The depth of mistrust in this country is as deep as the national debt. We have lost faith in our government local, state and federal. We can’t trust our politicians, who promise one thing during the campaign and then don’t even try to deliver. Corruption in administrations seem routine. If it’s next sexual affairs, then it’s bribery or influence peddling or campaign fraud or embezzlement. Reports are so common, it doesn’t merit a second glance. It has come to be our expectation- they all do it, only some of them get caught. As crises erupts, our leaders are so busy spinning, it’s hard to pinpoint any truth. Even the rapidity with which news breaks creates misinformation as investigations reveal more data. The social media is the perfect rumor mill, where innuendo without fact can destroy reputations, even if later repudiated. TV and radio outlets echo social media posts as newsworthy, further spreading half truths. Can anyone believe even a quarter of what you read on the internet?

Cynicism gnaws at our institutions. We can’t count on our schools to provide a decent education. Sexual misconduct is rampant in many churches, not just long standing sexual abuse of the Catholic church but also ministers who take liberties with women or abuse children in their congregations. Neither our national security apparatus or local police forces have been able to stop random terrorists attacks that could turn a simple family outing into a life threatening event. Our national borders appear porous to illegal immigrants who threaten both our lives and our “national”culture. This cultural invasion is even more evident in local communities who have watched neighborhoods take on the character of various ethnic groups. We are overwhelmed by a sense of insecurity that permeates all aspects of our lives, from finances to home to future.

We have seen the response from the Republican party- General Donald Trump, mentored by his heroes of Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-un, is the only one who can singlehandedly bring us out of the apocalyptic national emergency that is the country today. Damn citizens’ rights, damn privacy laws, damn national treaties, damn international prohibitions against torture, damn civility. His law and order is all about the order without the regard for the law. His vision of government lacks legislative or judicial arms.

This week, the Democrats will have their shot to lay out their vision. There is reason for anxiety. Hillary has already taken a step back with her Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Kaine. Yes, Kaine speaks Spanish. Yes, he has advocated for changes in the criminal justice system and supported judicial flexibility in sentencing. He supports gun control. On immigration, he supported Obama’s executive orders to defer deportation of child undocumented immigrants and their parents. While he has stated his personal opposition of abortion, he did vote for continued Planned Parenthood payment for the nonabortion medical care it provides to poor women. Was his choice one of political expediency; after all, he could position the ticket to win Virginia and Florida? Is it a move that further alienates millennials and Sanders supporters, prompting them to opt out of voting in Presidential candidates in November? Can the deficit in trust be overcome by sheer terror of a Trump administration, even as Sanders supporters are naively talking about writing in Sanders on November ballots or just staying home.

And then there’s Wikileaks of DNC emails that clearly delineate attempts to undermine the Bernie Sanders campaign, just on the eve of the convention. Can there be truth to the rumor that the Soviet government, believed to be the hackers of DNC servers, assisted the leaks to supports Trump, who has admired Putin publicly? Certainly, the timing of the release is destined to wreak havoc on a peaceful reunion of Democratic rivals and likely to spark more protests outside. Is Debbie Wasserman-Schwartz’s resignation enough? For those fed up with politics as usual, this is just another example of our political processes being hijacked away from the common man. This is in contrast to the successful ascendence of the most popular candidate to the Republican nomination. Yet, we must remember that Hillary, too, won the most votes and is rightly the popular nominee. There may be more to this story after already announced additional leaks reveal more DNC misconduct.

As a nation, we want to be optimistic. We want to embrace a movement for change after we watched Hope and Change dissipate over the last 8 years and in some ways, betray us. There is no question that people feel worse off than the heady days of Obama’s administration, rocked by unforeseen events like the Wall Street meltdown and subsequent economic depression; the civil war in Syria; the supplanting of Al Qaeda by ISIL; expansion of terrorists attacks throughout Europe; random mass shootings by mentally unstable individuals; the extreme expansion of income inequality and on and on. There is despair about our future in a world that appears more unstable than in recent recollection.
The Democrats have a chance this week to harness our hunger to move our country forward to solve what at times seem to be overwhelming problems. Will they launch a campaign that will build a fire in our bellies? Or will they flounder against a candidate hell bent on ushering in a presidency that will pit straights against gays, whites against Hispanics against Blacks, the poor against the wealthy, the US against our allies. A candidate whose Law and Order stance is reminiscent of Nixon’s infiltration and provocation of protest groups along with armed attacks on demonstrators. Because that doesn’t sound like the change we want.

With Mike Pence rounding out the Republican ticket, it’s time to take a closer look. We know that he is a devout evangelical Christian who believes that God created the world and his mind is unsullied by the science of evolution. He does not appear anywhere where alcohol is served without his wife, to avoid temptation. He has made it his mission, since assuming the Indiana governorship, to save sinners from being sentenced to hell.  The bill he signed that bans abortion of a fetus solely for congenital birth defects such as Downs Syndrome is being challenged in the court. The presence of significant physical or neurologic handicaps would  seem like the most understandable reason to terminate a pregnancy. No judgement implied. The law continues to allow women the right to choose abortion as their conscience dictates despite the continuing onslaught from anti-abortion forces to make it unavailable.  Pence’s legislation mandating funerals for aborted fetuses has been overturned as well. He signed a religious freedom bill, but later amended it in response to the avalanche of business and sports interests who threatened to boycott the state. But it’s not all bad news. He did initiate state funding for a pre-K education, so he likes kids.

Looks like the women in Indiana can breathe a sigh of relief that the assault on reproductive rights may cease; the state will have a new governor soon. In the meantime, Pence did his due diligence at the Convention. He struck the most positive notes about the Donald, outside of Trump family members, while heaping on a serving of fear about the dangers threatening the country spiced with liberal Hillary bashing. His stage presence radiated the quintessential Republican, a solid, ramrod-straight, gray haired male with quiet humor.

 
If a Trump administration is in our future, doesn’t look like Pence will have much of an impact on policy. That’s good news for reproductive rights and the LGBTQ community. Guided by their first 60 Minutes interview and candidate announcement, Pence will be lucky if Trump even allows him to speak. Trump stepped all over Pence’s attempts to answer questions that Leslie Stahl directed specifically to him. He did grant Pence permission to confirm his disagreement with Trump’s Muslim ban comments, but only a couple of words before Trump steered the conversation back to himself. Trump even corrected Pence’s compliment that he spoke from the heart, to say that it’s more important that he speaks from his brain, pointing to his orange-tinged forehead. Looks like Pence could end up as a squashed bug on the sole of Trump’s shoe. That’s probably what he deserves for betraying his supposed deeply held Christian beliefs in order to praise and support a man who doesn’t even observe basic Christian commandments- no stealing, lying, adultery, loving thy neighbor. For that, he should probably go back to the Catholic Church of his youth and pay penance in daily confession.

The Donald has be anointed Prince of the Republicans, at least for this election cycle. One by one, Republican establishment officials have trooped across the convention stage to smooch with Trump and fastened their sweet lips to his anus. After all, ruling the nation from the White House is at stake and one can make as many compromises as possible to grasp that brass ring. That’s the American way. Our Founding Fathers created the nation from compromise. Compromise is the grease that propels governing in our nation of multiple, sometimes competing interests. And yet, increasingly, Republicans have been drawing lines in the sand while insinuating the hardened “principled stance” into state and federal governance. Recent “Bathroom Bills” have sought to deny rights to the LGBT community, in defiance of Supreme Court rulings. Dressed in the guise of religious freedom, a newly conceived right evolved at the end of the 20th century, ardent evangelicals have canonized a rural Kentucky clerk who would rather be jailed than grant marriage licenses to gay couples. Ted Cruz attempted to shut down the government with his mini-filibustered funding for Obamacare.

But the arena of party politics seems to be different. Media interviews with convention delegates have found ardent evangelical Trump supporters who have now wholeheartedly embrace a candidate who has lived a life outside their bosoms. Their beliefs about bedroom activity are immutable but not presidential candidates. Some believe that Trump is an instrument from God, for He works in mysterious ways. Trump may be too self involved to be aware of this. That’s the thing about true believers. As soon as you find a biblical interpretation, they’ll follow you anyway. From a deep well of faith, beliefs can leap right over a “fact” or “truth” every time. If nothing else works, refuge can be found in repentance coupled with forgiveness.

Republican officials have contorted themselves like pretzels to support Trump, although limply, for the good of the party. The smart ones just stayed away from Cleveland. Paul Ryan could only bring himself to mention Trump by name twice in his speech on broad Republican principles. Ben Carson sought refuge in an obtuse section on Lucifer which may have been muddled enough to refer to Trump himself.

Only Ted Cruz stood steadfastly as a growling lone wolf, towering on a rocky ledge with fangs bared. He refused to honor the promise that he made to the RNC to endorse the Republican candidate. Cruz characterized Trump as a slanderer of his family who was an anathema to conservatives. Instead, he urged Republicans to vote their conscience “up and down” the ticket. Cruz, seemingly encased in a tortoise shell, resisted an avalanche of boos from the convention floor while his wife was escorted from the arena for her safety. He has weathered unbowed a storm of criticism from Senate colleagues. Some think it was just vengeful self serving ego that propelled Cruz’s stand. Will he become Texas toast? Well, we’ve seen that evangelicals can be forgiving. The political establishment may be less so.

Last night, most speakers ignored the Make America Work Again theme in favor of Hillary bashing. If the Republican party has a strategy to enhance the availability of well paying jobs, the night held none of that. Perhaps, chanting “Lock Her Up” is a portal to new jobs. True to their paralyzing course over the last eight years, the Republicans are all obstruction. They tell us what they’re not going to do or what they’re going to do to keep the Democrats from doing anything. But Republican alternatives have been concrete only in terms of what they want the other party to stop doing in an effort to liberate the “job creators”, i.e., corporations and businessmen, to freely assault the middle and working classes, the environment, brown and black people, non- Christians, the LGBT community and everyone else who isn’t them. The convention thus far has been almost exclusively fear mongering. A message of exclusivity, of insult, of character denigration bellows from the convention hall every night. I suspect tonight, Make America One Again will concentrate on uniting the party in a hail of maliciousness against the rest of us, not uniting the country as a whole.

Melania Trump, in her debut on the convention stage, has shown that she shares the Donald’s pension for deceit. To pilfer the first Lady’s words, made in a similar setting is just dishonest. Whether it is plagiarism is a technicality. These are not sentiments that have not been presented many times in the past, for these are the striver values that are drilled into American youth. While it is noteworthy that her values may be shared with the party’s sworn enemy, our current president and first lady, did she or her speechwriters not think to paraphrase? Did Melania really think she could use Michelle Obama’s exact words and nobody would notice? Of course, a quotation attribution would have solved the problem, certainly impossible given the setting. There are many questions. Is this a true sentiment or just part of the dog and pony show that is conventions? Did her speechwriters and campaign staffers fail to do the research? Did she write it, as she contended on NBC Today or was it written by speechwriters with whom she shared her thoughts? Perhaps, it was intentional sabotage to whip up the base against the persecution of the mainstream media. Already Trump supporters are screaming Melania should not be a target of criticism. Or sometimes people just have parallel thoughts. Nothing can shake a Trump supporter. He’s the man who said who could shoot someone in the street and nobody would care. However, it is yet another piece in the patchwork quilt that is Dishonest Donald. Dishonest in business; dishonest in life. Or Deflecting Donald e.g., Governor Pence is allowed to make a mistake in voting for the war in Iraq. But Hillary’s vote is indicative of the character flaw of poor judgement. Or Diabolical Donald as in the innuendo about a link between Ted Cruz’s father and the JFK assassination. Or the Obama birther movement. The real question is what will independents think and will anyone remember it come election day.

After all, American politics is all smoke and mirrors. Any statement must be spun around like a top. There’s the left spin and the right spin; the supporting spin and the opposing spin. Facts are illusive, evaporating in a whirlwind of replies and counters. They are slippery when repeated by the spinners. They morph with repetition, revealed only through Politico fact checking. Audacious denial, even in the face of video or audio tapes, is the last resort. Trump has demonstrated his expertise at this tactic throughout his campaign. Expect a torrent of spin coming from the Republican convention throughout week. Here’s some Republican spin about Melania’s gaff. From Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, “To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy. This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she seeks out to demean her and take her down.” From Chris Christie, “I think if you look at a plagiarism, Jamie — and I remember this from back in school — you’re talking about much broader than what we saw last night, of people who are copying and lifting from speeches. I know her and I don’t believe she would do that.”  “I’m sure what happened is the person who was helping write this plucked something in there, an unfortunate oversight, and certainly Melania didn’t have anything to do with it.” from Sam Clovis, Trump campaign co-chair. Denial, denial, spin, spin.

If Trump is going to make America Great again, what’s keeping us from being great now? Let’s leave aside the anger that white working class men (and their wives) feel over the erosion of wages, manufacturing, and the status of the white male as the reigning force in society.  Is Obama at fault?

Over and over again, we hear from industrial heartland residents that manufacturing has left their town and with it, high paying jobs. Is Obama at fault? Yes, they say. Do they believe that Trump can bring manufacturing back? Many think not really, but at least he says he will. Huh? They are grasping at emotional straws. The future of their children looks grim.

In truth, the flight of manufacturing began long before Obama took office. It represents the evolution of our global economy. The fact is that some manufacturing is returning from China as the costs there have risen and the Chinese economy has slowed. But, these are decisions of US corporations, whose mandate is to maximize profits. Obama has little influence on this phenomenon. In the free market as it exists today, corporations have been freed from regulation to pursue their own course. As Republicans are fond of saying, private enterprise are the job-creators.

Has our economy changed? Absolutely. There are more service jobs. There are more part-time positions. Fewer jobs have benefits. Workers are being asked to work longer hours, without compensation. We are paying more for healthcare, even with insurance, which covers less with higher deductibles, higher copays, coinsurance and uncovered visits. Hell, if you live in an urban area, we’re even paying for parking where it used to be free. We feel like we have to pay more to live at the same standard we had before the Great Meltdown. Is Obama at fault? Of course not. These are all independent decisions made by employers, both large and small, who have operated in local labor markets with high unemployment.

Our economy is improving, although not at a pace we all want. Unemployment is now less than 5%, a figure that would have been considered full employment in the 60s and 70s. But US economic growth rates are higher than in the European Union countries and much of the rest of the developed world. There is a worldwide recession, which can only compromise our recovery by dampening demand in foreign markets. Commodity prices are falling worldwide. Oil prices, manipulated by Saudi Arabia, have been artificially low to drive formerly booming fracking companies out of business. And yet, our economic recovery plods on. Is this Obama’s doing? Not really. Merely the economic cycle.

In fact, in many ways, things are better than they were when Obama took office, just not everywhere. In many localized pockets, things are not like they used to be. But in many others, the top 10% is doing better than ever. Their investments have recovered and grown. There is more luxury housing. There are more fabulous restaurants. Seems like, maybe, that’s the change we need. The change that recognizes that the middle class has been shriveling. Some people have moved up, but others have moved down, sometimes to the point of just making ends meet.
There is only one party talking about that. On the other hand, Trump has aimed his campaign at emotional issues fed by a sense of powerlessness and alienation from government. Events are piling on: multiple terrorists attacks in Europe, random acts of terror in US cities, random attacks on police, wave after wave of Middle Eastern immigrants flooding Europe, even shootings of innocent Black men. There is the deterioration of race relations in the wake of claims of pos-racism with the election of Obama. Trump has strided into the fray with quotes from Mussolini and praise of strong arm dictators, Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-un. He shouted into the winds of prejudice that he will build a wall with Mexico, that he will ban Muslim immigrants. He will carpet bomb ISIS and reinstitute waterboarding. Will we be safer with this tyrant quoting leader who hyperreacts to criticism?