Twilight in Northwest Georgia: Senator Portman, We need You to Stay

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Senator Portman, We need You to Stay

Last week Ohio's Senator Rob Portman announced that he would not be running for reelection in 2022. He gave several reasons for his decisions, including spending more time with family, but one thing he said really stood out and I think speaks to the root issue of the problem with this country right now. He said:

“I don’t think any Senate office has been more successful in getting things done, but honestly, it has gotten harder and harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress on substantive policy, and that has contributed to my decision.

“We live in an increasingly polarized country where members of both parties are being pushed further to the right and further to the left, and that means too few people who are actively looking to find common ground. This is not a new phenomenon, of course, but a problem that has gotten worse over the past few decades."

He is right on. The extreme right and left of both political parties and of the general population has got the nation more divided than I have ever seen it. I don't ever see the Democrats deviating from their path towards socialism but I would expect to see the more moderate among them try to rein in the loose cannons who do nothing but antagonize the Republicans rather than seek cooperation, leading to the gridlock that Senator Portman referred to.

I am even more disappointed in the Republican party. I know that it's still early, but I had hoped to see Trump ride off into the sunset and the Republication leadership show indications of regrouping and a return to normal rational conservative politics but that hasn't happened, at least not yet. Trump didn't disappear. And the Democratic party with their meaningless impeachment trial is keeping him in the spotlight. Maybe historians will care that Trump was impeached twice and that the Senate refused (will refuse) to convict him but that has no bearing on the minds of people living in the present. I have no doubt that Trump views himself as a President-in-exile who will some day return to Washington DC in a triumphal procession on a flower-strewn Pennsylvania Avenue. I also don't doubt that there are a multitude of Trump supporters both in and out of government who would like to see that happen. I will never understand the reasoning of Trump supporters, but as long as they continue to remain hitched to his wagon the liberals will benefit and independent conservatives like me will see little hope for a resurgence of the GOP anytime soon.

(Later) Minutes after I wrote the above I read the following:

Washington (CNN) GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Sunday announced a new "movement" to push back on the Republican Party's embrace of former President Donald Trump and retire the "poisonous conspiracies and lies" that defined his administration.

In a six-minute campaign-style video posted to the new "Country First" website, which is funded by Kinzinger's Future First Leadership Political Action Committee, the Illinois Republican asserts: "The Republican Party has lost its way. If we are to lead again, we need to muster the courage to remember who we are."

"We need to remember what we believe and why we believe it," he continued. "Looking in the mirror can be hard, but the time has come to choose what kind of party we will be, and what kind of future we'll fight to bring about."

Maybe there is hope after all.

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What this blog is about

Hi. My name is Tom. I am a long-time blogger, having started in my native Wisconsin some fifteen years ago and continuing during my ten years living in Peru. I all but stopped posting to my blog when my wife and I returned to the United States and moved to Rossville, Georgia in July of 2017. We don’t actually live in Rossville. We live in one of those census-designated places, a term I really don’t understand and am not interested enough to learn about. The only practical difference I can see is that the city does not pick up our trash.

I’m starting a new blog because my old one was Peru specific, and that was yesterday. I chose the title ‘Twilight in Northwest Georgia’ for two reasons: twilight because I am old and for me age is playing an ever-increasing role in how I view myself and the world around me. And Northwest Georgia for obvious reasons. It’s not a great title but it identifies and introduces what it needs to. Good enough.

This blog is not going to have a central theme…it’s not going to be about anything specifically. I like to write and will post about anything and everything that may interest me at the moment. I do know that my wife Maribel will be mentioned frequently because she is everything to me.

A comment here about my writing style and philosophy might be in order. We live in an era of political correctness…a time when the broadcast and print media, politicians, and petty people in general are lined up like vultures, eagerly waiting to pounce on anyone for the slightest faux pas, no matter how innocent and unintended. The media do it to sell their services. Politicians do it to advance their careers by degrading others. Petty people do it because…well…because they’re petty people. It is never my intent to be politically correct, politically incorrect, obnoxious or offensive. I can be critical and sometimes very critical but try my best to be objective. I do like to praise when praise is warranted. I do have pet peeves, am very opinionated and can be very vocal about them, which in the past has drawn the ire of some readers on my old blog. But that’s life. We all have different likes, dislikes, values and beliefs. The key is how we handle those differences.

The purpose of this blog is to provide a platform for me to write. I am opening it up to the public simply because someone may find something of interest in my ramblings. Any reader comments or criticisms, provided they are civil, are welcome.