Good Living 123

Hope gets restored in many ways. Here in western NC, while so many people, businesses, and towns continue to struggle through storm destruction recovery, I am also reminded daily of Mother Nature’s blessings.

Our daily temperatures remain in the 60’s and 70’s. But while I expect the chrysanthemums to bloom now, both pink and white azaleas dazzle with their second bloomings.

Foliage started showing Fall colors in late August, and green continue turning bright reds and golds still, as we approach mid-November, delivering the usual multi-month display… despite Helene’s damage.

And I am awed by errant reblooms of flowers such as Iris.

I keep pinching myself. This is home.

As with many of us… millions of us… I have spent more than a few worried days and sleepless nights lately. It mattered not which side you were on; we were in for a wild election. Were we rising up or sliding into full-out socialism, mirroring the USSR to become the USSA?

Though I see the 2024 election results as a huge victory that can save America, my heart goes out to many of my friends. Some are lifelong Democrats. Other friends were focused on select issues like abortion rights, transgenders in women’s sports, environmental activism, or government-funded sex change surgeries. Some simply can’t stand Donald Trump. Other friends chose “identity politics,” hoping to vote for the first woman to win the US presidency.

I have registered as independent since 1972. I lean conservatively when it comes to economics, but liberally on social issues. This has not varied.

Photo courtesy of Library of Congress

Quite frankly, when Donald Trump started running for President in 2015, I thought it was a joke. He didn’t need more celebrity status. He had not seemed openly active in politics. I did not think he would “stay the course.” He proved me and many others wrong.

He’d been a long-time Democrat, like his father, and his party affiliation had changed more than once. Liberal celebrity friends, from Oprah Winfrey to Howard Stern, had even openly advocated Trump considering running for President… as a Democrat. I understood why some big-name Republicans feared he was merely running to assure victory for his Democratic friend Hillary Clinton. She had attended Melania and Donald Trump’s wedding, and he had donated to Clinton campaigns and their foundation.

But that was then, and this is now. Many angles of politics have changed over the years, including the two major US political parties. Republicans started out as the party for all the regular people and solid advocates against slavery, championing numerous pieces of civil rights legislation that were repeatedly voted against by Democrats through the 1950’s. In the 1960s, Democrats began claiming to be the party of civil rights and the working man and held that position for decades.

Things have changed once again. Do you remember the words of an actor, former president of the Screen Actors Guild union, 33rd governor of California, and 40th President of the United States? Ronald Reagan famously said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Party left me.”

Politicians, celebrities, and regular citizens have long bemoaned the evils, backstabbing, and name-calling in politics. Actor Chuck Norris followed Reagan, noting the “party went too far to the left.” Hillary Clinton supporter and American comedian and actress Chelsea Handler said, “I’m not going to be a Democrat anymore because it’s too divisive.”

Increasing numbers in political circles admit to being former Democrats, from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump. The lists of noted names are long, including diplomats, politicians, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. These names range from Condoleeza Rice, Jeanne Kirkpatric, and Elizabeth Dole, to Larry Kudlow, Kanye West, Robert Duvall, Dennis Miller, Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington, Charlton Heston, and Frank Sinatra, to name just a few.

Despite finger-pointing and talking a very different talk, the Democrats have become the party of big business, mega billionaires, the grotesquely divisive and damaging cancel culture, and controlling the population masses by handouts rather than “hand-ups.” Perhaps these realities have been contributing to the numbers of people joining the “undeclared” ranks of independents.

Changing political parties, though not changing his politics, moved Donald Trump into the Democrats’ #1 pariah position, President Trump did not back down. He put his business acumen, tireless energy, and love of this country to work, strengthening businesses, bolstering the economy, and creating employment opportunities. He worked to improve healthcare, bring us energy independence, secure the southern border, advocate for safer cities, and champion peace through strength.

As shocking as it still seems to some, Republicans under Donald Trump became the party of the working class. For the first time in its history, the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, the largest union in the nation, did NOT endorse the Democrat running for President. (For details on the accomplishments and records on both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, see my October 11, 2024 post “Trump vs Harris.”)

As an advocate for all people, voters show rapidly increasing percentages of support for Donald Trump from women and minorities. Immigrants who have worked to become citizens praise Donald Trump and, often having left socialized nations, firmly state they do not ever want to vote for anything that even smacks of socialism.

He surrounds himself with strong people, both men and women. Donald Trump has a very long track record of women in top leadership positions, even in nontraditional industries such as construction.

He is far from racist, as the many first-hand accounts have shown. Nor is he xenophobic. Hello! Two of his wives have come from foreign nations. And he is not Nazi, Marxist, or fascist. Nor is he part of Project 2025. These are just some of the Democrats’ divisive strategies that they admit to using because “they resonate with voters,” despite having been debunked by liberal fact-checkers. However, using the known lies appears to be having less impact than in the past. Americans are starting to not blindly follow mainstream media hype.

Donald J. Trump may not be the leader that millions of U.S. voters want, but millions of U.S. voters trust him far more to be the leader we need. As former Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway reflected on the post-election morning, “We never really examine those we deeply disdain.”

That is a powerful observation of human nature. Once someone decides to hate someone else, their window becomes locked shut to learning facts, details, and other evidence that is contrary to their accepted position, decision, or “comfort zone.” We become less open-minded than we might like to admit.

May God bless Donald J. Trump and his entire family and team with safety, loyalty, and courage. May all of us grow together and appreciate that America is getting back up. Donald Trump has delivered a liberation day for all people, regardless of their age, sex, race, heritage, or any other identity factors.

Congratulations President-elect Donald J. Trump and all Americans. We will succeed together.

A day of voting. A day of defiance.
A day of hope. A day of worry.
A day from which we head toward freedom or plunge deeply away from it.
God bless America.

I like the America where our citizens are recognized as the nation’s heart and soul. I like the America where our hopes, dreams, and differences make us stronger, rather than dividing us.

I have been deeply saddened by the America that embraces a “cancel culture” to crush differing opinions, gaslights otherwise intelligent people with loud and frequent repetition of known lies, and labels supporters of a Presidential opponent as deranged fascists, weak, deplorable, or garbage. Further, I will not be cajoled nor berated into voting for ANYONE based on race or sex. Period.