U.S. political turmoil reflects our wider society – in 2024 and earlier elections

The other night, I took a friend out for her birthday at an upscale French restaurant. The food is magnificent, as authentic as anything I tasted when I lived in Paris — cue the accordion music. But even perfection has its tics.

Normally, service at this restaurant is sublime. But this night, I had a problem. After having a wonderful meal and then calculating a respectable tip of 20% on a pretty expensive bill, since the service was OK but not exceptional, I gave the waiter the money.

He disappeared.

Later on, while I was finishing my coffee, I noticed him glaring at me as he was flitting around the tables nearby.

Normally, I leave a tip between 30-40% because I used to work in a fast food joint and know that it isn’t exactly easy work.

However, I am also aware that nobody is owed a tip, and that it’s not my fault if the employer isn’t paying a decent salary. Just because I want to enjoy a nice salad doesn’t mean I am required to adopt the guy who brings it to my table.

So the glaring, and then the lack of a “thank you” for the tip was a little unnerving.

Then I did what I normally do whenever I have an experience that can fit into into a couple of short sentences: I hopped on Twitter.

Surprisingly, my complaint got a lot of “likes,” which goes to show you

I’m not the only one who has had to deal with an ungrateful little whippersnapper. Of course, there were a bunch of current or former waitstaff who weighed in, calling me entitled, saying 20% was a pittance.

As I said before, I often tip up to 50% of the meal if the person serving it to me shows that they really appreciated my presence, albeit temporary, in their lives.

If they made me feel as if it wasn’t a burden to serve me and their name was not Job, it’s my default position to show gratitude with extra cash.

But the suggestion that a tip is owed, not earned, and the refusal to extend a simple “thank you” is a troubling commentary on something that has more to do with character than carbohydrates.

I’m tired of people assuming they have rights and privileges regardless of their own conduct. It’s not like I want a stranger to write me into her will if I hold the door open or let him go ahead of me in line.

Those are the normal reflexes of people who live in a civilized society.

I’m talking about the idea that if you extend yourself beyond what is expected in a particular social situation, that should be rewarded by the most valuable and least expensive of things: a smile and acknowledgment.

Waiters and waitresses have a hard job, but so do police officers, doctors, construction workers and even immigration lawyers. The last time I checked, no one was leaving

REFLECTIONS

money in a tip jar for me.

The assumption that even the most mediocre service deserves some kind of financial premium is wrong.

Sorry, but all of those kids who were raised by mommy and daddy to believe that they were special have morphed into presumptuous ingrates. That bread basket you just put on my table is not going to cure cancer.

That being said, I am still going to tip in a grandiose and generous manner when the person who is on the other side of the money acknowledges my humanity. There are a lot of young people who make my lattes, mix my Aperol spritzes and slice my pizza into exactly the correct size of slice who deserve not only a tip, but my genuine gratitude for their genuine kindness.

As for those who think I owe them, this Karen — or Mademoiselle Carine, as the case may be — has better use for her hard- earned dough.

Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com. e have met the enemy and he is us.”

The ironic statement is from the durable comic strip “Pogo” by cartoonist Walt Kelly, widely syndicated in newspapers from the late 1940s into the 1970’s.

The observation sums up the essence of our democracy, by definition. Our politics have always been fractious. However, about every fifty years developments have become especially tumultuous.

Pogo paraphrased the famous declaration by Admiral William Hazard Perry – “We have met the enemy and they are ours” – after the United States Navy won a great strategic victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813.

Sharp political and social commentary characterized “Pogo,” in a manner somewhat emulated in the far less subtle “Doonesbury” by Garry Trudeau. Kelly first used a version of the “enemy” statement to refer to the anti-communist fears and hysteria of the 1950s, personified by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI), and later to highlight growing public awareness and concern about environmental pollution.

The statement can also sum up our nasty presidential politics currently. The bellicose and insult-filled 2016 and 2020 United States presidential campaigns have led many, especially in the media, to condemn our era as unique.

The most challenging and costly such turmoil was in the presidential election campaign of 1860, which led to the

Civil War. Four parties competed. The new Republican Party fully replaced the Whigs, and Democrats split into northern and southern parties. The Constitutional Union Party was led by Whigs who hoped to preserve the Union.

Earlier, the Whigs had replaced the Federalists in the aftermath of the War of 1812, which ended in 1815. The Federalists had opposed the war, and eventually paid the ultimate political price.

The third strategic shift began with the 1912 presidential election. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, dissatisfied with successor William Howard Taft, launched the breakaway Bull Moose Party. Roosevelt did not retake the White House but did split the Republican vote, handing the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. The 1916 reelection of Wilson confirmed trends of change.

Roosevelt led the Republican Party in a profoundly progressive direction, confirming the anti-trust laws, initiating protection of workers - especially children and women, protecting the wilderness, and saving the buffalo.

Teddy Roosevelt redefined our party politics.

In the 1930s, a reformist Democratic Party majority emerged, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The 1912 election did not guarantee this, but did signal significant new currents of economic and social as well as political change.

The mid-1960s represent another period of great change for the political parties. Domestic unrest increased, significantly spurred by civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests.

This culminated in the extraordinary election of 1968. Beleaguered President Lyndon B. Johnson unexpectedly withdrew from contention. The assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy added tragic bloody dimensions to unfolding developments.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Hubert Humphrey at first badly trailed Republican Richard Nixon, and third-party segregationist candidate George Wallace gained. Humphrey recovered and nearly caught up with Nixon. Wallace also came close to denying either an Electoral College majority.

Satire is important, especially in times of turmoil. Garry Trudeau foresightedly has included Donald Trump in his comic strip since 1987.

The cartoonist has published a collection of his Trump comic strips, aptly titled “Yuge!”

Learn More: Luke A. Nichter, “The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968,” Yale University Press.

Arthur I. Cyr the author of “After the Cold War – American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia” (Macmillan and NYU Press). Contact acyr@carthage.edu.