In 2013 I began writing for a Las Vegas based newspaper. Today it is an online information publication. I have always been interested in what happens in Washington because the actions and decisions of 545 men and women affect my life and the lives of those I love. Sadly, if you write about politics in the 21st century, most of what I report is negative. I remember when times were different.
I am an original baby boomer, born in 1946. Until I was five years old, my father, mother, and my younger brother lived in Lewiston, Idaho. The post WWII economy was beginning to grow, but only in America’s larger cities. My immediate family, my maternal grandparents, and one uncle decided to move to Los Angeles, California.
We lived in Venice, California. I was enrolled in St. Marks Catholic Elementary School. I learned to love the Southern California lifestyle, and I loved school. I felt great pride every morning when we stood, faced the flag, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
My parents divorced not long after we moved to Venice. The three of us moved to West Los Angeles. Our television became very important. Our mother worked every hour available to her. I was a strange child; I not only watched cartoons, sitcoms, and westerns, I watched Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second convention in 1956. My interest in politics began then and has never wavered.
Eisenhower was far from perfect, but his policies helped our nation begin to flourish economically. His plan to build the interstate highway system created thousands of jobs and made it easier for families to travel across America. “I liked Ike.”
I had just begun high school when John F. Kennedy was elected in November of 1960. The second youngest president in history gave us hope. This was my country, and my president. I was proud to be an American.
JFK’s assassination on November 22, 1963 both shocked and saddened me. School was cancelled the next day and for three days I rarely left the television. Like millions of others I shed many tears.
Our entire nation was mourning, and once again I felt enormous national pride although one of my few heroes was no longer in the White House.
My youth was not always filled with patriotism. There have been 12 presidents in my lifetime. It was my age group who was drafted and forced to go to Vietnam. I had already enlisted in the United States Air Force, which turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. Many of my friends came home with severe injuries, and others came home in a coffin. To this day I have never heard a valid reason why our nation’s leaders forced us to go to war halfway around the world.
These were dark times in our nation. The war became so unpopular that Lyndon Johnson declined to run for reelection in 1968. Richard Nixon became our president and disgraced himself and our nation by ordering a burglary of Democratic headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. He was forced to resign in 1974.
Gerald Ford filled in for Nixon. His presidency was ineffectual and will be remembered primarily for his unwise decision to pardon Nixon. I still loved my country. He set a dangerous precedent which continues today.
One of the saddest moments in our nation’s history happened on April 30, 1975. Although I was opposed to the war, the cowardly our nation’s military left South Vietnam was revealed in newsreels. Many of our South Vietnamese allies were abandoned.
My pride in America returned with the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976. He was and remains a very good man whose morals and principles are unquestioned. However, he was not a great president. He is a very patriotic American.
In 1980, I, and many millions of other Americans, supported Ronald Reagan. During his first term he stabilized our nation and patriotism was at its highest point since the two years JFK was our president.
However, by the end of Reagan’s second term he had begun a war on the working class; his policy of “supply side,” or “trickle down” economics was failing. When he left office on January 20, 1989, he had one great accomplishment and two failures.
In 1988 Trump signed a nuclear arms agreement with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev. He also left our nation with 12 percent unemployment and a deficit of one-trillion dollars.
When George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988, I was 42 years old. I had been married twice and had two children. Politics had become even more important in my life. I admired President Bush, but his decision to continue Reagan’s failed economic policy became problematic for his reelection hopes and for his party.
For me, Bill Clinton continues to be a conundrum. As our nation’s 42nd president, he was excellent. He was eloquent, intelligent, and his administration left America with a surplus in 2001. He erased all of the economic failures of the previous 12 years.
However, as a man, his lack of morality and self-control remains a stain on the presidency.
Then there was George W. Bush. I had always been an Independent. However, I feared a “W” presidency and for the first time registered as a Democrat. I will never forget or forgive the Supreme Court for giving the presidency to Bush.
Al Gore won the popular vote. If he had become our 43rd president the tragedies on September 11, 2011 might have been avoided. He would have listened to our national security advisers. We would never have invaded Afghanistan or Iraq. Thousands of lives would have been saved. Instead, Bush placed our nation in two unwinnable wars. At the end of his presidency our nation was trillions of dollars in debt, near a depression, and the unemployment rate was soaring.
Regardless of Bush’s many failures, I continued to love my country and found new heroes in Washington. One of them became our nation’s 44th president on January 20, 2009. Barrack Obama’s single word slogan described my emotions perfectly; “HOPE.”
Although the Republican Party literally said “no” to every proposal, he saved our nation’s economy, restored our nation’s standing in the world, and restored my faith in government.
I remember America. Throughout my nearly 73 years I have been proud of my country, most of the time, and always believed that when times were bad, change would come. I no longer feel that way.
It’s impossible to be proud of America today. Trump’s failed and immoral policies do not represent America because America is composed of 320 million people, not the worst government in our nation’s history. His cowardly party has given the orange man an opportunity to destroy my America.
The very fact that millions of ignorant voters elected a spoiled child who is amoral and without average intelligence is embarrassing to any man or woman who loves the United States. His support for white supremacy; his hatred of Hispanics; his attacks on Muslims; his suppression of the rights of the LGBTQ community; and his belief that women have only one purpose are unforgivable.
America will always be my country, but Trump will never be my president.
Please vote on November 3, 2020 and take our country back.
Tell everyone; “The Truth Lives Here.”
Op-ed by James Turnage
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