Stephen Helgesen, 05/10/24
If you cannot remember or have never heard the Jerome Kern song, “I’m old fashioned” then you might as well quit reading right now. Go ahead. Stop. This is not for you. Fine. Now that we know you’re way over the age of consent, let’s continue.
Today is Election Day in the good old USA. Correction. It’s not the good old USA. It’s the hopelessly confused, thoroughly divided, highly partisan, exceptionally angry, overly combative, destructive cancel culture USA that has somehow kidnapped my USA and put a doppelganger in charge. It has taken our good nature, our comity and even our comedy from us and left a burnt out husk of a society in its place – a Potemkin Village where all the facades are reminiscent of Main Street past, but behind them lie the remnants of a once proud country settled by immigrants desperately wanting a better life and who were willing to die for the chance to live here.
Before we go any further, here are the lyrics of “I’m old fashioned”: I am not such a clever one about the latest fads. I admit I was never one adored by local lads. Not that I ever tried to be a saint. I’m the type that they classify as quaint. I’m old fashioned, I love the moonlight. I love the old fashioned things. The sound of rain upon a window pane. The starry song that April sings. This year´s fancies are passing fancies. But sighing sighs, holding hands. These my heart understands. I’m old fashioned but I don’t mind it. That’s how I want to be. As long as you agree, to stay old fashioned with me.
If that didn’t bring at least a sentimental sigh from you, then you, too, can stop reading now. Because while you may pay lip service to the past, you do not believe that there’s any value in actually trying to go back and retrieve or relive any part of the past, now, in the present. You’ve given up, given in and accepted your place in the new America. For those of you still left and who still have an ounce of fight in you, proceed to the next paragraph.
By the way, when I say the old America, I’m not referring to Lake Woebegone where all the men are strong, all the women are good looking and all the children are way above average. I’m speaking of a time when we knew our neighbors and even liked some of them; a time of peace and prosperity that was based on opportunity for those who wanted to pursue it; a time when we didn’t stockpile guns for protection or hoard food supplies to survive Armageddon’s arrival. You remember it don’t you? When you actually believed in something like a government that had your back and hadn’t as yet painted a target on it? Sure you do. Just like Boston Blackie and Joe Friday, the good guys always won because good always conquered evil or so said Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr. and a host of others we respected and whose example we revered and attempted to emulate.
That’s why you’re sad today…and you’re disappointed today…and you’re scared today because you know that Kamala’s right when she says that this election is a choice between the past and the future (that is the past that Donald Trump represents and the future that she and her Leftist ideology would force upon us). You’re almost frozen in place and can’t seem to get out of bed and shuffle off to the kitchen to make some coffee so that you can forget for a few moments about the walls of your world closing in on you, suffocating your right to speak your mind, live in peace and proclaim your love of country and the nuclear family. You ask yourself, “What in the blue blazes is this country coming to?” But deep in your heart you know what this country is coming to. It’s coming to the end of its expiration date if things keep going the way they are and with it will go our history – yours and mine – and so will all our institutional memory of those who gave up their lives so that we now have the choice of worrying about our country’s demise or doing something about it.
But that’s only the tip of the existential and life-threatening iceberg. Today we are going to choose a leader who respects and loves our country and its people or we are going to choose one who pretends to. And if you don’t know the difference between the two of them or which one is which then you had better go back to bed and turn out the light because the only old fashioned goodness you will have is that in your dreams. As for the rest of us, we’re not throwing in the towel. We know what’s worth fighting for and we’re not going to give up. That’s why we’re already dressed and ready to head out the door to vote. In a day or two we’ll know if it was all worth it. And for those of you who’ve chosen to pull the covers over your head, we’ll wake you up later and let you know if you should have put on your robe and slippers.
Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of fourteen books, seven of which are on American politics and has written over 1,400 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He can be reached at: stephenhelgesen@gmail.com
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