The Oppenheimer Report 6/20/16

I haven’t done this in a while, herein is another of my self-righteous rants. I apologize in advance. As I was beginning to write this week’s Opp Report, I noticed that, in my archives, there was an Opp Report dated 6/20/11. It’s not often that a past report falls on the same day as my current report, and so I was interested to re-read it. Five years ago today, the subject with which I opened was the Anthony Weiner scandal. You may recall that Mr. Weiner, a N.Y. Congressmen, was caught “sexting” on his cell phone, and it became a big news event.  It certainly scuttled his promising political career. Had his name been anything but Weiner, the press and the late night hosts probably would have dropped the story after a few days, moving on to the next political road kill, but who can resist a good weener joke? I wonder how much hard news was tabled to bring “Weinergate” to the public eye. Look how far we have fallen in five years! A Congressman who photographed his penis on a cell phone seems rather mild in comparison to some of the nonsense we’re seeing today.

The other night, I was watching Real Time With Bill Maher, and on the show he featured a segment about political scandal. The gist of the story was that Donald Trump has established a new low for political incorrectness, and that past indiscretions pale by comparison. What is particularly troublesome is that the rules of political engagement do not seem to apply to Trump. In 1992, Ross Perot referred to African Americans as “you people” in a speech he made to the NAACP, and that was it for him. I think the majority of American voters thought Perot was a political crackpot, but to some he was a plain-dealing businessman, who told “the truth.” In one political minute he was deemed a racist. Howard Dean made the famous “I have a scream” speech in Iowa, and soon afterward it was all over for him. Mike Dukakis was photographed riding on a tank dressed in full combat gear, and the public guffawed at the ridiculousness. One photo op can scuttle a campaign, but somehow Trump is immune to bad press. He ridicules the handicapped, says horrible things about women, paints all Muslims as terrorists, and the list goes on, and the American public have chosen him to be the presumptive Republican presidential candidate. How did that happen? Frankly, I don’t know why any worthy candidate would run for public office in the United States. If you ARE the right man or woman, who would ever know? There is so much big money spinning the information that we the common voters don’t know what to believe. Most of the candidates I think might be promising are spit out within the first two months of a campaign. I know I’m in trouble when I form my political opinions by listening to guys like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, but sometimes the satirists and humorists are the ones who make the most sense out of this cesspool of spin and righteous indignation. Invariably, we are left with the lesser of two evils. I think Donald Trump has become the new benchmark for below-the-belt behavior of a political candidate, but apparently he is seen by many as our savior from a broken political system. I have despised this man’s arrogance and pomposity for over three decades, and I am, like so many other “silent majority” Americans, dismayed by the humiliating lack of class and diplomacy that man embodies. That said, I see Trump as the canary in the coal mine. We can bristle at the man’s apparent stupidity, but he is playing the American people like a fiddle. All he needs to do is point to the broken status quo and he’s in, no matter what nonsense comes out of his mouth. Never before has the “throw-the-bums-out” sentiment been stronger than in 2016. Wall Street is again chugging along at full steam, still relatively unregulated, and the taxpayers picked up the tab. It doesn’t seem like anyone was held accountable, and nothing has really changed in our political system. The only difference is the speed at which disinformation is disseminated. There is a lot of anger out there, and Trump feeds on this. All he has to do is say “I’m not a politician” and people love him. Heaven help us if we choose this lunatic for our president, but maybe it is time for the puppeteers to wise up and recognize that we the people are fed up.  The Founding Fathers, who drafted The Constitution, and put in place a system of checks and balances, probably did not see this day coming, any more than they anticipated the AR-15 assault rifle when they drafted the 2^nd Amendment. If anything good can come from a guy like Donald Trump, it is that he has shone a light on our dysfunction. Blame ourselves if our leaders fail us. Just maybe, this extremely unlikely candidate was just the guy to spark the political debate that will change America for the better. One way or another, American politics will never be the same.

Yesterday was Father’s day, and in my eulogy for my dad at his funeral in 2009, I referred to a black and white photo taken of him in Palm Springs around 1959. He was on a horse, up in the mountains overlooking the desert and the then small town of Palm Springs. There is something about that photo that expresses who my dad was, to me, and a lot of other people. He looked like a cowboy hero, but he was real, and generous, and strong, and intelligent, and funny. He made me feel safe, and he was always there for me. I loved him and was fortunate to be loved by him. Someone posted yesterday that any man can be a father, but not everybody is a dad. I was blessed to have a great dad, so for all you good dads out there, I hope you had a wonderful Father’s Day, and I hope that your kids appreciate you.

   -Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED