As we age, our minds tend to return to times in our lives that are fondly recalled. For some of us, a departed family member or some special occasion sparks our memory. For me, my favorite thoughts are of a kinder, gentler place where people were basically sane and lived together much like a large family. That place has turned into a land where people snap and snarl at each other like rabid dogs.
In my estimation, the world began changing during the Vietnam War. The nation was divided between people who were opposed to the war and those that supported the effort to keep communism from our shores; or at least that was the way the war effort was framed by the people in power at the time. In reality the war was vastly different from what we were led to believe. Those of us who were there realized that it was impossible to discern the enemy from the friend; one bright morning my Vietnamese barber was lying in front of his shop, shot in the head. Seems he had tried to place a satchel bomb in the American compound.
As the war was winding down, a Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade further divided the nation between those who wanted to protect the lives of the unborn and those who wanted unfettered right to abort the child that was growing inside the mother. Roe v. Wade is established law but those who favor abortion on demand are always leery of any SCOTUS nominee that has conservative leadings.
While neither the far left nor right could be accurately called completely sane, the new liberal/socialist movement has brought us to the brink of becoming another Venezuela. The new crop of socialist politicians have no idea how to pay for the implementation of their socialist ideas, beyond taxing the rich, but insist their “pie in the sky” ideals will work. Socialism has been tried to varying degrees in several countries and so far has been anywhere from an unmitigated disaster to being fraught with problems of funding. Still liberal/socialist believers insist socialism will work and should replace our capitalistic society.
Perhaps the nastiness of our current society is best illustrated in the confirmation process of our SCOTUS nominees. Clearly the liberals want an activist judge who will base his/her decisions on what the framers should have, or should not have written in our Constitution. More conservative minded people want judges who enforce the words of the Constitution and its implied meaning in rendering their decisions. The liberal and conservative viewpoints are diametrically polar opposites.
The current nomination process for Judge Brett Kavanaugh has hit an all-time low even for a process that has developed into something that looks like a mud-wrestling contest. Kavanaugh is a fairly middle of the road judge whose decisions fail to paint him as either a flaming liberal or ultra-conservative. Unfortunately the new Democrat Party doesn’t want common sense logic applied to SCOTUS decisions; they want the Constitution rewritten to embrace their leftist agendas.
After going through the senate interview process, which was more an audition by people who want to be president than a fact finding event, the Democrats pulled a final rabbit out of the hat in the form of a woman who claims Judge Kavanaugh attempted to rape her some thirty-five years past. The claimant doesn’t remember where the alleged event took place, the date, how she got there, how she got back home and the other people she claims were present don’t know what she is talking about.
Without having a clue as to the validity of the claim or the denial, people are lining up screaming insults and making baseless accusations. It is as if decency and the presumption of innocence are elements of our society long lost and unrecoverable. All the cries for this agency or that to investigate the claim are merely a smokescreen. Without the claimant being able to provide details, there is nothing to investigate. And presuming, there was an investigation, and Kavanaugh was found to have done what the woman claims, the report would be sealed and unavailable because both were minors at the time.
America has reached a point where the presumption of innocence, civility, and truth are merely antiquated ideals which no longer have relevance when they clash with political objectives. The Democrats are unscrupulous, sometimes slimy, have little regard for the truth, but are committed. The Republicans are feckless, timid as an ole maid, and are seemingly uncommitted. Senator Flake, a man aptly named, can’t stay honor a commitment for even an hour. A nation that loses its way cannot long endure.
Have a good week. Bill Shuey is a freelance writer in Murphy, North Carolina.
