Skip to main content

My Second Final Word on the Election

I really thought VP Harris would pull it off. Not with any help from me. And I knew Georgia would go for Trump this time (last time was an anomaly, a fluke). 

I believed it because of two things I will never believe again: the media and polls. 

And she really, really didn't. I feel sorry for her; she's being blamed with accusations that were not entirely her fault. But I'm glad she lost. I do not think she has the qualities or fortitude to lead this country in foreign policy, and her domestic polices are too leftist. To say nothing of how terrible a communicator she is.  And she should have picked Shapiro from Pennsylvania. Her first choice said a lot. She wanted a VP who would not outshine her.

This is not to say I'm happy about Trump. He didn't get any help from me either. But no one can say he didn't win legitimately, he won't throw a temper tantrum this time, and there will be a relatively peaceful transfer of power with civility. We haven't seen that since 2008 (Melania claims the Obamas did not do it). 

And the rest of us can live our lives as citizens, parents, professionals, neighbors, and believers. 

I am disappointed in Christian leaders who succumbed to the binary choice and voted for Harris. That took them down a notch for me in respect. To be counter cultural might mean to opt out from the binary choice when both are bad and to leave it in God's hands, rather than vote against your conscience and common sense.  

Trump is not a good person, but I hope he is a tad wiser this time around and stops those shenanigans and shuts his mouth and lets people do their jobs in Congress. There are signs this might be true. He has the opportunity to set things right. If I am honest about the "leaving it in God's hands," then I will be diligent in prayer, sincere, nonironic prayer. 

For me, there are a few take-aways from this election. 

The media is corrupt, specifically the news media and pundits. I am deeply upset with Atlantic Monthly. They became nothing but an anti-Trump organ. I understand their disdain for him. I don't understand why they turned away from its mission of quality. But it's always been more leftist than I wanted to admit. Years ago they published a long piece on why Lincoln would have been (essentially) pro-life, and a lot of its readership went wild. Not exactly nonpartisan there. 

Second, polls are so wrong. 

Third, the majority of American people think the Democrats went too far. It might be Afghanistan, the border, the economy, the sense that parents' relationship with their children is being intruded upon, Israel v. Hamas, Ukraine (I hope not, because I am pro-Ukraine), or COVID. It's probably a mix of these.  The Dems need to return to the center. 

Fourth, politics are too important in everyone's lives. 

I'll stop.  Let's live our lives, folks.  




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

January 26, 2025: Joseph Campbell's view of things

  A colleague sent me this quote the other day. He said that it had really helped him through life and as he faced changes and retirement, and it also helped him follow his bliss and find what he really wanted to do.  “The problem in middle life, when the body has reached its climax of power and begins to decline, is to identify yourself, not with the body, which is falling away, but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle. This is something I learned from myths. What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light? Or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle? One of the psychological problems in growing old is the fear of death. People resist the door of death. But this body is a vehicle of consciousness, and if you can identify with the consciousness, you can watch this body go like an old car. There goes the fender, there goes the tire, one thing after another— but it’s predictable. And then, gradually, the whole thing drops off, and consciousness rejoins consciousn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why to Read Fiction, Idea #27: Empathy, anyone?

The Idea #27 is tongue in cheek.  But these are some ideas about writing fiction, which I have done in ten novels (and counting), a dozen short stories, and two produced plays (I know, not exactly the same).  Background: In 2015 a colleague and I wrote an open educational resource public speaking textbook for a grant provided by our University System. We didn't realize at the time that it would go viral and be used all over the world within a few years. There are two reasons for that: it is good (as good as anything on the market) and it is free, although only in digital form. Check out www.exploringpublicspeaking.com for it. We also didn't know at the time that my co-author would die at 39 in 2016. I still miss him. Back to the point, I receive requests for the test banks every other day, and this morning I received one from Pennsylvania. The writer had a signature line: "Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Starting Over

We are ridiculously dependent on information technology.  I found that out two weeks ago when my MAC of ten years went inoperative. "Crashed." "Died."  Fortunately, some smart technicians were able to salvage my files; I should call them my life, my work, my creativity.  But I did lose my passwords. Specifically, I lost the password to my two blogs, which I have not posted to since the crash.   My first blog, partsofspeaking.blogspot.com had been in operation since 2006. It had almost 3000 posts on it.  Fortunately, I can still get to them. The whole world can. The fact that I can't get into edit or post it any longer means I also can't take it down. It is going to be there as long as Google Blogger will be. If anything there would get me in trouble, well, I'll have to live with that.  The second one, highereducationobserver.blogspot.com, is where I wrote about my professional expertise as a department chair. It reflected more research. In both blogs, ...
Post a Comment
Read more