A Midwestern moderate gets frustrated
He’s just an ordinary Midwesterner, retired, married, two kids and two grandkids. About average home, income, lifestyle. And totally neglected by any so-called “representative.”
He’s really getting frustrated in his writing. He promised the editor that he’d avoid politics, and received the wise response, “Good idea.” There are too many people more conversant with the issues than he (and too many pundits who think they are) to fill many op ed pages and news talk programs.
He’s concerned for the environment and would like to write about it, but he would be nowhere near as open-minded as our coal-lobbyist and anti-regulation EPA head Andrew Wheeler or timbering advocate Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. He’s not qualified to tackle the problems of our lagging educational system like our Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a state party chairperson and billionaire’s daughterin-law. And he hasn’t the vast experience in Health and Human Services like our Secretary and drug company exec Alex Azar, nor the personal experience of our Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and neurosurgeon Ben Carson. And in the nationally important area of Energy, he must bow to the broad spectrum of experience of Texan Rick Perry. And he knows so much less than Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon, of WWE fame.
Sarcasm aside, he finds everything to be political now, leaving him to safely opine on such whimsies as mall walking. He could understand political divisiveness during election campaigns; sometimes it’s even entertaining. But our current national divide is continuous, irrationally declaring: “If you’re not with me you’re being obstructionist, or have some nefarious political agenda.”
He believes that our president is the president of everyone and he/she and all his/her executive departments serve everyone equally, not merely the half that elected him/her. And the half that didn’t is not the enemy, nor should it be lampooned or bullied. He sees presidential rallies and White House news conferences stressing this “we-they,” as if the opposition is an adversarial country the administration must confront on behalf of “the American people.”
Never in his experience with 13 presidents has he seen such misrepresentation of the loyal opposition party. (E.g.: If you don’t fund the Wall you must want open borders. If you want background checks you must want to confiscate all guns.)
The result is the right moving more right and the left in response moving more left. Neither even acknowledges the existence of folks who try to occupy the middle. Both parties have their moderates who are trying to caution and advise, but they seem to be largely ignored. And he, along with the major issues affecting him, is lost in sideshows of trivia and tweets.
It’s not the policies per se; one would expect conservative agendas of a conservative. But this growing autocracy that makes expressing a differing opinion an enemy action was at first amusing. Now frustrating. Later blasphemy. Eventually an offense?
So he can only submit for publication uncontroversial stuff that won’t get bricks thrown through his window.