Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, March 29, 2023/Page 6A
Stye Aiiuancg
OPINIONS
“I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his repute for the freedom to think,
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t’other half for the freedom to speak.”
-James Russell Lowell
editorials
The Trump-DeSantis
Primary Fight Begins
This week, as
Manhattan District
Attorney Alvin Bragg
considered indicting
former President
Donald Trump on a
flimsy felony charge
over a seven-year-old
hush-money pay-
By Ben Shapiro ment to former porn
star Stormy Daniels,
Trump placed his fo
cus on the man he perceives as the truest
threat to his political dominance: Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump backers de
manded that DeSantis sound off on the
looming indictment; after a few days, De
Santis did, but not in ways that pleased
Trump’s base. “I don’t know what goes
into paying hush money to a porn star to
secure silence over some type of alleged
affair,” DeSantis said. “But what I can
speak to is if you have a prosecutor who is
ignoring crimes happening every single
day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to
go back many, many years ago to try to use
something about porn star hush money
payments, that’s an example of pursuing a
political agenda.”
DeSantis’ harsh words for Bragg were
insufficient, according to Trump, because
he mentioned the rationale for Trump’s
legal difficulties: his unfortunate penchant
for sexual profligacy. This prompted
Trump to take to Truth Social to accuse
DeSantis of grooming underage girls and/
or boys: “Ron DeSanctimonious will
probably find out about FALSE ACCUSA
TIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in
the future, as he gets older, wiser, and bet
ter known, when he’s unfairly and illegally
attacked by a woman, even classmates that
are ‘underage’ (or possibly a man!).”
This was only the beginning. On Tues
day evening, excerpts broke from a DeSan
tis interview with Piers Morgan, in which
DeSantis criticized Trump’s choices as
president. “(T)he way we run the govern
ment I think is no daily drama, focus on
the big picture and put points on the
board and I think that’s something that’s
very important,” DeSantis said. He added
that he “would have fired” Dr. Anthony
Fauci, contra Trump, who made Fauci into
the face of the federal government’s pan
demic response.
So, the fight is on.
Right now, the advantage lies with
Trump. He’s the center of gravity for all of
politics. DeSantis led Trump 39% to 26%
in the Monmouth poll in December 2022
— shortly after Trump’s candidates in
Senate races lost across the board, while
DeSantis cleaned up in Florida — but now
trails Trump by a margin of 27% to 41% in
the same poll.
Dealing with Trump will be difficult
for any Republican candidate, for two spe
cific reasons. First, many Republican vot
ers have bought into the myth that Trump
is not subject to political gravity: In the
aftermath of the 2012 Obama reelection,
widespread political sentiment held that
Democrats would never lose another pres
idential election, and yet Trump somehow
beat Hillary Clinton while saying anything
and everything on his mind. Many Repub
licans still think of Trump as a winner,
even after his losses in the 2018 midterm
election, 2020 presidential election, 2021
Georgia Senate races and 2022 midterms.
When they don’t, he drops in the polls, as
in December 2022.
Second, Republicans rally to Trump
whenever he is attacked by the Left. That’s
right and proper when it comes to unjust
prosecutions by rogue DAs. But many Re
publican voters have generalized to the
extent that Trump is now considered off-
limits to attack even by other Republicans,
since the Left might use such attacks as a
rationale to attack Trump, too. This is a
nearly impossible needle to thread. How
do you critique Trump without the base
feeling that your attacks are helping the
Left? Meanwhile, Trump has been granted
the soft bigotry of low expectations by
many voters: He can say literally anything
about other candidates, and no one blinks
an eye. It’s Marquess of Queensberry rules
for Trump’s opponents, WWE folding-
chair-to-the-back-of-the-head smack-
Please see Shapiro page 10A
TV Streaming
By Joe Phillips
Dear Me
Now you see it.
Now you don't.
Right now we
don't see much tele
vision because we
have no direct con
nection. Anymore.
To a little kid
television was amaz
ing. The voices heard on radio moved over
and we could see what folks looked like.
Fred Milam owned the first TV in the
county and was my father's cousin. His set
was small, but it was a miracle in a box to
me.
There was a large console radio in our
house. My mom listened throughout the
day but stopped to hear “Queen For A
Day,” which moved over to TV.
Many other radio shows moved over:
“Dragnet,” "The Lone Ranger,” “People are
Funny,” “Fibber McGee and Molly,” “Truth
Or Consequences,” and “Amos 'n Andy,”
the most popular show on radio. Then TV.
My favorite show was “Smilin' Ed Mc-
Connel,” otherwise called “The Buster
Brown Show.”
Our first television came when we
were a hundred miles from the nearest sta
tion, and the signal showed it. We rotated
the antenna by hand.
In this house, we signed on for satellite
television for the variety and convenience,
but when bad weather hides the sky, it also
can hide the satellite signal. There had to
be a better way.
The fiber optic cable installer sug
gested we go to “streaming” service via the
faster internet.
For several weeks the streaming signal
was flawless. Images were crisp, pictures
clear and beat satellite reception by miles.
Until it quit.
During the first week I described the
issue to each “professional customer no
service agent” who came on the line. In the
first week I was on the phone at least two
hours per day. Each agent asked the same
questions — my name, address, phone
number, user ID, four digit pin, and a de
tailed description of the problem. Each ex
pert gave me the same directions — un
plug the TV and Fire Stick, change my
password, un-install and re-install the ap
plication.
After days of answering the same ques
tions but getting no answers, I understood
that no customer service department could
be this bad if there was any intention of fix
ing the problem. The goal was to frustrate
me out the door. It worked.
I wondered, “Is this the best they can
do?”
I called the company and asked to be
disconnected. I was told service would
continue until the end of my “billing cycle”
some time next month. I'm not fond of
paying for what I'm not getting.
They would not immediately discon
nect the service and refund the difference.
Some things make good business sense
like admitting you don't know when you
don't know, keeping detailed notes so oth
ers can know what worked and what didn't.
It is nice to know where you are wanted
and useful to know where you aren't.
joenphillips@yahoo.com
re-eraed ptesidenr in m
It’s not the wolves we should
worry about, it’s the termites
Columnist
David French is
a recent addi
tion to the edi
torial pages of
the New York
Times. (Yes, I
read the New
York Times, but
I don’t inhale.)
His is a conser
vative voice.
Born in Alabama and currently living
in Tennessee, French describes him
self as a “Reagan Republican” going
back to his early teens. I like him al
ready.
French was graduated from Lip
scomb University, a Christian school
in Nashville. At Harvard Law, he
started a pro-life organization. As an
attorney, he spent many years defend
ing the rights of Christian students
who were being denied their freedom
of expression on college campuses. He
served in Iraq and was awarded a
Bronze Star. David French is my idea
of what a true conservative should be:
Thoughtful and compassionate. A
Johnny Isakson. A Paul Coverdell. A
Sam Nunn. And, yes, a Ronald Rea
gan.
I recently came across his book
entitled, “Divided We Fall: America’s
Secession Threat and How to Restore
Our Nation.” One sentence from the
book is seared in my brain and I had to
share it with you. In the opening pages,
French says, “At this moment in his
tory, there is not a single important
cultural, religious, political or social
force that is pulling Americans to
gether more than it is pushing us
apart.” Let that sink in for a moment.
Nobody. Nothing. Where are those
that would unite us? Alas, David
French sees no one. Neither do I.
Unfortunately, there is no short
age of the forces pulling us apart on
both sides of the political spectrum,
thanks (not really) to social media
rants and the tiresome threats that go
with them, TV networks that shame
lessly pander to one side or the other,
not to mention posturing political pa-
laverers.
We are more divided than ever
and it seems to be getting worse. There
is no longer a place for responsible so
cial discourse. No middle ground.
“Working across the aisle,” as respon
sible members of Congress once did,
is now considered disloyalty and weak
ness and can get you defeated.
French writes, “Overwhelming
majorities of Republicans and Demo
crats believe that their opponents are
‘hateful,’ ‘racist,’ ‘brainwashed’ and ‘ar
rogant.’” (I think he may have been
reading my mail.) As Pogo the Possum
once opined, “We have met the enemy
and it is us.” Does he mean you and
me? I think he does.
While we are busy fighting among
ourselves and focusing on all that di
vides us, totalitarian states like Russia,
China, Iran and North Korea circle us
like wolves stalking wounded prey and
just waiting on us to collapse.
I mentioned these concerns to my
friend Rod Knowles, a Cobb County
banker, at lunch the other day. He
By Dick Yarbrough
didn’t disagree but offered up an addi
tional thought that he heard from Dr.
Os Guinness, noted author and social
critic. By the way, if the name Guin
ness sounds familiar, he is a descen
dant of the founder of the famous Irish
brewery of the same name.
Guinness says, “The problem is
not wolves at the door but termites in
the floor.” In other words, we are
slowly eating away at our own founda
tion because of our internal divisions.
The wolves can afford to wait.
Think the Woke crowd. Proud
Boys. Black Lives Matter. Antifa. QA-
non. What, if anything, unites them
and us as Americans? The answer?
Nothing, of course. They are the divi
sive forces. The termites.
If we are ever going to heal the
political chasm in which we find our
selves today, David French says we are
going to have to demonstrate true tol
erance toward each other. “Reestab
lishing national unity will require the
bravery to commit ourselves to em
bracing qualities of kindness, decency,
and grace towards those we disagree
with ideologically,” he says. Do you
hear that, Donald Trump? Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez? Marjorie Taylor
Greene? And those among us that see
nothing wrong with that kind of vitriol
and, in fact, encourage it? (Again,
check my mail.)
“It’s time for Americans to wake
up to a fundamental reality,” French
says in the very first sentence in his
book: “The continued unity of the
United States of America cannot be
guaranteed.” In the last sentence of the
book, he writes, “We cannot simply
presume our national unity will last.”
He said it. I agree. You and I need to
think long and hard on it. It is time to
quit focusing on what divides us and
look for those things that unite us.
Let’s not be the termites.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.com; at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/
dickyarb.
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