A friend sent an e-mail gag recently. One of his recipients anticipated my reply. The gent surmised (by the tone of my letters) that I was apparently a Democrat, and had a “wicked sense of humor”.
I did write a political column in 2008 from the Democratic viewpoint. My Republican counterpart was Paul LePage. This very night, he’s Governor – and I’m watching Jeopardy.
My current political affiliation is simply, “American”. Like you, I suffered through the debt ceiling debacle, and I’m fearful. I’m fearful when a New York Times cover pictures a woman shopping recklessly for a pair of $1600 shoes while far too many unemployed parents shop sparingly just to put food on the table.
History tells us this emerging economic disparity was the climate d’jour just before the depression. It took WWII to fully recover, yet we are in this mess – in part because of endless wars, our refusal to prosecute Wall Street thugs, and our cowardly reluctance to require that babe wearing those $1600 shoes to pay taxes. Does that view make me a Democrat? A liberal – or a socialist?
A few years back, in a one-man play, Ken Howard portrayed former House Speaker Tip O’Neill. My favorite anecdote was a story whereby O’Neill and Reagan (notorious drinking buddies) would/could duel and disagree all day long — but at 5 o’clock, all that came to an end. O’Neill recalled how a voice would occasionally call his office, mid-afternoon, and anonymously whisper, ”Is it 5 o’clock yet?”
This was of course long before Reagan’s sad and debilitating slide into Alzheimer’s – and long before America’s sad and debilitating slide into gridlock, incompetence and confusion – as we try to remember who we once were, and what it was we stood for.
So … whad’ya drinkin’?
2026