Yogi Berra, that great sage of America's national pastime, was quoted as saying "when you come to the fork in the road, take it." We might not have the same idea of what the fork in the road looks like, but I'm sure we can agree it is not just a side road intersecting with the main thoroughfare. I love the phrase because so many of life's opportunities can be summed up with the real question it asks: "Which choice do we exercise?"
Could it be that Donald Trump, our newly crowned voter's choice for our leader, is taking us to that fork? There is little doubt that he is an unusual individual when it comes to leadership style. We had plenty of opportunity to watch him in personal interviews as well as seeing (and hearing) him during campaign stops. Many of the television news channels might now regret their "sold-out" coverage of him during the primary campaign and the follow-up period to the November general election, but they did it for its news value -- strictly a business decision.
Probably few, if any, people covering those campaigns would grade candidate Trump at less that a B+ on enthusiasm and commitment. Most of us would likely grade him at an A or A+ for those efforts. And, as we watched him on television most of us must have realized not all of his promises were likely to be fulfilled -- fortunately. But many of Bernie Sanders' promises were very unrealistic also. If the truth be told, we know politicians generally are not always as honest as we would like, but we also know the unrealistic promises sound good if we are going to benefit from their very unlikely fulfillment.
So, we have taken the bait, and Trump is now the leader of the most powerful nation on the earth. What direction he is taking us is very much up to debate however. Are we now to accept CNN's extremely biased news coverage as the truth or believe FOX news' attempts to justify Mr. Trump's unorthodox methods of leadership?
Is it possible that the fork in the road will turn out to be a new political choice of ideology based on national needs rather that on existing political party power grabbing? Will four years of our current squabbling force some of the very rich, or very, very rich individuals, families or entities, to be drawn into a role of savior from our divisive political culture?
When I listen to the news media spout numbers, I question their validity but there are some meaningful approximations that we should be able to trust. If they use a figure like 46 percent, it usually would be safe to say it is somewhere between 40 percent and 50 percent so all my assumptions are based on similar "guesstimates." Is it safe to say that about 40 percent of American voters fit into the independent, undecided or extremely uninformed, category? If we look to them to decide the outcome of a national election, what do we expect? The other 60 percent of the voters are split between their loyalty to their political party -- Republican or Democrat -- which has its own agenda.
For people like me, formerly a loyal and hopefully well-informed Republican, to consider myself independent of a political party, the choices last November left a lot to be desired. When I supported Donald Trump it was not because he promised me personally anything. What convinced me he could bring about the needed change to Washington's inept culture was his handling of the ice skating rink for the city of New York. He accomplished in a matter of months what the political system in New York failed to do in several years of bickering ad political stalemating. He built an ice rink. My experience in industry exposed me to those who looked beyond existing circumstances for solutions that benefitted everyone as well as the person who got the job done.
Let me offer hope to anyone who has the same doubts that I have. If the news media will stop trying to destroy the legacy of a man they helped to create and he will throw away his cell phone and focus on what he was elected to do "America Will Be Great Again."
If, however, the ongoing fight that exposes the truth as un-American or detrimental to our national security continues, you and I will be the losers. No matter which choice you made in November, and no matter the reason you made that choice, we have to see if Donald Trump is enough of a leader to make America's welfare his top priority. This may require he grow up, which would be nice. Many think Bill Clinton actually grew up, or focused on his responsibility in the White House. What we need now is Donald Trump and the news media to quit playing games and look out for the welfare of our nation, or we might find ourselves at the fork in the road.
We learned in high school science class that nature abhors a vacuum. The result of our current rudder-less government might lead to that 40 percent becoming a third national political party.
•••
Editor"s note: Leo Lynch, an award-winning columnist, is a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Editorial on 02/22/2017