It is a time of change in this country. It is having an impact on the world and our relationship with countries that have been long term allies and friends. The policy pendulum is swinging to the right as executive orders are plastering the walls of the White House faster than Dolores Umbridge did during her time as headmaster at Hogwarts.
Government departments and cabinets are being revamped as if Albert “Chainsaw Al” Dunlop was at the helm. The numbers, at least to me, of those let go are staggering. The Federal Government was much larger than I thought.
With the threat of being choked off from Federal funds, colleges and universities are dropping Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs at a rate faster than higher education generally moves. Tightening purse strings can be a great motivator to move quickly and tow a new line. The corporate sector folded even quicker, almost as if they needed less incentives, maybe just a green light, to do so.
I could comment about how people identify sexually, the Department of Education, deportations of aliens, the arrest of student activists at Columbia and Tufts, and more. Those will have to be addressed in future posts.
It is dizzying to me.
There are times when I believe the USA is in uncharted waters. But there have been good and bad in every decade of my life and well before that. The pendulum has swung from right to left with one side feeling triumphant and the other deeply concerned about the future of the republic. Does this go around feel different? Is it the McCarthy Era. The domestic turbulence was most disconcerting. The oil crisis and the Iran hostages dominated the 70s and so on. There was a farm crisis and recession in the 80s. The 90s brought unbridled corporate malfeasance culminating the demise of Enron at the turn of the century. The 2000s brought us 9-11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Great Recession, COVID, and the changes we are currently experiencing.
Over the years, my commitment to weigh issues and the interactions with each other has led me to have a more fiscally conservative perspective while leaning more left on social issues. I am by no means near the extreme right or left on either of these but closer to the center on both. I find myself in a minority position here.
In December of 2018, I wrote a post, Sydney Harris (1917-1986), about the great syndicated columnist of the Chicago Sun Times. I read him regularly in the Detroit Free Press. My favorite column of his was “Why there is Danger in Extremism” which I included in the 2018 post. It really resonated with me. Basically, when confronted with extremism on one pole, Harris naturally drifted toward the other pole. I can relate to that. Did I believe DEI, Critical Race Theory, and the Woke movement was to extreme for me when it seemed to be the Federal tenor in the Biden and Obama years? Yes I did. But I didn’t rant against them because they were rooted realities that needed to be addressed. I did not speak out much for fear of being attacked for being what… a white supremacist. As the pendulum just accelerated by me to the right, I still don’t want to protest too loudly against the current extreme for fear of being labelled a radical liberal. My views haven’t changed. The only thing that has changed is the policy of the Federal Government.
Tell me I cannot have a gun, and I will want one even more. Tell me I have to carry gun and I’ll want to put a daisy on the barrel of yours. Tell me I have to be woke, and I will say “bullshit.” Tell me I cannot be woke, and I will respond exactly the same.
Do I know what is going to happen in the next four years? No.
Am I concerned? Definitely. Mostly, as I have written, I am concerned about the extreme policy changes we have had every four years since 2016 and we are in the midst of huge one right now.