I watched them all back then. Eventually there was color TV and the picture was clearer. I watched mostly smiling politicians looking for all the world like best friends as they chatted with each other in the grandstands behind the podium. I watched the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court administering the oath of office to a succession of men. Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bush the elder, Bush the son, then Bill Clinton and finally Barack Obama, the first time but not the second—and nothing since. I won’t be watching today either. The reasons for my lack of interest are puzzling, even to me.
First of all, where politics is concerned there has never been a good old days. Politics has always been a troubling business shot through with duplicitous, back-stabbing charlatans. Spin the dial of American history and no matter where it lands you will find Washington DC positively seething with unsavory people. It is one of the inherent problems with democracy—brain surgeons and poets aren’t the kind of people that seek higher office. This is not to say that all of them are bad. America has had its share of fine men and women who, after a life of achievement, spent their last years devoted to public service. But it’s the 99% that give the rest of them a bad name, I suppose. Somewhere over the last forty years or so, politics became an occupation. Young men and women would go off to college with a career goal of running for office. The most popular on-ramp was the law, resulting in the herd of lawyers we now have running the country. Search high and low in the halls of power and you will not find any plumbers, electricians, engineers, or high school government teachers. But you can’t swing a dead cat anywhere in DC without hitting a lawyer, bureaucrat or now…billionaire.
The last one of these things I watched was Obama. I hadn’t voted for him, but it was historic, this handsome black man taking the Oath of Office. So I watched and listened to his speech. On the substance it was fairly boiler-plate progressive platitudes, he being firmly convinced of the government’s ability to remake the world, to right every wrong. But other than what I considered to be the wrongheadedness of some of his policies, the speech was…beautiful. He delivered a speech that gave power to the ideals of America. It was intelligent. It was in places stirring and even poetic. I remember thinking to myself, “Good luck, Mr. President. Godspeed.” Isn’t that odd? That someone who didn’t vote for him would wish him success? It sure seems odd now, but back then it seemed almost normal. My reasoning was that a failed Presidency was bad for the country. Why would I want him to fail? Suppose the policies I thought were wrongheaded actually worked? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? What was I thinking?
But by the time his second inauguration came around I was done with it. I’m not even sure why. I suppose for one thing, my life had entered a different phase. Our kids were grown up and in the process of moving out on their own. I had finished paying for their education and was now paying catchup with saving for my own retirement. Secondly, my Mother had just died in her sleep and we were scrambling trying to take care of my Dad. My patience for politics ended. It all seemed so small and petty compared to losing your parents. So I tuned out. Since then there has been Trump, then Biden, and now Trump again.
To everything there is a season. The season I’m in right now is taking care of my family, finding people to help and encourage, and trying to love my neighbor as best I can.
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