This writer has lost more than a few playground fights in his youth.  I learned to give those sullen, foul mouthed, often lonely, bulked up bully boys a little space.  As I matured I watched wondering what happened to them.  On summary, their fates were pretty predictable.  They either learned that their height and bulk weren’t going to coerce them the friends and respect they craved and they changed, or they remained friendless, morose and aggressive, facing the judge and jail time. Fortunately, none of them had an army, navy, billions of dollars, and seeming legal immunity.  In real life they either reformed or they wore the orange jump suit for the duration.

America has been shedding friends and global support like dog hair.  Yes we have a magnificent military force with an honorable tradition, but until this administration, we were leaders in a coalition of like minded nations that served to balance the powers of this globe making war as untenable as possible. Yes, it was a delicate dangerous balance.  As long as no one blinked, it held.  Our current leader blinked in the previous decade when he turned Americas support into a transactional chit, tried and failed to extract political support in exchange for this country’s military support.  When America blinked, our friend/partner’s bullying powerful neighbor woke up, sensed a weakness in the coalition and went to war with our former ally. Now some years later we are genuinely at war with a common enemy, in serious trouble ourselves, and finding we have few if any common friends left. Our bully isn’t on the playground anymore.  He is setting the world on fire.  We are learning the lone bully and this nation cannot survive on this modern day well armed planet any more than the unreformed, sad, bully boy on the playground could make a cadre of loving admiring friends to follow his pathetic, imaginary “golden chariot of power”. 

Urgent Suggestion for Good

Change your assessment of who you need on your side to save this frightening day.  I suggest you shed the label of progressive liberal, liberal, moderate conservative, true conservative, independent, or even centrist.  That paradigm has collapsed and the big tent needs a new center pole.  We must get beyond our religious affiliations and enhance them to the degree we can negotiate effectively for a new shared-in-common secular morality; a new commonweal strong enough to hold together a 21st century democracy. Honor, love, kindness, generosity, strength, reverence for life, tolerance, peace, safety for all children are just a few of the teeth we need in our new driving wheel. If it feels a little late, it is.  But it is not too late, so stop digging around for political left overs in the wreckage pile a of broken paradigm and help design the new driving wheel for democracy with your new friends. That would be good.  This bully needs reformation.