The famous pamphleteer Thomas Paine, wrote \u201cThe Crisis\u201d in December of 1776, as Americans entered the second winter of the Revolution. It\u2019s opening paragraph starts with these epic words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201csummer soldier and sunshine patriot\u201d were literal:\u00a0\u00a0George Washington\u2019s Army was encamped for the winter in Morristown, New Jersey. His victory in Trenton (the battle after the famous crossing of the Delaware River) occurred two days after \u201cThe Crisis\u201d was published. The war would stretch four more long years until the final victory at Yorktown.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n American history has several times when it seemed crisis had no end in sight.\u00a0\u00a0The Civil War winters of 1863 and \u201864, the Great Depression winters of 1932 and \u201833, and the World War II winter of 1943 all tested \u201cmen\u2019s souls\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And historians will look back at the decade from 2015 to 2025, sadly – the \u201cTrump Era\u201d. They’ll see it \u00a0as a struggle to determine what view of the American Dream we will follow. 2024 is the pivotal year of that era.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the Civil War, both sides today lay claim to American history.\u00a0\u00a0Those that follow Donald Trump harken back to the patriots of the American Revolution just as much as those favoring Kamala Harris.\u00a0\u00a0Both sides claim the flag and the trappings of American tradition and lore.\u00a0\u00a0And one side will win out; at least in terms of the vote count in November.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it will take more than an election to consolidate a new foundation for the United States. We thought it was over in 2020, with the Pandemic election of Joe Biden.\u00a0\u00a0But here we are again, four years later, caught in another alligator \u201cdeath-roll\u201d struggle to determine the American dream.\u00a0These truly are, \u201cThe times that try men\u2019s souls\u201d \u2013 and women\u2019s too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A decade ago, there is no possible scenario that would put someone with the ideology of former Congressman Liz Cheney and I on the same side of a political argument.\u00a0\u00a0Judge Luttig, the national \u201cmodel\u201d of a conservative jurist, would never have a spot on \u201cmy side\u201d of the table.\u00a0\u00a0Nicolle Wallace, was the Bush White House press secretary and senior advisor to Republican Presidential candidate John McCain. She supported those that I campaigned against.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They have all \u201cstood up\u201d, against their former political party and for what in their lifetime has been the \u201copposition\u201d. They all see Trumpism as such a threat, they are standing for Democrat Kamala Harris. Trumpists derogatorily call them \u201cRINOS\u201d (Republicans in Name Only), and they all have paid a steep political price. They have lost lifetime friends. But in these times, in this struggle to determine the American Dream, they stand against Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there are two individuals who recently joined the fray, that shocks the soul.\u00a0\u00a0This morning Alberto Gonzalez, the Bush Attorney General who supported torture as a means of extracting information from terrorists, came out for the Democrat.\u00a0\u00a0And, last weekend, the \u201cDarth Vader\u201d of the Republican Party; the man perhaps most responsible for the misdirected war in Iraq and the privatization of American intelligence gathering that led to the excesses of Abu Gharib, now supports Kamala Harris.\u00a0\u00a0Former Vice President Dick Cheney, father of Liz and one of the pillars of the \u201cold\u201d Republican Party, is now on \u201cour\u201d side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In normal times I would have to consider: if Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzalez, and the rest are on the same side I\u2019m on \u2013 am I on the \u201cright\u201d side? There is politically almost nothing that we have in common, except, for a vision of a Trump America that ends our American Dream. And that\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAmerican Winter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
He that Stands<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bedfellows<\/h3>\n\n\n\n