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Why are Red States like Afghanistan Provinces under the Taliban?

First, a few observations about the two political conventions:

1. If we checked the ages of the participants in each convention, I bet we would find the Democrats would be at least a full generation younger than Trumplicans.

2.  We can do a lot of things with one hand, but we need both hands to clap to show our appreciation for a speech or act. During Joe Biden’s swan-song speech the first night, a TV camera caught Nancy Pelosi’s shoulders moving with others as delegates were clapping enthusiastically. The camera then moved down to her hands. One open hand was hitting a closed fist. There is no sound with one hand clapping. Was Nancy celebrating her political action of “Taking Joe’s car keys away from him?” She’s a very smart politician who loves winning.

3. In my view, the most important delegate to the Democratic convention was not a Democrat. He was that old socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. He is the Pied Piper for Gen Z for the fact that the Divided States of America’s main issue is economic inequality, a calamity that can only be cured by passing his progressive policies – starting with Medicare-for-All. 

We must change the fact that three billionaires own more assets and wealth than the bottom half of our society. We must create a national government that works for the common good of 336 million – not just for those who are buying politicians by the dozen. 

In the 2020 election 85 million eligible voters did not vote. Why? In 2024 we must promise to provide policies for the common good to get half to vote

Can you imagine giving a man without character the nuclear button?

Went book shopping last week in thrift store “libraries” and picked up Great Quotes from Great Leaders for a buck. 

As I paged through it, character defense seemed to be ever-present and most important. As character is a very important attribute to be held by politicians, I picked out a few quotes by great leaders that accurately define our need today. 

And then I thought of Donald Trump who demonstrates daily through tweet or speech he lacks what every person who leads anyone must possess – and that “character makes the man.”  

I follow a leader’s quote with a direct quote of Trump from his “witches boiling cauldron of self-love and hate” from Shakespeare’s MacBeth, a true story of a failed leader.

Benjamin Franklin: “A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.”
  (Trump: “I alone can do it!” Oscar Wilde nailed Trump: “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”)

Winston Churchill: “A lie gets half-way around the world before the truth has a chance to put on its pants.”
  (Trump at the Aisne Marne American Military Cemetery near Paris: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with ‘losers!’” It was raining and he didn’t want to get his hair mussed, according to a general. He also claimed the helicopter couldn’t fly in the rain.)

Thomas Jefferson: “An honest man can feel no pleasure in exercise of power over his fellow citizens.”
(Trump said 1,800 American Marines who died at the battle of Belleau Wood in France were “losers” and “suckers” for getting killed.)

George Washington: “Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”
(Trump on Senator John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. I like people who weren’t captured.” When McCain died of cancer, King Donald was furious when flags were lowered to half-staff: “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral! What the f___are we doing that for? Guy was a f--------loser!”))

Martin Luther King, Jr: “Every person must decide whether to walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?” 
(Trump got five deferments during the Vietnam War because a doctor wrote a letter stating Trump suffered from bone spurs. He claimed later his Vietnam War was “avoiding sexually transmitted diseases.” The bone spurs have never seemed to bother him on golf courses.)

Walt Disney: “Our heritage and ideals, our codes and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideals and feelings.”
  (Trump slandered the family of Army Captain Humayun Khan after he was killed in Iraq in 2004 only because the Gold Star parents were Muslims.)

Abraham Lincoln: “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, can not long retain it. A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
  (Trump visited Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day of 2017 as part of presidential duty with General John Kelly whose son Robert, a Marine officer, was killed in Afghanistan and buried in Arlington. Trump’s response: “I don’t get it! What was in it for them?”)

Eleanore Roosevelt: “Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth. Justice cannot be for one side alone. Women are like tea bags. We don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water.”
  (A four-star general on Trump: “He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself. He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no personal gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the nation.”))

Nelson Mandela: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for it comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

(Trump after meeting General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs: “That guy is smart! Why did he join the military?”)

Albert Einstein: “The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our action. Our inner balances and even our very existence depend upon it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
(Trump told his staff never to include amputee wounded soldiers in a military parade because “Nobody wants to see that.”)

John F. Kennedy: “Change is the law of life. Those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”
(D of D officer: “Trump has a lot of fear. He doesn’t see the heroism in fighting. He is deeply anxious about dying or being disfigured.” Maybe Hulk Hogan is his favorite hero.)

Mahatma Gandhi: “A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
(Trump: “When they (politicians) call, I give. And you know what, when I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me.”)

Helen Keller: “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
(Trump on Harris: “I don’t think she’s a very bright person. I think I’m a very bright person, and a lot of people say that.”)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “If civilization is to survive we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world of peace. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

(Trump claimed he called the family of every man killed in action during his term. He lied, of course.)

George S. Patton: “Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent character in men.”
(Trump called former President George H.W. Bush a “loser” for being shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot. Bush was rescued by a submarine, but eight other pilots shot down during the same mission were caught and executed by the Japanese.)

Booker T. Washington: “Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company. Character is power. Character, not circumstances, makes the man.”
(Trump: “I trust women, and I will keep women safe! She (Harris) won’t, because the invasion of our country at her open border is destroying the lives of women and the families and jobs of African-Americans and Hispanics.”)

Theodore Roosevelt: “Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.”
(Trump, accused of rambling in speeches, said: “I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy. You know, really smart. I don’t ramble. I have been the best president for Black Americans since Abraham Lincoln.”)

Albert Schweitzer: “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.”
(Trump: “I have had perfect scores on two cognitive tests. I got everything right. And one of the doctors said: ‘I’ve never seen that before, where you get everything right.”)

Margaret Thatcher: “Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the high road to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction.”
(Trump: “I attack her because she makes me angry when she calls me ‘weird’.
“I’m a better-looking person than Kamala. Is she really Black? She has a lunatic laugh. She is dumb and is both a fascist and communist.” And, of course, he has much larger crowds than she does. He wears extra-long ties and bulky shoulder pads in his suits because they suggest he has larger private parts.)

Harry Truman: “Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights. I never did give anybody hell. I just told them the truth and they thought it was hell.”
(Trump: “Some people say. ‘Oh, why don’t you be nice?’ But they’re not nice to me – they want me to be in prison.” Maybe they just want you to be on an ankle bracelet and walk the halls of More-Loco-Than -Ever.)