And you tell me
over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't
believe we're on the eve of destruction.”
Barry McQuire
“I think it is
dangerous because it threatens to vest power in the hands of second-rate men
whose only qualification is their ability to pander to other men's fears. I
think it divides this nation at a very critical time -- and therefore it
weakens us as a united country."
President Lyndon
Johnson on the eve of the 1966 mid-term election
In the words of the infamous Rodney King, “can’t we all
just get along.”
 |
| Downtown Encampment |
Today, America is
on a direct collision course with itself. Partisan politics have ripped the
nation apart from within. Lines of conflict are clearly drawn straight along
political party affiliation.
With President
Donald Trump as a leader who makes no attempt to hide his impulsiveness and even
admits to enjoy the chaos he has orchestrated, the nation rolls unencumbered
down a track of future uncertainty. Trump support and disapproval ratings both
hover around 50% - a perfect storm for legislative gridlock.
Encampment,
Wyoming is populated by 180 hardened mountain souls. I try to visit this hidden
jewel, 8000 feet up in the San Juan Mountains of southern Wyoming, at least
once a year. After the obligatory visit to the local hot springs, to flush out
those nasty toxins of modern day progress, I always next visit the local senior
citizen center for a hearty mountain midday meal - no gluten free, decaf
coffee or other such snowflake nonsense on this menu - and the political robust conversation that
follows.
I have learned to
grudgingly respect the defiant right wing stance most of my Encampment
acquaintances take on current social and economic issues. Some, I proudly
report, due to our political conversations over the years, I now consider
political adversaries but also, valued friends.
Encampment
residents have skin in this game of political debate. Many are fourth or even
fifth generation area residents. They are invested in their current lot and do
not feel an obligation to supplement those from different and foreign
demographics whom they see as lacking in both work ethic and personal pride. They
are, justifiably so, proud of the lives they have carved out of this
challenging environment and feel no obligation to support through their taxes
those who, they feel, do not share their
self-sufficient attitude.
My latest visit to
the Cowboy state of Wyoming corresponds with the 2018 mid-term elections. I
roll into Carbon County two days before the Tuesday vote and just ahead of an
early fall snowstorm.
This election, we
have been told incessantly for weeks now by the national media shrill; will be
the most definitive mid-term elections in our lives. For the past two years,
President Donald Trump has turned the American political landscape into a mine
field of conflict and confusion. The now-President promised during his 2016
campaign to shake up Washington D.C., saying he likes chaos, that it is good,
keeps everyone on their toes Call it a
promise kept. His pragmatic supporters take a Machiavelli approach - look at
the great results he has made so his methods are of secondary or of no concern. Today, thanks
to the former reality TV star turned leader of the free world; political chaos reigns.
Mr. Trump has
turned politics into America’s new blood sport, with personal insults, crude
descriptions and nicknames of adversaries topped with retaliatory threats to
any who oppose or question his behavior or policy. What was once implicit –
Trump’s race baiting and other undocumented scare tactics to appeal to his
mostly rural white base – is now explicit and by a large portion of America, found
to be acceptable.
 |
| City Limits |
Trump wears the
racial, cultural and religious divisiveness his rallies ramp up with one
inflammatory statement after another as a badge of unapologetic honor. The
press rages in its disdain while Trump loyalists roar their approval. His
political incorrectness is a main allure to what he labels the nation’s silent
majority.
Make America
Great Again, his trademark political statement, resonates with many who until
the Trump phenomena felt ignored, unheard and not valued. They see Trump as a
long awaited source of entitlement and a politician who finally does not talk
down to them. His critics call him a merchant of bigotry who has concocted a
noxious mixture of misinformation, half-truths and right out lies to purposely
keep the nation divided. Remarkably, a man who was born a millionaire and has
lived a life of vast economic privilege has convinced the poorest of white America
that he is one of them.
The President is
a man addicted to his twitter account. His often bizarre, grammar challenged
and cryptic middle of the night tweets are legendary. Perhaps his most
braggadocios - and there is a long list of deserving rants to choose from - was
his Memorial Day, 2018 communique to the nation:
“Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be
very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in
decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women
in 18 years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!
Trump, with his
five draft deferments due to what he has admitted was a fraudulent claim of
bone spurs, has had a hard time selling veterans on his personal patriotic
support for the military. He states his main accomplishment as a civilian during the Vietnam War was not catching a sexually transmitted disease. His Memorial Day flippant tweet was not well
received by the nation’s veterans. One vet took to twitter to announce his
disgust with Presidents tacky tweet. “So, he tells us, “Hey, sorry your dad
died in a worthless war in a far off land named Vietnam, but have a “happy” day
and look what a great job I am doing.””
The stories of
Trump handlers who attempt to keep him distracted and off Twitter are numerous
but lacking for much success.
I use Encampment,
WY as my stethoscope for detecting the right wing conservative pulse of America.
This is Trump country. No taking a knee
during the pre-lunch pledge of allegiance, my wife and traveling partner, wisely
advises.
High
in the mountains of southern Wyoming, life can be hard. Long frigid winters
callous the inhabitants creating an independent streak hard for a flat lander
to understand.
Winter
and the incessant snow it brings dominate life in Encampment. The short summer
is a constant whirlwind of preparation for the soon to hit bitter frozen months.
One long time area rancher told me he had seen snow fall in every one of the
twelve months of the yearly calendar. There is ice along the banks of the
Platte River in early October and often the year's first snow falls before the
World Series—a biting white and wet snow that swirls across the high plains and
drifts amongst the fall leaves on the one block downtown main street of
Encampment. There is, many years, snowbanks by Thanksgiving of over several feet
and winter may not end until one final wet blizzard is deposited on the flower
beds of May.
R.G.
and Lynne Finney have mountain grit and the stubborn independence needed for
Wyoming survival. Their political beliefs are conservative to the core,
reflecting the rugged individuality the area is known for. R.G. is the Marlboro
man aged; his wife, Dodge City’s Miss Kitty; with all the feminine charm of a
true lady, but tough enough to corral the most out of line cowboy. Together, they
reflect the rugged individuality that won the West. Both, now in their late
70’s, show no sign of slowing down. They will soon celebrate 61 years of
marriage. “I got real lucky,” says R.G.
In
1959, R.G. left his native Canada, moving south to the United States and
gaining citizenship with the intent to join his newly adoptive nation’s
military. At a time when many American young men were making their way north to
Canada to avoid the military draft and participation in the increasingly
unpopular Vietnam War (or sitting out the conflict with bone spurs), Mr. Finney chose a 180 degree opposite route, in both
terms of direction and patriotism. Why not join his native Canadian military, I
asked? Not enough action, he responded.
Finney
spent 14 years in the military, the first two in the Navy followed by a 12 year
hitch in the US Army. He held membership within the elite ranks of the 82nd
Airborne Division and the Green Berets. After his military stint ended, Finney
attended and graduated with a divinity degree from Dallas, TX Baptist Seminary.
Finney
tells me he has never felt better in all the year’s he has been an American
citizen about the state of the nation’s vitality than he does today. He gives
full credit to the man in the White House. “We needed something done and he has
done it,” he says. “For too many years,” he continues, “we have let others walk
all over us, not with this president, not today, he means what he says and the
rest of the world knows that. Look at the economy, look at the respect we now
have around the world. With the last guy, other nations laughed at us. Not now.”
Mrs.
Finney’s roots in the Encampment River Valley run deep. Her maternal
grandmother, Dixie, moved to the area from Montana in 1917, following a
divorce. “Her husband, my biological grandfather,” Lynn tells me, “was just not
a good person, but for a woman to divorce her husband in those days, well, it
just wasn’t done. It took both courage and faith. And then to set off with a
three year old and did it all on her own, it was very hard for a divorced woman
in those times.”
Beatrice,
Lynn’s mother, was destined to be an only child. She was 3 years old when the
two settled in Encampment. “Grandmother had a sister here,” Lynn states in
explanation of the destination of the young divorcee. In 1920, Dixie married a local
sheep rancher named Orlando Peterson, who a decade earlier had himself migrated
from Boston to Encampment. With a young daughter in tow, the three began to
build a life on Peterson’s 640 acre mountain homestead. Located on the
Continental Divide, 20 miles west of Encampment, 8,000 feet up on a terrain as
rugged as any found in the lower 48 states, the blended family’s cabin was snow
bound 7 to 8 months of the year. It was
a hard life. Two large mountain meadows provided enough foliage to sustain the
family’s small sheep herd, but it was always a fine line they walked with
Mother Nature and the mostly self-sufficient lifestyle they embraced for
survival.
“It
was very isolated way to live,” says Lynn. “They were 40 miles away from
anywhere. For eight months of the year, they had no (outside) contact. No
electricity and running water only in the summer months. Back then, you were on
your own. My mother always called him (Orlando Peterson) her father. He was a
good man. He lived until he was 87. After he passed we made my grandmother
winter with us. They had a very hard life. My mom knew how to work and she
passed it on to me,” says the task oriented Finney.
The
improvements made under Trump, according to Mr. Finney, are not being fairly
reported by the press. “Look how he has reached out to Israel,” he observes.
“And the economy, look how strong it is. The media is all against Trump, except
Fox News.”
I
ask if Fox is fair and balanced or Trump’s mouthpiece, with political hack
Shawn Hannity, disguised as a journalist, his biggest cheerleader. “What about
CNN,” he rhetorically asks. “All I watch on the news is Fox. I watch the others
and I just get mad.”
 |
| The Finneys |
The Finney’s were gracious in accepting my request of their political views, making an acceptation for me to a long held policy. They have been for years successfully involved in the hospitality industry and do not discuss politics with clients. “People can really get mad about political talk,” Lynn tells me. “We hear a lot (of political talk) and sometimes it is hard to bite your tongue, but it is not good for business to mix in politics. We have made an exception for you.”
I
ask the two about health care, a major concern for any senior citizen who has
paid their entire working life into a system many now claim will soon implode
without a major infusion of tax money. “The whole (system) is not a good
system,” R.G. tells me. “Trump has got things going the right way. He has been
so busy with this election he needs more time to get it fixed. I am confident as soon as this election is over he
will get (health care) a priority. He is
going to get the drug makers (pharmaceutical industry) under control and then
with more people working, more people can afford insurance. I come from Canada
and I can tell you the socialist system up there is not what we want.”
His
wife adds, “With all the jobs now, people are working and they will able to buy
health care coverage they want instead of a free handout I have to pay for. A
socialist system will not work, it never has anywhere. President Trump is making
people take responsibility for supporting themselves. It is a long time coming.”
“I
feel better now about the economy of this country than anytime I have since I
became an American citizen,” R.G. summarizes, “and it's all because of Trump. We
finally have a president who is not afraid to say what needs to be said and he
does what he says.”
Our political stances are very much polar opposites, but I also enjoy the Finney’s company and find their grit inspiring. They have, through hard work and perseverance, lived the Great American Dream. I respect that.
My sister-in-law Cydney and her husband Ron, based on the limited political conversations we have
shared, I would tab as moderate conservatives. In the 2016 presidential
election, they faced an excruciating problem many Americans bemoaned;
choosing
the lesser of two evils. They did what many moderate Republicans did on that November, 2016 day - held
their nose and chose Trump over the much maligned “Crooked Hillary.” It left a
bitter taste. “I said to Ron when we got back into the car,” recalls my
sister-in law, “‘my goodness, we just voted for Donald Trump to be our President.”’
 |
| Cydney and Ron |
Look up the mental health conditions of defensive self-esteem and narcissistic rivalry and you will have a
better understanding of the behavior of Donald Trump. His thin skin and
inability to not lash out when criticized creates the polarizing effect his
tenure has wrought. His downfall will not be porn stars, Playboy bunnies or
Access Hollywood tapes, but his lack of empathy for anyone but himself.
The POTUS has the
self-control of a spoiled 12 year old. He has to have constant affirmation of
his brilliance, so it is off to another hastily scheduled pep rally in
Missouri, Kentucky or Ohio, where he can rant to his base about the "son
of a bitches" in the NFL or how the first amendment is the enemy of the
people, with constant braggadocio claiming of sole credit for everything he
sees as good in his alternate reality universe of entitlement. Sorry friends, that is just how I see it.
I attempt to talk
to as many conservative Republican as I can. In the back water territory I like
to roam, they are not hard to find. I
sincerely value views that are different than mine. However, not all are open
to my prodding nature. One Encampment gentleman at the “wrinkle club,” as one
senior called his daily luncheon companions, told me it was, “none of my
business,” when I asked for his views on health care. Never take it personal, I
learned a long time ago. Maybe he was having a bad day, maybe he was not happy that
my round table discussion delayed the start of the daily after-lunch domino
game, or, maybe, he just had me pegged as a liberal asshole.
I see today two
major problems conservative politicians must deal with and I am not shy on
sharing them with anyone willing to listen. First, being the alt-right Tea
Party. In 2018, Trump has completely hijacked this grassroots movement’s
platform. His incendiary and inflammatory rhetoric has managed to attract to
their ranks almost every bigot looking for a platform to rant from.
Second, the right
wing Christian religious fanatics who claim Trump was sent by God to save
American Christianity. These self -appointed guardians of the nation’s morality
would gladly take us back to the dark days of the middle ages of intolerance.
These zealots claim divine intent and biblical justification in their attempts
to spread hate and divisiveness amongst us by inventing convenient enemies.
Their demonizing anyone who is “different”: blacks, gays, women and other
religious beliefs; is an insulting affront to anyone who believes in our
constitution. The nutcases at Westboro Baptist Church and The Aryan Brotherhood
are radical examples.
It does not take
me long to energize a group of conservatives.
 |
| Senior Citizens Center |
Health Care is a
major concern of both. They, understandably are frustrated with the
bureaucratic tangle that muddles their medical needs. “It is just constant
change,” says Bill. He feels powerless.
“I will get a letter saying the insurance will not cover the medicine I have
been on and have to switch to this other drug. I feel that should be up to me
and my doctor. What if the new medicine doesn’t work as well for me? Nobody in
the government seems to care.”
Madeline shares
with me the logistic struggles when living in a rural remote setting like
Encampment and how those challenges are magnified when choices are limited.
“One of us might need to see a specialist in Boulder and the other a doctor in Cheyenne.”
She feels a loss of ownership in her own health care management. “They tell us
what doctors we can see and which ones we can’t. I have some serious health
problems and it is not just like I can not go.”
“They need to
leave our social security alone, stop raiding the fund when the government
needs money,” Bill says. Both feel that the mandatory insurance component of
Obama Care was unfair, even “illegal.” Obama Care was unpopular and a constant
talking point of conservative politicians. Candidate Trump promised to make the
removal of the hated mandatory component
the first priority of his presidency. Promise 'kept, as Trump supporters like
to say, but now what?
I have never
understood the opposition to the mandatory insurance rule. I discuss this at
length with senior citizens. The Finney's and the Telfer's both feel insurance
companies should be made to cover pre-existing conditions. That is why, I
explain, we have to have mandatory laws for coverage.
To me, is seems
to be elementary that if citizens only buy insurance when they need it, the
system cannot support itself. Social welfare programs, like social security,
only sustain themselves if you have a wide base at the bottom paying in more
than they receive in benefits.
 |
| Orlando and Dixie Peterson, circa 1960 |
Trump bought a house with several
annoying roof leaks. As promised, he has torn off the old roof but has not yet
started building a “wonderful” new replacement. Most troubling, there is no
sight or sign of any building materials at the construction site and the
immediate forecast calls for heavy rain.
 |
| Dr. Cowboy Bill Johnson |
Trump promised
many times during the 2016 campaign, and has continued to claim during the
first half of his presidential term, that he has a “wonderful,” and
“beautiful,” alternate health care plan. However, the nation has yet to see
even a vague plan of what is an incredibly complex problem to solve. The
national polls show, and my conversations with the senior citizens in Encampment
validate, that a pall of concern is starting to erode away any senior citizen
trust for Trump and the Republicans assurances on health care.
Considering
Trump’s past dealings in the business world, his six bankruptcies and his
numerous business adventures that have enriched him but left his investors
holding an empty bag of unfulfilled promises while often landing Trump as a
defendant in a fraud law suit, the first ripples of alarming concern amongst
his many staunch older supporters is, in my opinion, well placed.
A
gentleman at our senior citizen’s discussion made the point, shared by many in
this nation, that he didn’t trust the nation’s press core. “They all lie,” he
said. “If they don’t like you, they make you look bad. They don’t like Trump,
so they twist his words to mean what he doesn’t mean.” Fair assessment I
counter, but does the president, with his unprecedented attacks on the first
amendment of freedom of the press, bring some of his problems upon himself? Two
clichés: don’t pick fights with those who buy ink by the barrel and the pen is
mightier than the sword.
The
gentlemen did agree with my assessment that both sides try to keep us apart.
“They all label people, depending if you agree with them are not.” No more
independent thinkers is a problem of D.C. today, he felt. The recent
confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Bret Kavanaugh is a chilling assessment; a
senate approval vote of 50-48, strictly along party lines. Not even one
independent maverick? Why even bother holding a hearing?
 |
| Cutting into Domino Time |
A Navy veteran in the group was the one dissenting voice on the canonization of St. Donald. “He is a divider,” he commented. Drawing on his military experience he emphasized the need for team work. “We have got to start to come together, stop all of the fighting. Right now, instead of trying to make things better for the people, all each side cares about is hurting the other. And we out here are the ones suffering. It is on both sides, but the President should take the lead. He is our leader, and he needs to lead.”
I
make a mental note to place learning more from and about Bill “Cowboy” Johnson
on the top of my agenda of my next trip to Encampment. We talk in passing as I
am escorted by an anxious troop of domino players off the floor. Bill tells me
has been a lifetime rancher, discarding what he was trained for as a clinical
psychologist. In fact, he is Dr. Wadsworth, holding a doctoral degree in his
specialty. A range Cowboy riding trail while analyzing the mental health of his
heard? There is a good story here, I am sure.
“This
a great place to live,” Cowboy tells me. “I would like to talk politics with
you again. I enjoyed it so be sure to come back.” And that, Cowboy, is a plan.
The much anticipated mid-term elections are now complete. The result: A Blue Wave meets a Red Wall.
The
Democrats picked up 28 seats and now have control of the House of
Representatives for the first time in eight years. The makeup of the House is
now darker, younger and more female than ever. These are not the demographics
that fit Trump’s base and this is the first time Trump has to deal with a
legislature not controlled by his own party.
The
Republicans held on to the Senate by gaining either three or four seats for a
majority of four or five. The Arizona race has a razor thin spread and is now undergoing
a recount.
The
day before the election, the President sounded more temperate than normal.
"I
would like to have a much softer tone," he told the Sinclair Broadcast
Group. "I feel to a certain extent I have no choice, but maybe I do and
maybe I could have been softer from that standpoint."
Twenty
four hours later he has returned to his old combative self.
At
what can only be described as an “unworldly,” day after news conference, the
President for 90 minutes released all of venom at his usual punching bags; the
Press, Democrats and the “witch hunt,” Justice Department’s investigation of
possible collusion by the Trump campaign with the Russians to win the 2016
Presidential election.
Trump
was intent on taking a victory lap, declaring the prior evening’s results as a “marvelous, all most
total,” victory for him (he failed to share credit with the Republicans whole won races for both the Senate and the House).
"It was a big day yesterday.
Incredible day," he crowed, despite his party losing control of half the
legislative branch. He called the evening’s national vote as confirmation the
American people, “think I am doing a great job.” Exit polls showed 54% of
Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance.
Trump
is master at the linguistic gymnastics of twisting the facts. He suggests a
view, then he declares the view as fact, then announces confidently that “other
people say this,” or “many people tell me all the time,” but never shares the
source or documentation of his vague self-serving declarations.
 |
| The Mangy Moose |
He
sparred loudly with the media in the day after news conference, labeling them again, “the enemy of the people.”
Repeatedly telling reporters asking questions he did not like to “sit down.”
He twice ordered aides to “take the microphone away, take it away, now,” from
a credentialed media member. He told one of his main media targets, CNN’s Jim Acosta:
"You should let me run the country. You run CNN.” And then later, "That's
enough. Put down the mic. CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working
for them. You are a rude terrible person." Later that evening Trump pulled
Acosta’s white house press past.
And
of course, the President attempted to obstruct a Department of Justice
investigation into, amongst other charges, that the President had obstructed
justice. (I know, it is complicated.) "This is a investigation where many,
many millions of dollars has been spent, and there's no collusion. It was
supposed to be on collusion. There's no collusion. And I think it's -- I think
it's very bad for our country, I will tell you. I think it's a shame."
Later
in the day of Trump’s wrath, he fired Attorney
General Jeff Sessions and named Matt Whitaker as acting attorney general. Sessions
had been a favorite target of Trump’s displeasure over the investigation of
Trump. He had expected the Attorney General to show loyalty to the President as
opposed as to the American public. Whitaker has been a high profile critic of
the Trump investigation. He now will oversee the same investigation he has criticized.
Trump called his new appointee, “a loyalist.”
Trump
threatened Democrats if they exercised the constitutional demand of oversight
of the executive branch and conducted any investigation of the White House. "But
they can play that game, but we can play it better, because we have a thing
called the United States Senate, and a lot of very questionable things were
done, between leaks of classified information and many other elements that
should not have taken place."
To
complete the day, he even threatened and ridiculed Republicans who did not “embrace,”
his support in their individual campaigns.
"You had some that decided to,
'Let's stay away. Let's stay away.' They did very poorly. I'm not sure that I
should be happy or sad, but I feel just fine about it……. "But Mia Love
gave me no love. And she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia…….. "I
think she could have won that race, but she didn't want to have any embrace……..
"Peter
Roskam didn't want the embrace. Erik Paulsen didn't want the embrace."
This
is the leader of the free world speaking.
Over
the last two months before the election, Trump endorsed and campaigned for 99
Republicans. Fifty-one lost, 33 won, and 15 are still, the day after the
election, too close to call. Support from Trump worked very well with his
established base, but fell flat in areas Trump has ignored.
As
the debacle of a press conference ground on, Trump’s dialogue, as it often does when he becomes
angry, became incoherent. "You can't do them simultaneously, by the way.
Just think, if somebody said 'Oh, you can do them,' no you can't. Cause if
they're doing that, we're not doing the other, just so you understand,"
was his answer to a question on a middle class tax cut.
If
you want civil discourse then you must speak with respect, listen with
tolerance (I prefer speaking with tolerance as opposed to listening, but I am
working on it) and don’t take yourself too seriously. We are currently in the
throes of leadership that benefits from a disunited populace. We need to break
free from the con we currently live under.
We
must not only seek common ground amongst our diverse populace, we must demand
our elected leaders work to find it. The status quo of tribalism – you and me
against them – must be eradicated from our political landscape, along with
those who promote dividing us further for political gain. It starts with
civility towards others, no matter what their political beliefs.
If
you feel hope is lost, visit Encampment, Wyoming.
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