Four long years of turmoil, the fight to right the ship and now this. The news is not good. Forget a honeymoon for the new administration, the carping and obstruction has not missed a beat. It seems to be business as usual.
As I read this morning’s Wall Street Journal, I became increasingly depressed. I believe I understand and appreciate the role of the Journal as a conservative paper, but I had hoped and thought that in light of recent tragedies its editors might chill out for a while and make common cause for honesty and sanity in our politics. As I’ve demonstrated before in these pages, however, my naivete is boundless.
I understand that writers must frequently find hooks and niches, so-to-speak, to make points and develop stories worth being told. This morning’s “Opinion” page struck me as going too far and just plain nasty. There was an article about Joe Biden, his religion and the inauguration. Apparently, it was too much for the writer. There was also a piece mocking Biden’s call for unity because he replaced the general counsel of the NLRB with his own man. And yesterday’s riots in Portland and Seattle – apparently initiated by those on the “left” – were held up to chide the Democrats as an excuse seemingly for the assault on the Capitol Jan 6th.
The Wall Street Journal is a well respected paper with considerable influence as an opinion maker. In my opinion, it should be more responsible and reach out for all of us to do the right thing for our country. There will be plenty of time to debate legislation and policy
Your gob smacked befuddlement and waa waa waa naiveté belies you experience, knowledge, and wisdom. The tensions of the Trump administration did not resonate with sooo many people because of his uncanny ability to sting the sensibilities of woke snowflakes or to irritate the snoots of the snooty. He gave voice to deep, longstanding, sincere concerns of many, many ordinary folk about the decades of an unchecked expansion of government into the lives of Americans. Do you really believe the considerations of those many people are so shallow as to simply yield an “Oh well, never mind”?
We might all do well to stop picking at the insults of “nasty” articles and focus on the opportunity to reassess. Besides how nasty was it? Pretty tepid compared to the vitriol ranted against Trump, even before he was in office, by the likes of Schiff, Warren, Markey, et alia with nary a “now now” from the government or mainstream media. This is a chance to end the “Am not . . . Are to . . . He hit me first” schoolyard strategy to maintaining the village.
The real surprise is the near-silent, tempered public enthusiasms of the leftist to Biden’s inauguration and earliest messages. Me thinks the rightest should be wary. Very wary. Just as it is naïve and unproductive for the left to fanaticize that their opposition will just go away. It is equally delusional to think that AOC, Omar, or Tlaib are all off to join their local Chamber of Commerce.
But there’s hope. In my household supper is taken watching the government news station and the day’s first coffee listening to the government broadcast apparatchiks. It was there I heard the young poet at Biden’s inauguration. What an inspirational message!
It’s hard to believe her message cleared the event censors. If it is true, “We seek harm to none and harmony for all” then no one will be harmed by their actions. Not any person. No one. Each individual will be free to live as they will in the harmony each creates. And “everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.”
Each person will enjoy the benefit of their own vine. Their own tree. It’s important that they are not our vines or our trees. And no one seeks the owners harm, or to sow division, or to make them afraid.
That is an inspiring, hopeful, American message. That is the American dream. We’ll see how it goes.
Thanks for your spirited comments. You are correct, like I said, my naivete is boundless!