– year after year. Your wages (except for the rich) have been flat for 40 years. Why is that?”
GENIUSES AND SAINTS “But let’s switch to politics. We had some heated political debates in our day, too. But people were still usually polite and dignified. And their private lives were generally off- limits. “And compared to the candidates you vote for, ours were geniuses... and saints. I voted for Eisenhower, a guy who led the largest successful seaborne invasion of all time. Whom did you vote for? “Honestly, in a nation of 330 million people, couldn’t you find any better candidates than a big-mouth draft-dodger... or a person who says he’s a ‘socialist’? How can you claim to be an American and support either one of them? “And your president, who never saw a single day of military service, seems to think it is his duty to tarnish the reputation of a dead man who spent five and a half years in a prisoner- of-war camp. He says he likes soldiers who weren’t captured. “In World War II, we had 120,000 men who spent time in enemy prisoner-of-war camps. Four out of 10 of those captured by the Japanese died in their horrible camps. The rest came back heroes. And if any politician had dared to say anything against them, his career would have been over. “What happened? What changed? What’s wrong with you?”
MAKING PROGRESS?
“But I’m not finished. That’s just politics and economics. I see, in Baltimore and many other cities, you’re taking down the monuments to Confederate soldiers... and to a Supreme Court judge. “And you can’t listen to Amos ‘n’ Andy... and some schools want to ban Tom Sawyer. You say we were ‘racists.’ You say we were ‘homophobic,’ whatever that means. And we didn’t have special bathrooms for ‘trans’ people, whatever they are. And you say we were all ‘misogynists.’ You can’t even ask a girl out without risking a federal case. “But what makes you think our fathers and grandfathers were any more nasty or mean- spirited than you are? They put up those monuments – to soldiers of the North and the South in the War Between the States – We had some heated political debates in our day, too. But people were still usually polite and dignified.
American Consequences
51
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog