In the 1850s, Abraham Lincoln reiterated Christ’s message that “a house divided cannot stand” in his famous “House Divided” speech that catapulted him to national prominence. Today, America stands more divided than any time since the Civil War.
Look no further than the pages of this paper for the abyss that prevents us from listening and only ascribes the worst motives to anyone who disagrees. We live in a culture that assumes a mistake is a deliberate lie instead of repeating a cliché that turns out to be incorrect. One such cliché I took for granted came from a statement by Karl Rove, which I’d misinterpreted it to mean a majority of white Americans voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. A letter writer corrected that: A majority of whites did not vote for Obama in either year (“For the record,” Dec. 24).
However, a larger point was missed: When analyzed by age groups, you find that younger voters by age categories consistently voted in greater numbers for Obama than those in older age groups, according to the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
Racism is a dying philosophy in America.
That puts the lie to the fantasy that America is an inherently racist country and has made little progress in race relations. Older Americans were taught many myths about Black Americans, reinforced by Hollywood stereotypes, family attitudes, and institutional structures designed to divide us and keep us apart. Younger Americans, after 50 years of integration, are steadily demonstrating acceptance of others and revulsion toward attitudes that dehumanize. There are exceptions, but the exceptions are a fringe element that 99 percent of us would prefer not be our neighbors.
Racism is learned; it is a product of ignorance, insecurity, and myths. It has to be taught. No child is inherently born a racist because of their color. Racism is a social construct, and it can be unlearned, as can all the attendant myths with time and familiarity. America has been working on this, quite successfully, in my opinion, until those with an agenda use race to tear us apart.
I didn’t vote for President Obama in 2008 nor 2012. His race was irrelevant; his ideology and campaign platform were everything. Leftists can’t deal with that and must impugn the character of anyone who didn’t jump on board to elect the first Black president. Obama proved my misgivings to be correct in every category: economics, social policy, and foreign policy. Obama’s presidency resulted in a gravely weakened America and a catastrophe for the Middle East, a disaster that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Syria at the bloody hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) along with the ISIS mass kidnapping and rape of thousands of young women.
Obama’s social policies were an abomination to me and to millions of people of faith, especially as executed by his political appointees. Obama had an enormous opportunity to unite us, but instead never missed an opportunity to divide us along lines of race and economic class. He left us a weakened nation and paved the way for the Trump presidency.
The delusional left is steadfast in its assertion that Trump is a racist and moral reprobate, entangled with nefarious foreign connections. He is not and is little different from other powerful or popular men elected to high office. (Remember the Kennedys? They were womanizers all.) One writer waxed nostalgically for a Hillary Clinton victory, disparaging Trump’s election as proof of American racism/sexism (“Alive and well,” Dec. 17). For those of us who followed Hillary’s career closely, we saw an ambitious, cold, calculating, dishonest politician obsessed with power, a danger to the freedom and security of all Americans. There are lots of conservative, principled women I would gladly vote for, but never Hillary.
The writer also asserts in these pages that Trump apologized for neo-Nazis at the Charlottesville riot, which he didn’t. The media continuously edit his comments in which he strenuously condemned the Nazi/antifa elements while attempting to point out that the third element, local citizens, had good people on both sides of the argument regarding validity of Civil War statues.
Trump has condemned racists/Nazis no fewer than 19 times in speeches during his presidency, which the national media refused to report.
In contrast to the Obama administration, which appeased Russia and sent nonlethal aid to the Ukraine in response to Russian aggression, the Trump administration sent anti-armor weapons, which Ukrainians used to kill Russian-backed insurgents. Trump also based American troops in Poland, warning Russia to desist from threatening the Baltic States. In the Middle East Obama’s advisors said defeating ISIS was too hard: Trump unleashed the American military and defeated ISIS in 90 days, rescuing thousands of young women subjected to the most barbaric treatment under ISIS captivity.
Trump’s economic policy produced the strongest economy in my lifetime, and were it not for the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 would have been a banner year.
The year 2020 was the pits, Trump is leaving, the left’s delusions continue. I fear 2021 will be worse, and I’m an optimist. Δ
Al Fonzi had a 35-year military career, serving in both the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Respond with a letter to the editor emailed to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Year in Review December 2020.
Mr. Fonzi’s attempt to take the high moral ground by splitting hairs regarding what “lying” constitutes fails to convince. Repeating statements unsubstatiated and disproven is lying, whether or not he truly believed them to be factual. For example, Mr. Fonzi makes the statement “In the Middle East Obama’s advisors said defeating ISIS was too hard: Trump unleashed the American military and defeated ISIS in 90 days.”
The highly reputable Factcheck.org says otherwise : “During a White House event honoring a now-famous military dog, President Donald Trump repeated a false talking point on how much Islamic State-held land had been recaptured under his presidency.”
Factcheck goes on to say, “It’s not true that “we had almost nothing” when Trump took office. According to figures provided by Trump’s own administration, about half of the territory held by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, had been regained under his predecessor, Barack Obama.”
https://www.factcheck.org/2019/11/trumps-i…
Just looking at Trump’s recent pardons of crooks, Russian agents, racist cops and sadistic soldiers negates everything Fonzi purports, and his closest personal advisors like Bannon and Miller are ideological fascists.
Here’s another example of Fonzi making misleading/false claims: ” In contrast to the Obama administration, which appeased Russia and sent nonlethal aid to the Ukraine in response to Russian aggression, the Trump administration sent anti-armor weapons, which Ukrainians used to kill Russian-backed insurgents.”
In a report from another highly regarded non-profit public policy organization, “The Brookings Institute,” we see proof that Mr. Fonzi has grossly distorted the facts:
In response to Fonzi’s assertion that Obama “appeased Russia and sent nonlethal aid, here’s this: “Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama each saw a stable, independent, democratic Ukrainian state with a robust market economy as in the U.S. interest, including in contributing to a more stable and secure Europe. Washington has provided substantial political, economic and—particularly since 2014—military support to Kyiv. It has sanctioned Russia for its aggression in Crimea and Donbas and sought to bolster NATO in the face of a growing Kremlin challenge to Western security.”
Trump’s “principal engagement on Ukraine was his attempted extortion of Kyiv to advance his personal political prospects, an effort that led to his impeachment. While his administration has taken a tough line on Russia, Mr. Trump seems incapable of criticizing Vladimir Putin or Russian misdeeds. He apparently thinks that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, ignoring the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community, the Mueller investigation and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.”
So take your pick, Mr. Fonzi, are you a liar for spreading lies/distortions or are you just careless and irresponsible. Either choice should give you pause.
“Hillary hatred” is the calling card of old white right wing males. Note that Col. Fonzi attributes personal characteristics to Clinton that are nothing but the ceaseless 20-year take-down of her by Fox News and the angry misogynistic right wing internet. Actually, Clinton is all about POLICIES that improve life for families, women, and children, among other things. Her candidacy was positively endorsed by the editorial boards of virtually every newspaper. She beat Trump by nearly 3 million votes.
Liberal Rhetoric is just that, white people rhetoric. Most but not all liberal white people do nothing, and continue to remain silent when real minorities are terrorized by other members of our community. Here is my video response to the delusional Left: https://youtu.be/7qMNpzvsCyU
More evidence which supports the liberal first-world privileged delusion: https://youtu.be/inu09zbFhtk
Any commentator so willing to outright lie, obfuscate the truth, cherry pick select facts and then destroy their context, victim blame, engage in whataboutism and ad hominem attacks, refuse to accept any responsibility for he and his ideological ally’s contributions to the cultural divide, deep seated societal problems and failures of his own brethren isn’t worth dissecting and trying to refute with rational, fact based, evidence.
With demographic changes and increasing cultural and ethnic diversity coupled with strong secular impulses, the question isn’t IF folks like the author become irrelevant and reduced to pathetic town criers and isolated curmudgeons, its a matter of WHEN. Thankfully, sooner than later. Even our own wonderful county has recently seen these inevitable shifts and its only a matter of time before those committed to preserving white, christo-nationalist hegemony get a taste of marginalization.
The FBI and various Justice dept. reports show a growing and increasingly violent white supremacist and militia based insurrectionist movement in the U.S. The FBI has released two major reports detailing heavy infiltration of local law enforcement agencies by these types.Hate crimes committed by these types as well as other domestic terrorist attacks outnumber those with any other political or ideological motivations 98-2%. Hate crimes against people of color, LGBQT, immigrants, etc. are soaring in the last four years.
Yet we’re expected to believe that all is well, but we’re going to hell in a handbasket because of Shaft movies, negative dinner table indoctrination and the poor morality of people of color themselves. And the dreaded “leftists” as if anyone left of Genghis Khan has posters of Daniel Ortega and Che Guevara on their walls. Of course, we can’t forget that its been documented that our outgoing “president” has had a photo of Hitler on his office desk and well confirmed acts of racial animus in his history. But if Al says it ain’t say, it must be true.
GTFOH! You simply can’t make up dog whistles like that and get away with it when adults are in the room.
Tim Bauman is a blowhard. What a rant. Wow! God even loves you too, Tim.