I came up behind an older truck at the stoplight at Highway 141 in Valley Park. The truck sported a Make America Great Again sticker on the tailgate. The right turn signal kept flashing, even though the driver planned to turn left.
Oh, it could be that driver didn’t know whether the signal stalk clicked up or down. Or, perhaps the driver so identified as a conservative that he refused to use his left signal.
Across America millions of formerly uninvolved folks now attend political meetings, march and demonstrate. In Missouri demonstrators routinely find their way to offices of Republican office holders, and, to the office holder’s supporters – such as the group at the Edward Jones headquarters protesting that firms’ large contributions to Republican Ann Wagner.
Yes, involvement in the political process creates change. In fact, without noisy demonstrations woman’s suffrage, civil rights legislation and scores of other issues would never have prevailed.
Now the bad news: convincing even a few people that they made bad decisions by voting for Donald Trump and Eric Greitens takes tremendous effort. Remember, suffrage and civil rights reforms each consumed a generation’s energy. Bringing the majority of voters back to reality will probably take years.
You see, I’ve been talking to Trumpettes and Ericans (alas, some are in-laws). Several repeat as fact that the cruise missile attack on Syria is President Obama’s fault because he was “soft” on terrorists. The growth in stock value is not the result of the steady hands of Obama and Janet Yellen but of Trump’s resolve to Make America Great Again. Governor SEAL needs more time to ‘change the way Jefferson City works’ because Governor Nixon left a mess.
Today, as covered by CNN, President Trump called for the purchase of only American products by the government and new restrictions on legal immigrant. The crowd cheered, overlooking Trump’s history of importing workers for his projects [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-history-foreign-workers-properties/story?id=468623055 ] and his plan to bring more foreign workers for low-paying jobs at his Florida resorts [ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/donald-trump-florida-clubs-hiring-foreign-workers-article-1.2729433 ].
Meanwhile, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that – better than three years before re-election – Governor SEAL spent more ‘campaign’ money since January than entire Missouri governor races cost a few years back. [ http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/greitens-campaign-spent-over-a-half-million-dollars-in-three/article_ee6fe188-1847-5cd1-a14f-27c7281a0fe3.html ]
These stories will get great coverage over the next couple of days. Yet, I don’t expect they’ll increase Trump’s disapproval rating nor will they move the needle on Eric Greitens.
Remember, what startling revelations are even possible in the investigation into Russian involvement in last November’s election? Everything short of an autographed photo of Vladie Putin giving Donald Trump wheel barrels full of Rubles is already out there. Governor SEAL jets about the nation in borrowed private planes most every week while still talking about the need for ethics reform.
Yes, many informed citizens are upset. Most people don’t care. No matter what Trump and Greitens do, that right-always core always accepts their actions. Remember when Trump said he could kill somebody and get away with it? [ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/24/donald-trump-says-he-could-shoot-somebody-and-still-not-lose-voters ]
We must keep marching and demonstrating and protesting…just wear comfortable shoes and stay hydrated for most of the road lies ahead.
The older truck turned out to have an old driver. South on Hwy. 141 he went, correctly using his right signal to turn west on Vance Road. He should have waited for a green light, or, at least let the drivers making legal left turns onto Vance have the right of way. They braked and honked, he just kept on going.
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member