Friday, March 25, 2016

Perspective Is Everything

My 93-year-old father has voted in twenty-three straight Presidential elections.  As a young soldier in France, he voted for the first time in 1944, for Franklin Roosevelt.  Recently, he wrote me  that "I have never seen a Presidential election as cruel and ugly as this one."  That was before the wife-smearing.

Some historians recite ugly incidents in other Presidential campaigns, saying this is normal, which I reject.  It doesn't matter if this campaign is the worst or not.  It is simply unacceptable.  Everybody will agree this campaign does not reflect well on America  I think my father is correct.  This one is unacceptably "cruel and ugly."

There is one big difference between the current campaign and the many previous ones, i.e., the 24/7 media that is trying to sell advertising in a competitive marketing world.

A few weeks ago, the member-magazine for the Communist Party in China started comparing Trump with Hitler, an unfortunate but inevitable comparison.  Would Americans elect another "Hitler," they asked?  After all, Hitler, as well as Mussolini, came to power through the ballot box.  They were popularly elected.  Their point was that only the Communist Party can save people from a Hitler/Trump.  Americans have no such protection.

My point is that there is no room on the ballot for either barbarians or extremists, either on the right or the left.  My prayer, however, is that the Republicans can close this Pandora's Box of electoral poison.