2019
I have been a letter writer since I was seven years old, since the day my father brought home a heavy black Royal typewriter and set it on my desk. My first pen pals were my maternal grandmother in California and Cynthia who lived next door during our first grade year but moved to Nashville that summer of 1954.
In July of 1976, a few months after I moved out of Ohio and began my decade in Missoula, Montana, I began to take seriously my writing and editing skills. I was 32 when I took the Graduate Record Exam and entered the Writing Program at the University of Montana. My first poem, my first short story, my first personal essay and my first letter to the editor were published in 1979. My first editorial cartoon appeared in The Missoulian in 1980. In those days I criticized the clear-cutting of our forests, nuclear weapons and Ronald Reagan, the friendly fascist.
In June of 2015, when Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, I was 68 years old, a retired carpenter with a B.A. in History. Right away, I smelled a rat. I subscribed to the online New York Times, the online Washington Post and, later I subscribed to “Letters from an American,” written six days a week by historian Heather Cox Richardson. Since 2015, I have had over 500 reader comments published using the screen name poodlefree.
"Trumpism Extols Its Folk Hero"
poodlefree
April 7, 2019
The Republican base embraces Trump, the folk hero, in order to create an explanation for their personal defeat. Too many males in the Republican base have suffered a moment when they totally lost faith in life. In order to avoid suicide, they concocted a wild conspiracy narrative that absolves them of all responsibility for their downfall. It's the blame game, and the wilder the narrative, the more righteous and blind they become. Trump has provided the raw meat for that wild narrative. I have found that, in any conversation with members of the Republican base, it is futile to counter, futile to object to their irrational rant. With sincerity, I prefer to draw them out. I want to hear their story. I no longer have the need to correct their politics or rescue their contaminated souls.
92 Recommend
"The Democratic Debates have Begun, and Trump Is Winning"
poodlefree
Sept. 13, 2019
I see the game being played by articulate right-wing opinion writers. In the realm of propaganda, we call it psychological warfare. Their purpose is to undermine left-wing confidence and corrode left-wing momentum. Before we on the Left start reading any offering by an articulate right-wing opinion writer, we must remind ourselves that we are entering a thought process designed to scramble our minds.
44 Recommend
"Are Democrats Doomed?"
poodlefree
Sept. 14, 2019
Debate #3 did not ring hollow. With each debate I feel as though I am getting to know the candidates better and better. Maureen Dowd is correct: "...overcoached performances, the canned applause lines, the pandering leave us cold.” But the articulate intelligence of Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar is a sign the Democrats are on the right track. I would love to see Biden stop orating like an old-fashioned politician and start talking to us in the same tone he talks to his wife Jill, and I would like to see Kamala Harris embrace the prosecutor within, the one who sliced and diced Brett Kavanaugh. I am thankful that the weakling ghosts of Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry are not on the Democratic debate stage. On November 3, 2020, the Democrats will begin construction of the Bridge Over Troubled Water, upon which America's corrupt political past will transition into America's sane political future.
76 Recommend
"When Trump Feels Cornered, He Gets Worse"
poodlefree
Sept. 27, 2019
As a toast to the massive desire for Trump's exit from the Oval Office, I offer this grim chuckle... To protest Trump, a young Seattle woman has decided to fast until Trump is impeached. In her You Tube video rant, she wears a red MAGA hat but she has altered the letters so that it reads, MAKE ERICA EAT AGAIN.
13 Recommend
"Trump Governs by Grudge"
poodlefree
Oct. 4, 2019
Times Pick
In the run-up to the 2016 election, I announced to my 36 email friends both left and right that Democrats have a tendency to protect the environment while Republicans have a tendency to destroy it. I told my friends that I was a one-issue voter and, as much as I was exasperated by the idea of Hillary and Bill Clinton occupying the White House again, I voted for Hillary. What I learned was that Environmental Protection is a great way to cut through the onslaught of media noise and be squeaky clear about your motive for voting for Democrats.
289 Recommend
"The Only Show in Trump Town"
poodlefree
Nov. 14, 2019
Times Pick
After watching and listening to the first five hours of Day One of the impeachment hearings, my distillation department produced this bumper sticker, a quote from Nancy Pelosi... "All Roads Lead to Putin."
93 Recommend
"For Trump, Impeachment Is a Show"
poodlefree
Nov. 24, 2019
Donald Trump was always a pretty-boy showboat and a corrupt businessman, but he didn't taste stardom until he hosted the TV show "The Apprentice." I first tasted "reality TV" in the year 2000 when I stumbled upon "Survivor," produced by Mark Burnett. Having spent a few months on a movie set, all I could see was the action off-camera: the reality of cameramen, caterers, the props truck, the gaffers... One episode was all I could take of phony tensions played out by bad actors. Mark Burnett also produced "The Apprentice," and this is where Donald Trump learned how to manipulate the audience, the ones who really loved him. Reality TV is the modern version of "damnatio de bestia" where, in the Roman coliseum, much to the delight of the onlookers, the Christians were torn apart by the lions. Today's delighted onlookers are the Republican base, the gladiator king is Donald Trump, and the coliseum erupts in cheers with each mauling of a liberal or a progressive.
52 Recommend
"The History of Thanksgiving"
poodlefree
Nov. 27, 2019
The atrocities have been papered over in order to pave the way for the myth of American Exceptionalism. "All governments operate by myth, fraud and ultimately force." At a Native American pow wow in Montana, I took note of the words on one tribal member's large silver belt buckle: "America... Love It or Give It Back."
62 Recommend
"Anti-Trump America, We're Counting on You"
poodlefree
Dec. 17, 2019
If Trump has provided any service whatsoever, it is that, through his own corruption, he has revealed the ongoing corruption of the Republican Party. In the Trump Era, the Republicans have lost their family-values smokescreen, and so there is nothing remaining for them to do but go all-in on overt criminality. The weird thing is, the Republican base loves Trump and the Republican Party for dropping any semblance of fairness, respect and morality. The Republican base likes to think of themselves as outlaws and, with the Bible as their own sanctified smokescreen and with guns in hand, they are right at home with outlaw leadership. Voting YES to impeach Trump is also voting YES to impeach the Republican Party.
12 Recommend
"A Trump Clarification Ends Punishment for Bird Deaths"
poodlefree
Dec. 24, 2019
A reminder: Republicans tend to destroy the environment. Democrats tend to protect the environment. Vote for Democrats.
491 Recommend
"Yes, Our Writers Do Read Your Comments"
poodlefree
Dec. 30, 2019
My first time through college (1965-1969) was more of a social education than an academic education. Now, after three years of participation in the NYT reader comment section, I see that what I write is my homework, my way of processing the information and ideas that are presented by your staff. Plus, I read dozens of reader comments per article per day, where I find the essence of point and counterpoint. I consider myself a student at heart who has found a way to embrace the richness of the learning process.
39 Recommend
My stance is that, from the beginning, due to Russian interference alone, the Trump presidency is null & void. That means that every official move he has made, the tax cuts, the executive orders, the Federalist Society judges appointed to the bench, including Gorsuch and Kavanaugh will be erased. All laws and policies existing at the end of Obama's second term will be restored, and we'll start again from there. Trump's four years will be called the Great Aberration and Trump, Pence, Barr and McConnell will be condemned in the strongest language possible and then sent packing, in accordance with the Oath: "...all enemies foreign and domestic."
81 Recommend
An excellent post.