My Political Life

I have always been political. I remember seeing John Kennedy when he came to Youngstown. I was ten. His motorcade went through Canfield. He was riding in an open convertible shaking the hands of people who went right up to the car. As he drove by me I grabbed his thumb…and wouldn’t let go. My mother started to scream. I could see the headlines now: Ten Year Old Pulls Candidate Out of Car.

My conservative ilk started in 1964 when Barry Goldwater was running against Lyndon Johnson. By then I was 14, having political discussions at holiday dinners with my fascist Italian uncle. But he was a businessman who started with nothing, sold take-out spaghetti dinners door to door for his friend Chef Buardi (Boy-yar-dee) in Cleveland, and over the years became a major importer of Italian Romano cheese. At any rate, I read two books: Conscience of a Liberal by Hubert Humphrey and Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater.  I concluded Goldwater was right, no pun intended, and was immediately hooked into the right wing and have been there ever since.  In my heart, I knew he was right ( If you are old enough to remember the slogan, God bless you!!).

…except for a brief stint in 1968 when I volunteered to work for Eugene McCarthy. The Vietnam War was kicking into high gear with a draft that sent young Americans to slaughter. Johnson had promised he would keep us out of that war. He lied. For folks my age, there was no other choice. The McCarthy result was Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to seek re-electing after taking it on the chin in the New Hampshire primary. I was young and naïve. I watched Bobby Kennedy enter the race after McCarthy had done the dirty work. Then Martin Luther King was assassinated. Then Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. There were riots at the Democratic Convention. Hubert Humphrey was the Democratic heir apparent, a continuation of Lyndon Johnson’s policy. I found my way home to the Republican Party and Richard Nixon as flower children turned into “freaks,” black militants marched in the streets, and radicals like Obama’s mentor Bill Ayers tried to blow up federal buildings.

Then I had to go about the business of going to work and raising a family. Politics was put on the backburner. I still dabbled in the fringes, especially with local candidates. But corruption was rampant in Mahoning County making an inherently dirty business downright disgusting. Ronald Reagan kept my interest alive. George H. W. Bush smothered it. Bill Clinton’s disgraceful behavior was the gasoline that reignited it…and I have been moving forward ever since.

I have been fortunate to have a son who shares my interest in politics. When he decided to make it his vocation, I agreed and we plunged right into it head first. It has been an interesting ride these past few years as we moved from casual participants to activists.

That has been especially true this election. I came to the conclusion back in 2007 when Barack Obama was rising as a political force that there was something just not right.  As the campaign went on, what I saw was something foreign to my American belief system. It wasn’t his race that was the issue. It was his background that was either being deliberately hidden or downplayed. His agenda was not an American agenda…it was a social justice agenda rooted in a world view shaped by early exposure to Islam and his African roots, and nurtured by a support group the members of which were either Communist or darn close to being Communist. His comments made it clear he viewed the Constitution as a flawed document. It was a road block on his road to righting all the wrongs America had done in the world. His deification was disturbing. It reminded me of the cult of personality that surrounds socialist leaders.

In the process of working to defeat him, successful or not, I learned a lot about politics these past few years. It IS a dirty business. You can be principled to a degree, but in the end corruption is a matter of degree, not a matter of yes or no. There is no honor among politicians. It is a fight to the bitter end, and they do what they have to do. People you once held in high esteem are brought down to earth. I have been disappointed in discovering the truth on more than one occasion. I learned it is all about money. You can’t run a campaign without it, and you are vilified if you try to raise it. People who complained to me about Barack Obama walked the other way when I asked for $25.00 to help buy a radio ad (which costs about $80.00 for 30 seconds on local talk radio…for politicians…they charge less for business clients.)

On the other hand, I also learned that we should be grateful that we have people who still have enough idealism to run for office and put up with the garbage they have to put up with. It is a horrible experience. It is a humbling experience. You can trust no one. You can’t rely on any one. You find out who your friends are, or aren’t, real fast. And through all the criticism, the bad jokes, the snide remarks, and chicken dinners, through the humiliation of asking for campaign donations…you have to keep smiling and keep believing that you can make a difference.

Political life has lots of positives and negatives. But my core beliefs in freedom, free enterprise, self reliance and responsibility…and that our system of government equals the playing field for all Americans more than any other in the world…keep me going. At the end of the day, politics is all about helping others and making friends. Midst all the din that surrounds you, if you can do some good for your neighbors, your town, your state and your country, then it is all worth it.