I was recently with old male classmates. The conversation in our youth was about jobs (lack of or recently obtained), cars, girlfriends (lack of, or thinking about marrying) cars, football games, TV programs, girls… you get the picture.
Now it is health (lack of or recently overcoming a malady), getting up three times a night to go to the bathroom, vision problems, gray hair or lack of hair, wife with health problems, girlfriend with health problems, kids and grandkids. I’m sure this is the same conversation with male friends 100 years ago with the exception of hot cars (Model T’s weren’t speed demons).
Life is crazy. You try to keep a job and excel in your profession. You are successful, build up a good reputation of being the “go to” person to get things done. Then, toward retirement age people ask “when are you thinking of retiring?” But I find out they don’t care about my retirement date, just the job opening that will need to be filled.
In a corporate world, it is competitive to the point you must perform as a team player but within that capacity you have your own things to accomplish. My participation on projects was required and many times I led the team, burden I loved, but it does wear on you year after year. The last part of my job life was exciting as well as sometimes mundane, but I loved every minute of it.
Many of my classmates had similar jobs and responsibilities — doctors, lawyers, law enforcement, military, electricians, millwrights, machinists, factory workers, farmers. All were needed, all were talented, all provided for families and paid their taxes, good All-American people who loved their lives and country.
Is that desire to have a good steady job by today’s youth and recent graduates? Or is dating an old, outdated way to start a relationship or is it now just “hooking” up? Is liberty and freedom old hat, and socialism and communism is now wanted, where every need and desire is provided by the government as long as you show loyalty to the government. Individualism is not needed; get in line, shut up, and don’t think! The government will do that for you.
This old guy is watching what is happening in Portland, Seattle, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and many other places run by Democrat governors, mayors, law enforcement, city councils and things are out of control. Stores are destroyed and looted and sometimes burned to the ground. People are beaten. Gunfire is heard and death and destruction is everywhere. Where are the police? Where is the condemnation of rioters? Where are the arrests? Where are the Democrat representatives and senators speaking out against this civil unrest?
Will this continue if the Democrats win the presidency? Count on it. Will this continue if the Republicans continue in the presidency? The Democrats will go out of their ever living minds! Not that they use their brains much, it will be weeks of gnashing of teeth and desperate haranguing.
No matter who is elected and what party takes the House and Senate, there is and will continue to be a large chasm between Democrats and conservatives (notice I didn’t say Republicans because RINO’s comprise much of the party). Will it ever end? Only if the education system changes and starts teaching what is good about America and Capitalism instead of teaching how bad America is and socialism, identity politics, racial divide, climate change, Second Amendment destruction, and limiting or eliminating freedom and liberty.
God help us! We are entering the Twilight Zone of political elections.
The Rotting of America From Within Continues…
Ranger Rick
I think we have taken many steps into the Twilight Zone …The old school Democrats refuse to except that a good portion of their Party lean ( almost topple) to Socialism as the correct answer for the United States.
It’s a very good possibility the move to defund law enforcement will be the undoing of the Democratic Party. It matters not how educated or uneducated one is….when violence, destruction, and death are ignored…the “unwashed masses” will support law and order. ( listen to some of the interviews from those living in these “war zones “they want arrests and justice )
We need prosecutor’s who don’t fear the possibility of not getting reelected ….but prosecutes to the fullest of the law.
The day is coming when the Republican RINOs and Democratic Socialists will feel the wrath of the “common man/ woman ” it’s very possible 2021 maybe the year.
Mr. Smit, Harry,
It is with my usual, sincere respect to you that I reply. ( We’ve shared a good give and take in the past.)
I’m so glad you used the expression “a good portion of their Party lean to Socialism as the correct answer for the United States.” It shows you don’t paint all Democrats or liberals with the same brush. I would, however, suggest that “good portion” be better defined. I believe that my mother was correct when she said the loudest voices tend to be the fringes of any movement. In my COVID-limited exposure to people, I would dare say that the large majority of the liberals don’t “topple” to socialism, but do see some value to modified socialist concepts, such as in health care and student loan forgiveness, or free/subsidized secondary education. Those to whom I am able to converse believe all of these cannot be offered wholesale by the government.
There is much negotiation necessary before any of these can be offered en masse.
The same opinion by my Ma applies to “defunding the police.” The term itself is misleading and loaded with emotion and misconception. I don’t believe most left-leaning people believe in eliminating policing completely. What we do believe in is that in some communities/municipalities the police force needs revamping. This revamping could include, but not be limited to, retraining in de-escalation enforcement, and removing from the duties of police those “chores” that can be addressed by social services, mental health experts, etc. We DO NOT endorse abandonment of law and order. We simply wish to see it applied in a more civil and cost effective manner. Prosecution of violators is still on our plate. (Revamping of the entire correctional system is another topic altogether.) A case in point would be the comparison between my city of Chandler, AZ and its adjacent city of Mesa. In Chandler, we have had no instances of officer involved shootings that could be labeled murder. The few have been well within the guidelines of using excessive force. BUT the difference seems to be that Chandler cops don’t shoot to kill, they shoot to disable. Their victims survive to face prosecution. While in Mesa, directly to our north and east, cops seem to kill or use excessive force, particularly against minorities, with impunity. They are so often in the news for these instances that it is clear to anyone that this police force needs a good and thorough cleaning.
I think you are on the right track saying “the wrath of the common man/woman” is in the near future. But it will be common men and women of all political stripes. The vast majority of citizens, in my humble opinion, fall in that big group in the middle whose values and beliefs have more in common than in division. And we in that vast middle need to get together, find our commonality, and raise our own voices louder that either extreme of the spectrum. The noise from the far right and the far left need to be drowned out. That’s just my two cents worth.