He’s a uniter after all
How do we talk about the ascension of Donald J. Trump? I guess we start by giving him credit for fooling us all. We thought he was a joke and now the joke’s on us here in the bubble, as we try and digest the daily blizzard of outrage coming from the White House.
Trump never claimed he would be “a uniter, not a divider,” as George Dubya Bush vowed. Trump never claimed that it’s “Morning in America,” as Ronald Reagan did.
However, Trump has taken a page from Richard Nixon, who declared: “The press is the enemy” and clung to his always-growing list of enemies.
My own political feelings were forged in the Nixon era. I hated him so much I nicknamed a bodily function after him.
I disliked Reagan too. After all, I lived through his bumbling as governor of California.
I distrusted both Bushies and they certainly made me mad when they started wars for stupid reasons, but I thought I was no longer capable of strong feelings about a president, especially after Bill Clinton disappointed me by not being liberal enough.
But Trump? Now, there’s a guy that an old liberal can thoroughly detest. Like Dubya, one can say Trump was: “Born on third base and thought he hit a triple.”
What we don’t know yet is what part of the Trump Tale to believe: is he an egotistical bumbler who got lucky and is even now thrashing his way toward impeachment? Or, is he part of a sinister plot to create a new version of the Imperial Presidency, where power is unchecked, secret and raw?
We know how that worked out for Nixon. A collective thirst for power by his cabal of advisors brought him down and ushered in a decade of powerlessness in the White House, only derailed by Reagan’s sunny banalities and love for nukes.
It turns out that Trump is uniting us after all – against him. The Healdsburg branch of Indivisible, a political action movement dedicated to resisting the Trump agenda, will meet at the Healdsburg Library on Wednesday, Feb. 8, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. to discuss how to expand and support advocacy efforts. For more information visit www.facebook.com/indivisiblehealdsburg.
Sad news for foodies. Scopa restaurant is closing on April 8, a few weeks shy of its ninth birthday. Ari and Dawnelise are keeping Scopa’s sister resto, Campo Fina, and will combine staff and menus. Scopa is closed at the moment, but will reopen on Feb. 9 for those last two months.
Are you still trying to figure out the “new” Tribune? So am I. Downsizing print and putting our energy into digital was not my idea, but it’s my task to implement and I’m slowly getting a handle on it. After a starvation diet in January, when the economy slowed to a trickle, we are gradually opening up the page count again and figuring out how to fit more content into less space. Be patient with us; we’re still your newspaper.
Ray Holley has newsprint stains that will never wash off. He can be reached at [email protected].
