Dec 30^th

This morning we are presented with a column by Cal Thomas; Cal is a “gloomster” of the first rank. (For youngsters who do not remember the Rukeyser years, Lou Rukeyser was a financial journalist with a popular PBS program. People negative about the stock market were called “gloomsters.”) It does seem that most political columnists are gloomsters; if they are Republican they are gloomy about the slow pace of the economic recovery (Never mind the 5.4 percent unemployment rate because that is surely an artefact, as is all encouraging statistical data.) or they are gloomy about the ISIL threat ignoring the fact that we have retaken Ramadi, rolled back by more than 30 percent of the territory controlled by the so-called Caliphate and killed off, recently, some leaders among which was the engineer of the Paris attacks. None of that counts because two years ago President Obama declared ISIL was “the J.V. team.” Of course two years ago they were a J.V. team. They aren’t now and our armed forces are treating them accordingly. As their territory is rolled back and their leaders killed off they are striking back in the only way they have left, attacks against soft civilian targets. This means we must be more alert but surely not to the point of demonizing all Muslims which gives ISIL the support for their assertion that the West wants to destroy the Muslim faith.

Columnists on the left are gloomy as well. Eugene Robinson who writes a column for the Washington Post claims “The GOP will be changed forever” and he doesn’t mean changed in a good way. Robinson says, “Trump has given voice to the ugliness and anger that the party has spent years encouraging and exploiting.” Trump’s party, far from being the inclusive group it needs to win the White House, is now the party that appeals to the less well educated, the less well paid, the lily white and the very angry at Washington voter. Robinson is a distinctly liberal voice but he doesn’t want to see the Republican Party changed into a bunch of proto black shirted jingoistic thugs; country first, party second is common among liberals,  perhaps less so among conservatives.

Now that I’ve totally buried the lead I’ll go back and disinter Cal Thomas. Cal starts his morning column by saying that the Obama administration assures us that we have nothing to fear from terrorism. No citation for that claim of course and it doesn’t fit well with the government’s “If you see something say something” slogan. No matter, Thomas is a right wing columnist and needs to document nothing he says. Thomas claims that, “Fear can be a factor that motivates to action…” unfortunately Thomas is talking about fear of that old bugaboo, political correctness. He is oblivious to the far greater problem, fear of the other. This is the fear that leads Trump to talk about building a wall against Latinos and prohibiting any entry into the country of Muslims. Thomas claiming that fear of political correctness is a problem compared to this xenophobia is ludicrous.

Then Thomas talks about, “The mess the secular progressives have made.” Does he believe it was the progressives who refused to raise taxes to pay for the Bush wars and boosted the national debt by trillions of dollars? I suppose Grover Norquist who insisted on pledges from the newly elected that they would not raise taxes was a progressive? Then he claims that, “The baby boomers and their progeny set about destroying it (the bright future) on the altar of self-indulgence.” The average income for the baby boomers in retirement is 37,200 dollars a year. Exactly what kind of “self-indulgence “does this level of income permit? Cal Thomas apparently isn’t aware that the internet provides information about income that gives the lie to his outrageous claims.