Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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In the old days …
Since I am close to President Joe Biden’s age and earthly experience, I am comfortable talking about the way things were. This has led me to the conclusion that the disconnect that some Americans are legitimately indulging in this election season may be the result of what they don’t know or don’t remember.
Wouldn’t that be ironic if people are confused because they don’t remember! Or, worse, they don’t know and refuse to find out.
For instance, in the old days when Congress would chase a potential scandal involving an elected official, let’s say a president, that hunt for a red herring would end immediately when the informant and the person upon which the entire case rested — the “heart,” if you will — was determined by the FBI to be an agent for a Russian intelligence operation. Such operations were designed to hoodwink Americans into falsely believing their president had done something wrong.
That was in the old days.
In the modern days — mostly since about 2016 and certainly today — now that the GOP-led Congress has been told by the top law enforcement agency in the United States that Russia is our enemy and the enemy is within, the most that happens is the Republicans double down on the witch hunt because it is good for business. That would be the business of raising money from the rubes who populate a large part of a once-proud and patriotic Republican Party.
In the old days, party politics always gave way to American polity when it came to dealing with our adversaries. Today, not so much.
In the old days, when the Russian bear threatened to destroy a freedom-loving neighbor on its way toward some kind of domination of Eastern Europe, the Congress and the president would act as one while, together, they would stare down that bear and say “nyet” to his territorial aims.
Today, the GOP-led Congress would rather sink our allies and friends by slinking away into the traitorous darkness of capitulation.
In the old days, way back when Ronald Reagan was president, when there was a disaster brewing at our southern border, he would come together with Congress and fashion a solution that would keep us safe, our democracy functioning and our prosperity growing.
Today there is a disaster at the border but instead of coming together to pass legislation designed to protect America, the GOP-led Congress has failed to launch even an attempt to secure our southern border. Why? Because Donald Trump told them not to do what they have been trying to do for practically forever. They have forsaken Americans to favor their fearful leader.
In the old days, Republicans would have stood up to the bullies regardless of which political party they inhabited. Not so much today.
In the old days,when a president played too fast and loose with the U.S. Constitution, the Republicans especially would have stood up to slap him down.
Today, you can barely find a member of the GOP willing to speak up let alone get up into the face of an obvious threat to our democracy.
I suppose it is my experience and, yes, age that has allowed me to see the dangers that threaten my country. There are dangers that younger Americans have never faced so they may not recognize them, and there are dangers that older Americans have lived through but for one reason or another have chosen to forget.
I never thought I’d say this because I have always been a forward-looking American, looking forward to doing my part to help perfect this union:
But, just this once, just this time and just to get America through this ugliness that threatens our way of life — just this once — I yearn for the good old days.
Those would be the days when Americans used their heads before they lost their minds.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun
