As someone who wrote professionally, first as a reporter, then in corporate communications, I have to confess words fail me today - for the first time in my 71 years. I no longer know this nation, and I fear for its people, especially my own children.
We are such a study in contrasts. We have amazing aspirations: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is a declaration that I've always read as inclusive and optimistic. But our history - and today's reality - is one of falling short of those aspirations and failing to extend that promise to everyone. For most of my life, though, I've felt like we're working in fits and starts and slowly to get closer to our ideal.
The last decade, though, gives me the sense that many of us no longer believe in those aspirations and are willing to settle for "as long as I get mine." Donald Trump didn't create that shift - I think that's a different conversation - but he is surely symbolic of it and is as pure an application of the philosophy as I can think of.
A paragraph from near the close: Before last year, if you were a mom, with a glovebox full of stuffed animals, driving your SUV through a peaceful suburb, eager to see your six-year-old child at the end of the day — a wife with no criminal record who had committed no federal crimes, not being sought by any authorities anywhere — a poet who cared about your neighbors — there was, effectively, a zero percent chance you had to worry about being shot in the face by masked, ill-trained, aggressive federal officers who would then pull their guns on a doctor who tried to help you and let you die in the street.
I'm 66 and for the first time in my life I feel like the federal government is a malignant force in my life. This is a change for me as an affluent white guy who has never once been afraid to see cops in my neighborhood or to see red lights flashing in his rearview mirror. Annoyed and pissed (at myself) for getting pulled over perhaps but never afraid.
That's changing. That concerns me very much as a citizen who cares about this country because if I feel this way - a left-leaning centrist who believes in compromise and consensus-building - I can only imagine how people further away from the center feel about this. That too concerns me.
Yep. I thought Graff articulated the reasons behind the cloud of anger, despair and anxiety that I feel like I just can't get out from under (except briefly in the company of our grandkids). I don't have any confidence another three years can transpire without a catastrophe in public health, civil unrest, national security or economics.
As someone who wrote professionally, first as a reporter, then in corporate communications, I have to confess words fail me today - for the first time in my 71 years. I no longer know this nation, and I fear for its people, especially my own children.
You and I share this feeling, my friend.
We are such a study in contrasts. We have amazing aspirations: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is a declaration that I've always read as inclusive and optimistic. But our history - and today's reality - is one of falling short of those aspirations and failing to extend that promise to everyone. For most of my life, though, I've felt like we're working in fits and starts and slowly to get closer to our ideal.
The last decade, though, gives me the sense that many of us no longer believe in those aspirations and are willing to settle for "as long as I get mine." Donald Trump didn't create that shift - I think that's a different conversation - but he is surely symbolic of it and is as pure an application of the philosophy as I can think of.
Hang in.
Jon: If you haven't seen it, this column from Garrett Graff:
https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/the-physical-weight-of-trumpism?utm_source=www.doomsdayscenario.co&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=the-physical-weight-of-trumpism&_bhlid=5c5afa14e8b230de3408cf177bb5dbe16fd3a9a8
A paragraph from near the close: Before last year, if you were a mom, with a glovebox full of stuffed animals, driving your SUV through a peaceful suburb, eager to see your six-year-old child at the end of the day — a wife with no criminal record who had committed no federal crimes, not being sought by any authorities anywhere — a poet who cared about your neighbors — there was, effectively, a zero percent chance you had to worry about being shot in the face by masked, ill-trained, aggressive federal officers who would then pull their guns on a doctor who tried to help you and let you die in the street.
Now that chance is at least non-zero.
Thanks for flagging that one.
I'm 66 and for the first time in my life I feel like the federal government is a malignant force in my life. This is a change for me as an affluent white guy who has never once been afraid to see cops in my neighborhood or to see red lights flashing in his rearview mirror. Annoyed and pissed (at myself) for getting pulled over perhaps but never afraid.
That's changing. That concerns me very much as a citizen who cares about this country because if I feel this way - a left-leaning centrist who believes in compromise and consensus-building - I can only imagine how people further away from the center feel about this. That too concerns me.
Yep. I thought Graff articulated the reasons behind the cloud of anger, despair and anxiety that I feel like I just can't get out from under (except briefly in the company of our grandkids). I don't have any confidence another three years can transpire without a catastrophe in public health, civil unrest, national security or economics.
So damn sad that it's hard to find words.
Heartbreaking and infuriating.