Linda Dunn
Illegals are streaming across our nation’s open borders, stealing our jobs and collecting welfare benefits. Once entrenched in our society, they are pet-napping Fluffy and Snoopy to satisfy their cuisine cravings, so we need to hide all our cats and hide all our dogs because they’re eating all the animals here.
These illegals don’t pay taxes or contribute to social security but they collect benefits without working … except at that job you used to have before they stole it.
And those unpatriotic Americans who were born here are even worse because they have a libtard agenda to groom our children into homosexuals through books that have no business being read by children. Thus, we need to get books out of the school classrooms and empty school libraries … except for the Bible because the reason we have so many school shootings is because we took God out of school.
And don’t send your son to a public school because he’s going to come home wearing a princess dress, calling himself Barbie, and wanting to play girl’s volleyball.
And your school is going to need to have a special bathroom for all the children identifying as cats.
And don’t even get started on school lunches because the price of eggs are up to $4.00 a dozen even if the person claiming this is standing in front of a sign that shows them selling for much less than the price he’s claiming.
Lying isn’t really lying if you’re making a point that needs to be made and that point can only be made by lying.
Fear-mongering — for the few of us who are unaware of its definition — is the act of deliberately arousing public fear or alarm about a particular issue. It’s become a winning tactic for those seeking power, and extremists are winning offices world-wide by using this tactic. It’s increasingly popular not only because it’s effective, but also because it’s so much easier to make us fear and hate one another than it is to tell the hard truths and lead us to work together to be that “shining city upon the hill” that President Reagan pointed us toward in his Farewell Address.
Remember that one? It was “…teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace.” Sort of like that old Coca-Cola commercial set on a hilltop singing about teaching the world to sing “in perfect harmony”.
Back in those days, there were strong philosophical and political differences between Republicans and Democrats; but our elected office holders generally “reached across the aisle” to focus on what was doable at that time and place with the resources available while keeping an eye on what would best serve our country’s needs.
Sadly, that kind of pragmatism is gone. [Pragmatism: an approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.] What that leaves us is the opposite: Idealism. [Where we pursue a “perfect vision” or belief without considering the practical means of achieving that goa l… and sometimes the potentially disastrous consequences of our efforts to get there.]
For a while, we had candidates who tapped into our yearning for the old dreaming, hoping and aspiring natures and many of us — especially the younger generation — embraced the positive.
Obama rode a wave of “Hope” into office before crashing into the realities of governance. Clinton tried to ride that same wave but by this time, most of us felt defeated and wanted a savior to rescue us.
And Trump said that only he could save us.
Your opinion on how well that worked out for our nation is more likely to be based upon your own personal experiences rather than how the nation fared as a whole.
Likewise, your opinion about how we’ve fared under the oldest ever United States President is likely a reflection of how his governance has affected your life rather than how its improved or tarnished the nation as a whole.
But what almost all of us agreed upon earlier this year were concerns about the age and perceived stability of our two elderly Presidential candidates.
Only the staunchest supporters were happy with either one of them.
Biden’s poor performance in the first debate led many of us to remember why Grandpa moved to an assisted living center. And Trump’s rally speeches led more than a few of us to remember why we installed “Nannyware” on Grandpa’s iphone.
One party decided they needed to change candidates and ignored the statistic that no woman has ever been elected President in this country and only one sitting Vice President has won the Presidential election in the last 188 years.
The other party decided to offer what seems to be a Trump 2.0 Vice Presidential candidate who turned the fear and rage factor up to 11 on a dial designed to go no higher than ten.
And that fear-mongering is proving to be a very effective campaign tool this year.
Will fear win?
We’ll know in November. But whichever way it goes, it feels like we’ve already lost the most important thing: Our ability to set aside differences after the elections and work together to achieve common goals.
A lifelong resident of Hancock County, Linda Dunn is an author and retired Department of Defense employee.
