Writers want our words back. Politicians, advertisers and advocacy groups stole perfectly good words, twisted meanings and left us in an awkward position: We can’t talk about certain topics because we don’t have the tools to say what we mean. “Freedom of speech” doesn’t work without the “speech” part. “Fake news” is the latest. It […]
Read More →Originally appeared in The Orlando Sentinel, June 26, 2017, with a headline that sounded a tad more pro-Trump. A lot of people support Donald Trump, and here’s what liberals don’t get: Many, many people’s lives – largely but not exclusively in rural areas – have deteriorated over the past 20 years. In every political […]
Read More →Things change. My record player gave way to an 8-track tape player circa 1971; my 8-tracks gave way to cassettes circa 1977. In the early 1990s, I switched to CDs and cursed the fact that my entire music library had to be replaced again. Now, thanks to the Internet, I don’t need a music player […]
Read More →Maybe it’s not all middle-class discontent, a desire for outside-the-beltway candidates or angry Americans. Maybe the core reason Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump enjoy a surprising number of followers is something far simpler: Maybe it’s television shows. In 1939, Jimmy Stewart played a U.S. Senator in a movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” and Americans […]
Read More →Politicians love to find an issue that can rile the crowd – salesmen selling themselves. In a parody best performed rather than typed, here’s a song from The Music Man adapted to the political arena. It picks on Donald Trump – no apologies there – but it applies to almost any politician who relies heavily […]
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