Fools?

Fools?

You may fool all the people some of the time;  

You can even fool some of the people all the time;

But you can’t fool all of the people all the time

(attributed to Abraham Lincoln, 1858)

I live in Pataskala, Ohio.  It’s a suburban town, twenty miles east of downtown Columbus.  When I moved here in 1978, it was just changing from farm town to bedroom community.  The grain elevator still stands but hasn’t been used for years.  The railroad tracks still run through town, but the sidings used to load farm products have been torn up; the loading area is now a Veterans memorial.  McDonalds, Subway, Tim Horton’s and Taco Bell line Broad Street where the farm equipment used to be stored.

Gas prices today are $2.87/gallon, up fifty cents from last year. In Pataskala that’s a big deal, since there is no public transportation, the buses to Columbus stopped running in the 1980’s.  Everyone has to drive to go anywhere; dramatic rises in gas prices hit fast and hard.

Health insurance has increased by five percent since last year.  Unemployment is down, from 5.1% to 4.3%, but the average wage hasn’t changed.  The “tax cut cut” has incrementally increased some paychecks, but the continuing price increases have more than offset that savings. And most folks here in Pataskala are working hard, overtime, extra, with second jobs; all to make ends meet.

They see that “Fortune 500” companies are saying that pay increases are over.  They read about the Harley Davidson plant in Kansas City, cutting back and laying off workers.  They know the Carrier Plant in Indiana that became a Trump campaign prop, is losing the jobs he promised.  They hear the President call for a 25% tariff on cars made in Mexico, and taxes on steel and products from China and elsewhere in the world.  They understand that those costs will end up as their burden.

And those same folks are seeing an America they don’t like.  They aren’t Americans that rip children from their mother’s arms, regardless of their immigration status.  They don’t see an America that is cruel, to the poor or disabled or addicted.  These are the same kind of Americans that brought those boats to Houston to help save families from the flood, without regard for the differences.  They are Americans that supports their neighbors, their schools, and their towns without a whole lot of regard for race, gender, or all of the other labels.

Pataskala was “Trump Country.”  The city voted 60% for Trump, and 33% for Clinton.  And while there are still many that support the President, after the election most went back to work and worried more about kids, homes, and jobs.   They stopped worrying about what went on in Washington.  They still are hard at work; but they recognize that the changes that were promised, from “draining the swamp” to the “booming economy” doesn’t include them.  They won’t admit it publicly, and they might not even say so in polling.  But they know what’s going on.

Chet Huntley, the NBC news anchor from the 1960’s  (“Goodnight Chet, Goodnight David, and Goodnight from NBC News”) in his farewell from the Nightly News said, “…This land contains an incredible quality and quantity of good common sense…” He was talking about places like Pataskala, Ohio, where folks might for a while be misled by the promises and schemes of politicians, but quickly will return to the “good common sense” that is the bedrock of their lives.

That common sense will also apply to whatever Robert Mueller reveals at the conclusion of his investigation.   Common sense:  if what the President did is “clear-cut wrong” then they will recognize it.  All of the words and maneuvers of today won’t mean much. Common sense will.

There is a kind of panic growing in the opposition to President Trump. That feeling is fueled by the “asymmetric” attack on Special Counsel Mueller; all they hear is the attacks without answers.  Mueller and his team are keeping their “heads down” and doing their job.  When it’s time for them to indict and try, they will make their case.  The Mueller team knows that common sense will win out.

So for those who feel panicked; who worry that “the truth” will be “relative” when it arrives (thanks to Mr. Giuliani), know this:  whether Lincoln really said it or not, you really,  “can’t fool all the people, all the time.”