Circa 1965, a man pulled into our driveway, told my father he had “macadam left over from a job down the street,” and he would “repair your driveway for half the usual cost – and do it right away.” He had a nice guy, happy-to-help-out demeanor, and my father fell for a scam that has […]
Read More →Forget morality, philosophy and the Democrats for a minute. Focus on politics and, more specifically, how it works behind closed doors. Politically, Trump might not be president for long – or at all. Donald Trump remains a wild card, but it’s unlikely he’ll play nice with his fellow Republicans in the House and Senate. If […]
Read More →People who hate Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders (or both) can take a small bit of comfort in the story behind their ascension: Politics in America is changing. At its core, politics is the art of manipulation. An unruly crowd of rightwing or leftwing voters needs corralled into voting booths and enticed to flip the […]
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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