Seriously

Seriously

By

Leonard Zwelling

Most people want to be taken this way. Seriously. When they speak, they want someone to whom they are speaking to listen. This matters a great deal when it comes to politicians and right now it is hard to find one that you can take seriously.Most people want to be taken this way. Seriously. When they speak, they want someone to whom they are speaking to listen. This matters a great deal when it comes to politicians and right now it is hard to find one that you can take seriously.

The first exhibit in the “you can’t take this guy seriously” is Ted Cruz. Here is a well-educated senator from a big state who continues to make an ass out of himself in Congress. He has presidential ambitions, yet does everything in his power to make himself easy to dismiss. For that matter, throw in Rand Paul, a graduate of Duke medical school who clearly cut a lot of class.

Then there’s the Squad. They see the government as a great piggy bank for the underprivileged of America. These congresswomen want a great redistribution of wealth in the country so their constituents can get money they really haven’t earned. I am all for equal opportunity, but not for a wholesale government giveaway. It was the Covid giveaway that fueled the excess demand that is unmatched by a concomitant supply that is causing inflation. And many of the Squad members have a reprehensible stance on Israel convincing themselves and trying to convince others that the Palestinians ought to have their own state. OK, by me, but the United States is not the guarantor of a Palestinian state when the leader of the West Bank Arabs won’t hold elections and the leaders in Gaza are terrorists.

Moving back to the right, there’s Mickey Mouse’s firebrand enemy, Ron DeSantis. I am not really sure how he allowed his bill to limit the discussion of sexuality in grade school to become the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, but I think he’s cutting off his nose despite his face in eradicating Disney World’s special independent status because the theme park took offense at his bill. There has to be a more constructive way to handle this, but we are too deep into the culture wars now and Republicans think they have a winning issue in “taking back” the schools from the liberal teachers’ unions and giving the power of what’s in a school library to local parents.

Then there is the current President of the United States who no one takes seriously any more if they ever did. I did not. Since the Anita Hill hearing, I thought of him as low-IQ Joe and I still do. His handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal ends all belief that he is a foreign policy expert and his failed domestic agenda suggests that he is no master of the Senate either.

Finally, there’s Vladimir Putin who no one takes seriously except those he would kill if given the chance. American President after American President from George W. Bush on have actually believed this guy was not really the second coming of Adolph Hitler. Is there anyone you can take seriously?

Maybe. They are creeping out of the woodwork. Whether they make it to center stage by 2024 is unknown. They include Ben Sasse (Nebraska senator), Larry Hogan (Maryland Governor), and Chris Sununu (New Hampshire Governor).

In the end, as I am relearning in the podcast Slow Burn, the wholesale mistrust in government really had its roots in Richard Nixon, Vietnam and Watergate. Since then, no one takes the government seriously. Oh, I know, Ronald Reagan. Hmmm!  I took Nancy seriously.