hook were inside jobs.   That is vile.  

100 Days Plus

100 days plus one week into this chaos, I'm just as strongly against Trump and his agenda as ever.   It doesn't seem like too many opinions have changed since he took office.   The nation is as divided as ever.   I can't do much to change anyone else's opinion, but I can control my reaction to a very unpleasant set of circumstances.   No, I'm not going to live in a world of denial about how repulsive this administration truly is.   I'm not going to say, "I told you so."   I won't get into name calling and unfriending on Facebook.   Nor will I feed off the anger on both sides.    I'm not shutting good people out of my life who happen to see Trump differently.   In short, I'm not going to let my ideology be the ultimate ruling factor in my life.   In the six months since Trump's election, I've had time to put it in some degree of perspective and I think a lot of other people have as well as we try to get on with our daily lives.

That said, I will continue to speak my mind in a respectful conversation and either walk away or inject facts when Fox News or talk radio are someone's only media source.   While the President is the top person responsible for bringing us together, he fails more miserably with each false tweet, conflict of interest and executive action.   The leadership bar has been set lower than it's been in my lifetime, so it's tempting to react in anger.   On the other hand, you can't maintain that unbridled outrage forever and the low standard of discourse makes taking the high road relatively reachable.   I've never thought of joining a march before; but I would now.

Trump has deserved most of the criticism, but there are times when the left has given the far right unnecessary ammunition.   Intimidation on a few college campuses has cancelled appearances by extreme right wingers, which has fueled the "political correctness" charges. With Trump's assaults on free speech including mostly unfounded broad brush attacks on the media, why stoop to his level?   Free speech is free speech... left, right or middle!   Nobody loves getting booted out of an appearance more than Ann Coulter.   She'll just get her followers even more fired up.   Rightly or wrongly, Trump supporters see nasty over-the-top attacks on Trump as attacks on them, so they just dig in.   The next time you feel like calling Trump supporters ignorant racists, consider engaging them with questions about why they feel the way they do.   You may not be persuaded, but the tension level may just decrease enough to realize we are not solely defined by extreme political beliefs.   

Belated Remembrance

This post is a month late, which is one indication of how crazy it's been lately...

I only met Alan Colmes once, but we had numerous radio friends in common who loved the guy and I followed his impressive career every chance I got. Alan represented the views of a very select minority in media heavily dominated by conservative voices: talk radio and Fox News. Relevant to the end, Alan was a bit of a throwback to talk radio's younger days when opposing views clashed openly and frequently on the same station and often on the same show. In an era where today's talk is so polarized to the point where we isolate ourselves in convenient ideological bubbles, Alan thrived on staying engaged with those who had differing views. R.I.P. Alan

Wait A Minute

The other day, someone at work went there, upset over what "your liberals" are violently doing at the UC Berkeley campus.   First off, I don't take kindly to getting pulled into a heated political discussion at my workplace unless it has something to do with what my job is at that time.   I went nuclear, and the person quickly realized this wasn't the appropriate time and place.   All is well on that score.   Unlike Mr. Trump, I'm not going to war with every person who may disagree with me.  These days, I would lose half of the best people I know in my life.   That's not the American way.

It's also un-American to lump everyone with an opposing view in with the most reprehensible extremes of our society.   Yes, liberals should stop calling every Trump voter ignorant or racist.   How'd that "basket of deplorables" comment work for Ms. Clinton?   I admittedly don't get the Trump supporter mindset because they seem to give him a free pass after every outrageous tweet.   Dismissing them as a group won't advance my understanding one iota.   We have to stay or get engaged in the discussion.   These are critical times.   I know that can be uncomfortable and inconvenient to many, but it's essential. 

The violent elements who forced the cancellation of the right wing extremist's appearance at UC Berkeley were not protesters any more than the masked limo-burning, Starbucks-trashing thugs were in DC on Inauguration Day.   The were criminals who competed for airtime with millions of peaceful marchers since Trump took office.   Fox News, Breitbart and talk radio conveniently ignore that while railing against an out of context Madonna quote.   If there were some legitimate alarm over her remarks, a visit from the Secret Service would be warranted, but Newt Gingrich wanted her arrested.   He's feeding the fire just like Trump did with the "lock her up" crowd.  

Here's the thing: what possible benefit can the protesters get out of fiery scenes on TV?   This, like Trump's every action and comment, only serves to galvanize the opposition.   Trump has been quick to denounce the Berkeley riot, threatening to withhold federal money from the school while claiming politically correct liberals bar free speech.  Wrong.   The school actually allowed the radical right winger to speak and only cancelled because of an obvious threat to public safety.   

Who does gain from the violence of the few?   Donald Trump clearly loved any disruptions at his rallies, and he hasn't changed his combative, authoritarian tone as President.   Who ARE these masked protesters, anyway?   What do they want?   The anti-Trump peaceful vast majority should be leading the charge weeding out these thugs.   They are so harmful to a cause that it makes me wonder who they really are.   Nobody's telling us.   Just as good cops should be the first to want bad cops off the street, liberals should be the first to expose whoever the hell these rioters are.   Go on the offense!    

The Bubble

A belated Happy New Year!   When Donald Trump was inaugurated at noon Friday, I wasn't watching but I did react with a "God help us" when seeing it on my phone in the middle of a restaurant.  My New Year's resolution has been to engage people respectfully whether they agree or not while correcting statements - now being called "alternative facts" by the new White House Chief of Staff.  After being totally blown away by the "people power" of the worldwide Women's March and seeing Facebook posts focusing on much smaller stuff, I finally initiated my own political Facebook post.  Sure enough, the likes and responses were basically from within my own liberal bubble of friends.

If someone's total takeaway from this weekend is what some thugs did to a limo, an SNL writer's tasteless erased tweet and hating Madonna for being Madonna while Trump is "just being Trump", is there hope of enough Americans getting out of ideological bubbles and really reaching out to the other side?  Yes, there's a liberal bubble too. Equating Trump voters (half of the best people in my life) with people who brought in Hitler is unacceptable. I am, however, very encouraged by so many Americans actually taking to the streets Saturday without a single arrest, but all some people find within themselves is selective outrage.   

A lot of people who voted for him now think he's nuts, and his authoritarian streak is very dangerous. This cult of personality and reaction to it have been taking all the oxygen out of the room, smothering real issues. The marches yesterday were a breath of fresh air!  For the past 30 years, setting one group against another has meant big ratings for some "news" networks and syndicated radio talk shows. They only need to preach to their choirs to get an audience niche while the rest of society can go pound sand.   The GOP may be Trump's undoing. If Pence took his place (climate change denier, gay conversion therapy cheerleader, evolution skeptic and all) at least the focus would be more on issues... compared to Trump anyway! 

One Facebook friend made the point about Madonna making it all about herself. She really needs a 7-second delay! That's the big problem with our President... all about him. That was obvious in his speech to the CIA.