The Winds of Politics

 The Winds of Politics

 I have lived a long time, and I have seen the winds of politics change direction many times.  I date back to Franklin Roosevelt and his “New Deal” when I was young, and I remember people, (including my mother), look on FDR as the “second coming”.  Others called him “that bastard, Frankie”.  I was too young to have formed any political muscle yet, so I just observed.

 Intellectual divisiveness and rancor over politics has always been normal within the relatively small group that followed politics in the past, primarily in the printed media.  The general public pretty much voted with their pocket books, particularly after seeing what the depression of the 1930’s, blamed on Hoover and the republicans, did to the country.  Political slogans at election time no doubt had some impact on impressionable, easily swayed voters.

 While politics was debated, for much of our history, basic American values were extant.  Words like “liberty”, “freedom”, “law” meant something, and related to the constitution.  People respected the local, state and federal governments, and dutifully obeyed the law. 

 Some of this was a swing of the country to the right after the Second World War, but mostly, it was a continuation of the American values that had developed over the last 150 years, and for which internal and foreign wars had been fought.  President Eisenhower was the first republican president after many years of FDR and Harry Truman.  McCarthyism was an unwelcome vestige of right- wing abuse.

 We were pretty much unified as a country, and proud to be Americans.  At least if we were Caucasian, sexually straight, and politically acceptable.  We gave lip service to the continuing bigotry concerning the black community, and the snide remarks about “fairies” and “queers”.  These were an aberrant part of our utopian, politically and societally stable Americana.

 Our society began its long and continuing change in the 1960’s. Martin Luther King Jr., no doubt inspired by the “passive resistance” of India’s Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose efforts freed India from British colonial rule, applied the principles of “passive resistance” and nonviolence in this country to ensure civil rights for black Americans.

 The civil rights movement and the Vietnam War protests of the 1960’ and 1970’s were the harbingers of activist “progressivism”, and changed America forever.  However, protests soon deviated from Gandhi’s and MLK’s “passive resistance”, to violence in the streets.

 What were originally beneficent movements to redress obvious societal ills such as discrimination against blacks and gays, soon became perverted, skewed and politicized, and became violent, and examples of “the tail wagging the dog”.  The once valid environmental movement quickly joined this exodus toward an uncontrolled left-wing progressivism and deterioration of traditional values.

 It is evident in retrospect, that an “awakening” concerning discrimination against blacks and gays was necessary.  The same was true for environmental concerns.  To the extent that such a societal awakening was non-violent, it was of benefit to all. 

 Once the civil rights movement, and the LGBTQ+++ movement, and the environmental movement became violent and all-encompassing, these once positive movements lost their validity and entered the realm of activist progressivism and anarchy.

 Where we now sit is an America that has been distorted by unbridled left-wing politics that has made our country a laughing stock, “woke”, “politically correct” “environmentalist”, experimental disaster.  It is run by a doddering, faltering old man, who finds it difficult to remember which direction to go on a stage.  There is a great Polish phrase that describes him “stary dziad”, literally “old grandpa” or “old codger”.

 This “old grandpa” is told what to say, and where and how to go, by his handlers, who seem to be a mix of sophomoric 1970’s socialist/communist retreads, and starry-eyed young left-wing acolytes.  Rather than using his nearly 50 years of “moderate” experience in government, as promised, our “leader” has been co-opted by the most extreme elements in Washington DC today.

 Positive results of all of the political and societal upheaval of the past 75-odd years is that all Americans should be considered equal and not discriminated against, and that we should all be aware of our earth’s environment, and not destroy it.

 We should have also learned that intelligence and discretion, and not selfish politics, should inform our behavior concerning our society and our place in it.  This currently seems lost in the morass of “woke progressivism”.

 Ray Gruszecki

May 27, 2023