Time to Think

It Could Be The Biggest Election in a Century! #246 by Hank Silverberg   The mid-term elections are next week. Many people, like me, have already voted. But the majority of those who do vote will do so the more traditional way, in person, on election day.  Right now, the biggest question will be voter turnout. Democrats have a small registration advantage across the country, but Republicans traditionally vote more religiously (no pun intended). We also know that independent voters, those not affiliated with either major party, are the ones who actually decide most elections.  Who comes out to vote is more important than anything else.  It's hard for me to believe that there are people out there who have yet to make up their minds about who they want to vote for in what could be the biggest non-presidential election in U.S. history.  It's clear that much of the public is polarized either left or right, and unless the majority of us who a...

Where In The World is Glenn Youngkin?     #245   By Hank Silverberg  The answer to that question reads like a Johnny Cash song. He's been everywhere man...Maine, Nevada, Wyoming, Michigan, Texas and Georgia.  He's been to a dozen places out of state between March and August. His security detail for the trips, cost $18,400 according to Virginia Public Media  news. That's taxpayer's money for what were purely political trips. (Where is he this week?)   This past week Youngkin was in Arizona in support of the Republican Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. Youngkin told WTOP radio:  "I'm working in support of incumbent Republican governors and a handful of challengers who we think can win."   Lake is among those claiming that Joe Biden is in the White house only because of election fraud. It's a position similar to Maryland GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox. Youngkin is NOT one of those who denies the election results, yet h...

The Creep of Trumpism                #244 By Hank Silverberg  My wife and I have raised two daughters who are now in their 30's. They are educated and productive young women of whom we are very proud. Like many of their generation, they are faced with problems we did not anticipate when they were born in the 1980's.  Both have staggering student loan debt, even though we had saved what we thought was a substantial amount of money and borrowed some ourselves to pay for their education. It wasn't enough.  We thought they were growing up in a world where women were finally going to be treated equally with men and where racism and sexism was slowly fading into history. We were wrong.  The conservative, white, Protestant male who has ruled with privilege for centuries just hasn't surrendered yet. In reality, they have launched a counter-offensive which denies women control of their own body and separates everyone by race, ...

                                                                                                                     #243 Which Way Is The Pendulum Swinging? By Hank Silverberg  Students of politics and history know that there are cycles in relationships between humans.  Sometimes the pendulum swings to the left of the political center, and sometimes it swings to the right.  This was on my mind when I entered the voting booth to cast an in-person early vote in the mid-term elections. I live in Virginia's 7th Congressional District and most of the "key district" charts put out by the political pundits who make their predictions, right or wrong, have included my district on the l...

  The Times They Are a Changin' Again                    # 242       By Hank Silverberg       "Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats                      Too noble to neglect              Deceived me into thinking                 I had something to protect           Good and bad, I define these terms                Quite clear, no doubt somehow        Ah, but I was so much older then             I'm younger than that now."                --Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages"        I am a bit nostalgic as I write this blog this week. Last Friday night I attended my 50th high school reunio...