The More Things Change...

Political Valence dept.

The year is 1964. We have a Democrat and a Republican vying for the Presidency. The Democrat Lyndon Johnson from Texas and Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona.

Just look at the voting positions articulated below: Even at age 14, I understood that the Democratic position clearly offered policies supporting public education and universal civil rights while Goldwater’s position (articulated below) were clearly the seeds of today’s civic destruction at the hands of those hungering to feast on the carcass of Democracy.

Yes, the poles of the political magnet can, like the Earth’s magnetic poles, change over time.

1964 Goldwater: Anticommunist hawk bent on destroying public education.

2024 Trump: Proto-Stooge of Russia (Commie-garchs?) still bent on destroying the path to great public schools and expanding to the collegiate realm.

This page is from the 1964 International Brotherhood of Machinists newspaper. Was there any doubt about which political party the union-affiliated workers depended on to support their interests?

Speaking of Political Valence, what factors might be reasons for both parties current seeming 180-degree shift in political/positions?

To those unfamiliar with the history, LBJ won the Presidency in ‘64 pretty handily, but rising public concern (and insider knowledge) of the grim reality of our undeclared war in S.E. Asia persuaded the tough talking Texan to back down from running for a second term in the White House in 1968.

While I’m not really surprised that the John Birch Society-mindset has metastasized in the party of Trump, I am surprised, shocked and saddened that the Democratic party’s strategy bank to seems completely overdrawn and nearly bankrupt. The fault is not with the policies either. Clearly, Democratic Party messaging seems somehow super-glued to the weird triangulation-ist thinking of the 1990’s Clinton (Bill) era.

It’s tough to say this, but I think Trump learned his effective “Rohrshach-speak” from Bill Clinton. That is to speak in a way that gives a potential sympathetic listener cues that you actually care about them..when the opposite is true. To speak in a way that affirms what the listener is predisposed to accept.

I know I’m doing some oversimplifying in my unscientific analysis but in trying to understand how we’ve arrived on the doorstep of political chaos, I hope to hear from you on how you see it.

Next up: I think I know why a certain weird guy wants to get to Mars!

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Letters from Iowans, Iowa

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County

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Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Vicki Minor, Relatively Minor, Winterset

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Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

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Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

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Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

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Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

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