The Election – Pretending It’s Like It Used to Be When People Could Say What They Think

Have you ever felt nudged to write, but the topic you feel inspired to wax prolific about is an incendiary one that will certainly raise the hackles of most readers? That’s me... today. But lest I live with an acute awareness of my own cowardice, I’ll give it the old college try.

I think I might have been a weird kid. After I saw my mother fall apart when JFK was assassinated, politics grabbed my five-year-old imagination. I became obsessed with watching the news, including the unfolding of Johnson’s swearing-in, the funeral procession, and the nightly footage about the war. Later, I would sit on the floor right in front of our Zenith black and white TV to watch the Democrat and Republican conventions with my parents; two people who were never on the same page about anything, let alone politics.

We were taught civics in school, frequently given assignments to read the newspaper and look for articles about the work of the administrations’ various agencies, and then write an essay about it. In fourth grade I dressed like a hippy and protested the Vietnam War because my mother was a Democrat who’d married the wrong man so she started hanging out with young people who were into the 60s scene. I wanted to support her, plus I thought I looked cool in a headband and a fringed leather vest.

My dad, on the other hand, was a Republican. He was a harsh man, ambitious to a fault, and very critical of me. I was the firstborn, and damned smart (if I do say so myself). He had wanted a son. Despite his efforts to turn me into a mini version of himself, I had my own ideas about life. He eventually disowned me, but that’s another story. So … for obvious reasons, I thought my mom was cooler than my dad, and since she was a Democrat, I became one once I was old enough to vote.

Now, you might think my early fascination with politics might have produced a precocious intellectual when it came to party affiliation, right?

Uh, no. That’s not human nature. Young people, of which I was one at a point, are mostly flailing through early life, looking for something to hold on to, something to belong to, an identity that sets them apart, but not too much lest they be shunned as a geek or nerd or whatever the word is these days. In my case, I had been taking care of my mother for as long as I could remember, and she had trained me well. My job was to encourage her out of her depression, listen to her tell me her terrible secrets, and always respond with a pat on the back and a hug, telling her she would be okay. That was all fine as long as I didn’t need anything from her.

In due course, my first vote was for a Democrat: Jimmy Carter in 1980. I confess I hadn’t done my homework, being fully preoccupied with surviving as a young person without any real family support. But I do recall, vividly, the Iranian hostage crisis. When Reagan won the election and the hostages were immediately released, it got my attention. Reagan had been my governor while growing up, so I knew him in a way, as only a kid could. And something began to clarify within me.

Now, the changes didn’t happen overnight. Listening to Reagan’s speeches, I often thought to myself that he didn’t sound all that smart, and how could people listen to him ramble on as he sometimes did. But again, I was still young and far too busy digging myself out of the chronic need to find another place to live, and seemingly always moving from job to job. There was little time to ponder the greater implications of current-day politics.

Years went by as I worked full-time during the day and attended evening classes to get my undergrad and graduate degrees. It wasn’t until Clinton came into office that one of my friends, a carpooling buddy, red-pilled me with Rush Limbaugh. I complained for the first twenty minutes about having to listen to “this guy.” But the commute was hours long and as I grew weary of my own voice, I found myself listening.

And agreeing. Everything I had learned in school came rushing back along with the memories of growing up as a precocious political junky by the age of eight. I realized how much I had missed the brilliance of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in balancing the guardrails against human nature’s darker tendencies, and the beautiful spirit within each of us that requires freedom to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

When Donald Trump announced he was going to run in 2016, I knew in my gut that he was the guy. You might wonder why, right? So did my husband. He’s still not over it.

Here’s why.

I spent over thirty years in consulting, much of that time pursuing large contracts with the government. Sometimes this type of marketing activity was done in the due course of normal consulting activities. But other times, it was my sole area of responsibility. No, I wasn’t a sales-y kind of personality and I didn’t wine and dine potential clients. I listened to them. I showed them, with my own stories, that I understood what they were dealing with. I would say things like, “It sounds like you are looking for …” And out of that process, they told me more. A mutual trust began to build. I worked hard, spending hours in their bidders' libraries … alone, learning as much as I could. They noticed.

I don’t mean to brag, but of all the contract proposals I was involved with as a lead person, I remember only one that was not awarded to the firm I was associated with.

That’s the marketing side of things. On the consulting side, I played the role of leader/mediator in large organizations where it was necessary to bring people from different divisions into a single team. Commonly, organizations are made up of siloed divisions where politics dictate who aligns with who, and who is on the way out. Sorry to be so blunt.

My job, sitting in a room of people from different organizations who were suspicious toward one another, let alone hostile toward me, was to say the quiet part out loud, but in a way that neutralized and stripped an issue down to the facts without value judgment, including acknowledging the legitimacy of different points of view.

I guess if I were a politician, it would be called diplomacy.

What does this have to do with Trump? He gets the value of connecting with people. It’s the human connection that opens doors! People want to be heard and seen and understood. Lord knows that we need more of that right now. Every day now, I hear another story about the impending possibility of WWIII. Given where we are today, the day before the election, I don’t see any other answer than a Trump presidency. Who cares what his personality may offer while in the limelight? What matters is what he accomplishes, and I understand that behind the scenes, he is kind and funny and the hardest-working president of my lifetime. Not to mention, the most courageous. Look, we don’t want WWIII, do we? No. And I can tell you without a doubt, Kamala Harris has nothing to offer in bringing peace back into the world.

All of that to say this: when Trump announced in 2015, I immediately saw what it meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah … I’d had plenty of chances to watch him on The Apprentice. That was enough for me to see how he operates. He instinctively understands human nature, opens up communication, and facilitates win-win deals. He is both a high-level strategist and tactical implementer. He’s not tangled up in abstractions rooted in ideology aimed at somehow fomenting confusion and disintegrating the fabric of society. He knows what fundamental parts of the “system” need to be in place to make a country hold together, enabling “we the people” to thrive.

Listen. Think about this. We as a country have been undergoing a process of disintegration. There are forces at play (and no, there’s no one evil villain behind the scenes … at least not a human one) that have combined to undermine the integrity of our systems and institutions.

Donald Trump can bring us back to wholeness.

The world will be better for it.

Even for those fighting like hell against him.

We the People need our country back.

Vote Trump.