Fall Harvest Moon
What the?
Politics has been a dominant thread in the fabric of my life. If the fabric of my life were, say a tartan plaid, the bright red threads would form some of the whole blocks. Political awareness for me surfaces for the first time during the Stevenson/Eisenhower election in 1952, the long night of November 4th and the early morning of November 5th to be exact. That night my father and I sat up watching the flickering black and white screen of our still very new television as the votes came in from across the nation.
We, I followed my father’s preference here, assured that it was the best one, were Stevenson supporters. It was not the last night my heart would beat fast as votes overwhelmed hope, but it was the first. What I remember most is the television screen and staying up very late as sober voiced men reported votes “as they came in.” And staying up late with my dad. I was 5.
Given the strength of this memory I’m sure somewhere prior to this I’d become aware of politics. As a newspaper editor, Dad had an important community role, sort of judge and teacher, sorting out candidates for endorsement and informing the town of what they all stood for plus the bare mechanics of the electoral process.
All this is to say that I consider myself an informed participant/observer of the political scene, locally, nationally and internationally. Politics in all forms still fascinate me, 61 years later, and I’ve only recently (within the year) stepped away from an active role.
And I don’t get it. I don’t get the train wreck happening in Washington right now. Sure, I understood ideological purity and intransigence, I’m a card carrying 1960’s radical. What I don’t get is that these guys are on the inside, part of the system, elected to Congress. In that role ideological purity and intransigence have limits. That’s what a legislature is for, the mediation of public disagreement. The mediation. Not the my way or no way politics of the Republican far right.
And I don’t get it. The climate change deniers. The science piling up and up and up and up. A long time ago. The evidence all pointing in the same direction: anthropogenic.
In both instances the far right remind me of Thelma and Louise, only in this case it would be pomade hair underneath those scarves and the scarves would be made from U.S. flag material and the top down convertible they’re driving would be an October, 1929 Nash. There it goes, over the cliff.