Most of the novel (Copyright 2018 by Arnold Heller) is set against the end of the Carter administration (1978- 1980) and sprawls across the Reagan era (1980 – 1988). The Library of Congress Control Number is 2017919395, ISBN 978-1-5434-7390-2, 978-1-5434-7389-6, 978-1-5434-7388-9. No one may use or reproduce any of the following excerpts without permission from the author. arnoldheller@comcast.net; arnoldheller@arnoldheller.org
The excerpts provided are for the purpose of attracting interest in my novel, or insights into Dues’ description and theme, or for readers who have purchased it and wish to revisit the poems and major speeches attributed to Allie Cohen. A copy can be ordered on the home page www.arnoldheller.org by clicking on the www.xlibris.com link or from all other major online book distributors / retailers.
Allie Cohen holds his new born son Ari up to a full moon to seek a blessing from God, then writes a poem describing what the infant will need to succeed in life.
The Fanatical Edge
Jewish parents don’t just raise children
Instead, they make their kids feel special
Which makes them act smarter and cuter and
Think they’re the center of the damn universe
They then selfishly dream and achieve and
Forsake responsibility to all but themselves
Thus, is created the fanatical edge, a
Powerful drive to surpass all the others
For the distant reward of self-actualization on
The narcissistic road to fame and success and
All that jazz and hurt that comes with the territory.
Allie writes a poem on the flight to Egypt with Carole. He becomes a True Son of Israel during their visit to the Holy Land.
If Hitler had been a Friend of the Jews
The Nazis made the world a zoo
But imagine if Adolph Hitler
Had been a friend of the Jew
And not an enemy oh so bitter
Envision Hitler valuing Jewish citizenry
And creating a humane national socialism
Rebuilding Germany’s shattered economy
Out of the ashes of World War 1 militarism
Fantasize Hitler supporting a homeland
For all European Jews seeking Zion
Fair rewards for loving the Fatherland
Instead, Auschwitz, Dachau, terror and dying
If Hitler had acted like America’s FDR
Soothing the fears of his troubled nation
Alsace-Loraine, the Ruhr and the Saar
Left in peace with no emasculation
A responsible Germany, Beethoven’s land
Civilized, progressive, technologically advanced
Committed to goodness this Reich and Deutschland
And not mass extermination in Ukraine and Poland
It should have been in the Allie’s interest
To return from Versailles all that was taken
Welcome back, rearm, do what was best
And forget the blame when all were mistaken
Stalin’s hordes might have been halted
By a Berlin strong, vital and prosperous
Europe’s balance of power kept, not altered
By a Reich believing in freedom and justice
Another strong hand to ease British decline
A world of peace, cooperation, and order
Alliances stretching from the Potomac to the Rhine
Collectively securing all democracies borders
The Messiah tarries, an anti-Christ we await
Claim the Revelations and fundamentalist sages
For was not Hitler the devil incarnate?
Did he not rise from politics, the sea that rages?
Why was mankind deaf to their screams?
Why was He blind to the gas and crematoria?
Fruitless are lists of what might have been
The six million dead are to them a memorial
The monster Hitler, 86% extermination
Thank God he failed with his Final Solution
A war against the Jews and Europe’s nations
Vigilance now to Hamas, Sunni and Shiite revolution
Today terrorists and assassins freely roam about
Single out Jews among a planeload in Lebanon
Receive training in Syria and comfort in Moscow
Drive truck bombs, take hostages nudged by Iran
And so, the world becomes a more volatile place
A nuclear holocaust threatens the human race
The killing goes on, dear Lord make it cease
The world awaits a savior, His prince of peace
We beseech thee Messiah, oh make thyself known
The seeds of destruction have already been sown
And hurry sweet prince before it’s too late
Armageddon is before us, please spare us the fate.
Message from the Lord 1: Prayer for receiving the Peace Prize
Adonai selected Allie’s words to simplify his message of peace to the people
I ask why do we sometimes resort to evil?
And justify it as doing good.
Humans often short cut good
With evil acts by claiming
They are restoring or maintaining order
Fostering economic stability and prosperity,
Or protecting the nation.
The ends supposedly justify the means.
Or do they? No,
Our means must justify our ends too.
We must only do good and right
And then and only then will we
Have true peace on earth for all mankind.
Message from the Lord 2: Prayer for Peace in Atlanta
If we want to avoid violence
We have the answers within us
If we are to escape hatred and ugliness
The ways and means are all around us
Whether we are successful or not
Depends on how hard we try.
Major Speech #1: Nobel Peace Prize
Allie Cohen wins the Noble Peace Prize for initiatives conducted in Russia, Chile, Egypt, and Israel. The Prophet stands behind a teak podium and faces the audience. The Creator has empowered Allie with an ultimate teachable moment and feeds his train of thought.
“I intend to speak directly to this remarkable assembly and the world beyond it. My aim is to identify all the misinformed, misguided, evil or negative forces in the world that are all on the wrong side of peace, goodness, and morality.”
Cohen was interrupted by a strong standing ovation from both sides of the moral spectrum. This applause, Allie interpreted; means half the audience has no clue of who I am, where I come from, or what I’m going to say. Man, are they ever in for a learning experience.
“I’ll begin,” he quieted them down; “by mildly punching a few holes in French existentialism and Scandinavian and Swiss neutrality. Fifteen years ago, I fancied being an existentialist in the mold of Jean Paul Sartre who rejected his Nobel Prize claiming the award compromised his east – west clarity.
“I respect Sartre’s decision but disagree with his view, in fact, I am no longer an existentialist because Western power, principles, and freedom now shape my moral clarity these days.”
Over half the audience stood and applauded. Those who have chosen to sit, Allie beheld, now sense where I’m going with this.
“Furthermore,” stated Cohen; “I have no intention of rejecting my prize, indeed deeply value the award and respect the important role it plays in promoting peace in the world. Let me say that I am very grateful to the Nobel Foundation but am still unsure how I will serve the cause of peace this next year.”
There was a thirty-second long applause, French officials politely patted. “In reality, there is no existentialism or neutrality; both are a state of mind. French existentialism was a luxury of NATO for when Charles de Gaulle pulled them out because he didn’t believe America would use nuclear missiles to save France from communism, they were still protected by the collective security arrangement and American might.”
The faces of the French stiffened up. “Neutrality is studied detachment from the forces that really protect you and selfishly reaps the benefits of collective security without contributing to the burden. The US reactive stance supports the free ride of neutral nations and allows French existentialists the freedom to write popular left-wing tracts that would be banned in Moscow. One cannot intellectually and morally stand on two sides of the fence.”
Swedish and Swiss faces stiffened and joined the annoyed French. “Today I stand before you – ironically in a highly cultivated neutral nation – and proclaim my opposition to despotic creatures of all types. It is a depressing fact that only the aggressive power of the United States and its allies contain the hegemonistic Soviets, and the machinations of countless petty tyrants acting in concert. This aggressive Marxist network freely maims and subverts for a phony faith that has failed to deliver on its promises wherever it’s been employed.”
The representatives of western countries stood and applauded. The seated dictatorships appeared angry, disgusted or in stunned silence. The Russians and other Soviet puppets joined the French, Swedes, and Swiss in making up a legion of stiff faces.
“Soviet clients all have one things in common; categorization of people according to handy political tools. Whether the construction is Marxist dogma, or a little Red or Green book, the result is usually an inhuman social order.”
With that last salvo, the Russians and Soviet puppet leaders, the Chinese and Libyan delegations from the references to Mao’s Little Red Book and Qaddafi’s Little Green Book, all walked out on Allie in protest.
Yahweh is disgusted with their current ideologies and utter corruption that blind them to needs of their people or to listen, behold, and exalt the Prophet. The next day major newspapers were full of Soviet quotes that Allie had abused the Nobel setting by slandering the Russians and their friends with calumny and lies. Qaddafi called him a capitalist stooge of the western imperialist forces.
Cohen continued his relentless finger pointing. “I invite the monsters of the earth to change their stripes and become good guys too. I’ll first point my roving finger at the cruelty and immorality of the so-called Third World, countries the economists describe a Less Developed Countries or LDC’s. Frankly, most LDC’s are highly developed Militaristic and Murderous Enterprises or what I prefer to call MME’s.
Cohen let the joke sink in; a slow chuckle grew into a loud laugh and reverberated around the huge hall. The monsters’ faces showed how they hated being the butt of his joke.
“My menu of third world tyrants lists communist maximum leaders, Islamic fascists, Latin torturers, Asian strongmen, and African megalomaniacs. Their callous governments are synonymous with blatant corruption and random mass murder, and daily make the lives over three billion people miserable.”
Prophet, you called them all out in a beautifully broad and clear manner.
Cohen viewed the faces of the MME’s. Representatives from bloody dictatorships on all continents felt ambushed; some stood up in protest and booed him. All of the MME’s as a show of solidarity for their common and collective evil, walked out.
“The MME’s faceless victims,” Cohen shouted directly at the dictatorships as they left the hall; “include peasant farmers and city folk, seekers of truth and justice, and purveyors of peace and freedom.”
Sadly, the Prophet exceeded the limits of truth the dictators can handle at one time and they fled. I fear that up to half the earth is displaying that they have light years to go before being worthy of redemption.
“The bloody, refugee ridden Twentieth Century,” claimed Cohen; “has suffered a never- ending battle for the hearts and minds of the peoples of the earth. Standard operating procedures for dictatorships are to grab their societies by the groin so that the people’s hearts and minds blindly follow. Truth, perception, and reality differ from Madison Avenue to Moscow, Jerusalem to Mecca, and the Holy See to Havana.
“Contrary to Christian dogma, the meek are not inheriting the earth. The weak, sick, docile, unarmed and hungry are being plundered, trampled, or caught up in destructive power struggles and cross fires.”
The remaining audience applauded. Sarah smiled proudly at her husband and told Ari; “Your father is so brilliantly and starkly defining good and evil and human reality.”
Allie Carole worried; is saying such harsh truths that he might be stoking the hatred of creatures of the night that might come after him – and me.
My son, Janet Kamensky beamed; is shaming the world to behave itself. Give ‘em hell Allie, I’m so proud of you I am going to burst.
My little brother Carla smiled brightly is making the ultimate ‘call a spade a spade speech’. Good for him.
The White House and State Department gritted teeth from Allie’s hot button language. They basically agreed with him but for diplomatic necessities, dared not say so. So many offended representatives had walked out that the auditorium was barely half full.
Cohen continued to hammer away. “The world appears hopelessly corrupt, hateful, and dangerous. Perhaps a handful of exceptional leaders exist and historically there seems to be fewer great ones than ever.”
The audience gasped at his description. The Nobel Foundation leader’s nervous eyes begged Cohen to calm his blaming, and stop using their platform to smear half the earth. They relaxed a bit as his tune suddenly changed, but for only one sentence.
“And yet the world hungers for extraordinary souls to step forth and lead us out of the moral wilderness. Unfortunately, for the many brave men or women who do step up, the assassin’s bullet may be forthcoming.”
Much of the audience held its breath. “Four of my political heroes; John Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy, a quartet of 1960’s Lights in the Darkness were all murdered. Each loss was a hammer at mankind’s hope that a better world can be forged through the expression of truth, compassion, and social justice.”
Respectful applause lasted a few seconds. “Still, I have not lost all hope, in fact remain a believer that world peace may someday be attained, that good men and women may yet prevail, that all will renounce war and terror.”
The half full audience applauded. “My dream for world peace requires a great leader, or a Messiah if the Lord so wills it, to shame our species out of its current political ignorance and ideological and military madness. Goodness, mercy, kindness, decency, and charity must fill our collective souls instead.”
A loud enthusiastic applause lasted ten seconds. “If not, we may all perish from the earth and our souls rot in a damnable hell. A nagging fear is that human beings have strayed too far down the past of nuclear insanity to be rescued.”
A large collective sigh came from individuals scattered across the great hall so he wrapped it up on a positive note.
“I challenge humanity to face up to the fate of the earth and soon. May the Lord bless the Children to lead the way to peace and freedom and all good and rightful people follow His Commandments to receive His Blessings.”
Major Speech 2: Allie Cohen’s Atlanta Caveat
Hashem has again empowered the Prophet with another ultimate teachable moment for the people of Metro Atlanta. Phillip Mason, Chamber of Commerce Chief, has introduced Allie to the audience.
“Our Chamber chief,” Cohen satirized; “comes from a long line of city boosters. In fact, all of the Mason’s possess an extra gene. It’s called the jobs relocation gene.”
The gag summoned a nice laugh that heightened the good feelings enveloping the crowd. Inside the Civic Center, a love fest for Cohen was forming in the hall built on the site of a former slum called Buttermilk Bottom. Symbolically, love and buttermilk constituted what Cohen was about to serve up.
“Almost a decade and half ago, I moved to Atlanta and discovered a cultural milieu that was more than I expected, but a little less than I needed. Right from the beginning though, I sensed the dynamic of change and promise and both came as Atlanta is fast becoming one of the world’s next great international cities.”
Atlanteans’ are proud of their city and they applauded loudly. Cohen shushed them by speaking. “I, like more than three million other metro Atlantans, have come to love this city and Atlanta is where I come home to.”
The audience interrupted Allie to cheer a transformed son of the New South. Cohen proceeded with more image building words for adopted city #1.
“Atlanta now lies in the mainstream of American life and culture. Atlanta and the South today are plugged into the global electronic and commercial grid and our urbane culture includes a fusion of Southern graciousness, Atlantic culture, heartland values, Pacific fads, European, African, Latin and Asian influences. Atlanta is a city without limits and has formed into a rich and vital human mosaic.”
Cohen was again interrupted by enthusiastic hoots of approval. Chamber of Commerce members sounded the most supportive. Lesotho Xeranga, in contrast, was unhappy and complained to Eddie. “I’m close to writing this honkey off as hopeless unless his tone changes rapidly.”
It did. “I am sad to report that despite the fact that Atlanta is basically thriving, there exists a host of difficult problems. Atlantans delight so in their fair city that they may overlook the underside of life, this condition being a national trait, prone to all who have great stakes in their city’s business arena, especially real estate. My aim today is to analyze Atlanta as one example of this American dilemma.”
Cohen’s direction made Phillip Mason and John Whelan uncomfortable. Mack Thomas liked where Cohen was going and Lesotho suddenly hung on every syllable.
“There is still a lingering habit left over from the days of segregation for Atlanta to divide along racial lines. This schism will remain unchallenged until direct immigration expands dramatically and other large ethnic groups organize and demand a place at the table of accommodation.”
“I hope,” Sharon Johnson told Lesotho and Eddie; “they’re listening to his predictions for they ignore him at their risk.”
“I predict that Hispanics will soon become the third big group to demand their place at the table. Asians will soon follow Latin footsteps in dissolving the century old black – white dichotomy.”
“I’m impressed,” Mack Thomas told John Whelan; “with Cohen’s understanding of demographic trends and their effect on traditional power structures.”
“White ethnics and Asians traditionally follow white Anglos to the suburbs to leave urban black poverty behind. Middle and upper-class blacks, seeking better housing and schools, often follow suit. Atlanta’s central business district is the primary area where the predominately bi-racial population interacts daily.”
A short loud applause came from a small younger Chamber of Commerce group. Cohen smiled benevolently at them as if they were odd children.
“The Midtown, Buckhead, and Perimeter Corridor markets, in comparison, are majority white interactive zones. Their commercial real estate occupancy rates and rents subsequently are higher than downtown’s rates.”
Cohen looked at the audience, held his notes in hand, and smiled all to stretch his dramatic pause and build the power of the next two sentences.
“The whiter the commercial and residential zone the higher the real estate values; in contrast, the blacker the real estate zone, commercial or residential, the lower the real estate values. Blacks are 30% of the metro population yet total black real estate valuation of the metro-wide black communities can be tucked away in a small corner of predominately white Buckhead.”
Lesotho could not contain himself and yelled out; “That is the best description of modern day racism ever told.”
Sharon joined him and followed with a perfect summary. “Dig it, the whiter the zone, the richer they are. The blacker the zone, the poorer we are. Whites, by shunning us, confer wealth on them and poverty on us.”
“Ms. Johnson,” Cohen complimented; “that was a typically excellent analysis; you get an A+.” Sharon’s face lit up the packed theater. “The purest equality blacks or people of color have in Metro Atlanta is the income to buy their way in to the majority white zones like Edge City, think Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, Roswell and Alpharetta, but please, I’m getting ahead of myself here.” He warmly smiled at Sharon Johnson then focused back on the audience.
“Downtown is for the time being the largest commercial real estate market in the Southeastern US. The value of the steel and glass fortresses and super-blocs is roughly $100 to $200 billion. Let us be frank; enhanced perceptions of crime erode property values.”
A few major downtown property owners coughed. “The fortresses of downtown are connected by pedestrian sky bridges. Visitors can walk across the central core without touching down on sidewalk and see few black people while carrying out their business. The whiteness factor, safety perceptions of white people towards people of color in this internal space is the driver of the downtown economy and high real estate values.”
The section full of young blacks applauded. The office tower and wholesale mart owners frowned and a major property owner was heard choking.
“I predict that due to heightened perceptions of downtown crime, false if police statistics are to be believed, the whiter Buckhead, Midtown, and Perimeter commercial real estate markets will grow faster. In one to three decades, they will all equal or surpass the central business district with the northern Perimeter arc exceeding all local and southeastern markets by 2010.”
Thundering standing applause was heard from suburban commercial interests. Cohen’s predictions based on 1980’s real estate trends were fully realized.
“We hope of course, for downtown, the City of Atlanta, and suburban ring to all prosper. A strong fast-growing economy is the adhesive that holds us together.”
Cohen’s prediction inspired Sharon who whispered to Lesotho; “I think we should obtain real estate licenses and focus on Midtown, Buckhead, and the Perimeter corridor area.” His eyes lit up at the idea of being the first black real estate firm to serve those markets.
“It’s up to all of us,” Cohen continued with his address; “to make downtown, Atlanta, and the suburbs better, but that takes trust, cooperation, and a shared vision called regionalism which to some is a dirty word. This hope requires diverse peoples to come and work together and interact in harmony for the sake of public progress.”
Broad loud applause shook the hall from progressives inside and outside the Perimeter.
“There will be a price to pay down the road unless white Atlantans stop moving ever farther away to hunker down in exclusive exurban enclaves. The growing number of cloisters filled with like-minded people will skew our politics.”
That line drew louder applause from the same people. “Suburban sprawl,” preached Cohen; “worsens mal-distribution of Atlanta’s economic glue and is the root cause of most social problems. Atlanta’s south side, save for a few pockets of black and white affluence, is virtually a cheap labor colony for the expanding and predominately white north side.”
Lesotho led his whole section of young blacks applauding that line.
“Unfortunately, sprawl prevents low income blacks from reaching the jobs increasingly located in the outer ring counties where the land is cheaper for corporations to build warehousing space for example. Low taxes make public transportation minimal at best with expansion thwarted by status quo advocates who distrust government with some even hating any form or mention of it.”
The same group of young blacks applauded even louder. Conservative white suburban leaders frowned or rubbed their chin with their hand.
“Blacks who aren’t comfortable living the Edge City life and need affordable housing will re-congregate in the core center out of need to survive.”
Lesotho and Sharon stood up to second Cohen’s claim. John Whelan and Phillip Mason expressed their concern by rubbing their chins and cheeks with their hands.
I sense, Mack Thomas noticed; that the political equation in Atlanta is changing and Cohen is an agent of sorts.
Cohen hammered away. “Welfare barely blunts the hard edge of unemployment or under-employment while the welfare taxes that the suburban middle class so vehemently opposes are actually transfer payments to the poor to stay out of the tidy lives of white people in Cobb, Gwinnett, North Fulton, North Dekalb, and increasingly Cherokee, Forsyth, Henry and Fayette Counties.”
Half the audience, presumably from Atlanta, applauded. The other half, presumably from the suburban safe zones, did not.
“Atlanta and America are pigmentocratic; lighter skin color is assigned more favorable status and better jobs. Darker skinned people are often less favored and funneled into work no one else wants to do except new immigrants.”
Eddie White stood up to cheer Cohen’s claim. Allie recognized him, smiled at Eddie, and gave him a thumbs-up. White smiled back, stuck his thumb up in the air, and sat down. I’m really over my Cohen thing; he was actually glad to see me.
Allie grew hotter as he verbally pointed a finger at the angry white guys in the audience. “I recall how angry white guys used to be proud rednecks until that word and image became bad for business and real estate values. Now they proudly call themselves conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians.”
The white liberals laughed loudly and all thought he’d stolen that line from them.
“Many Atlantans sow discord when they make malevolent comments like; why won’t they work? Or, they just sit around having babies and collecting checks – or the I-285 Perimeter is the Ring around the Congo – and MARTA stands for Moving Africans Rapidly through Atlanta.”
He made the blacks in the audience laugh at those old racist putdowns, and the whites very uncomfortable.
“That cynical mentality and lingering evidence of racism needs to be expunged.” He treaded on racial thin ice. “The truth is that white people won’t pay for the social remedies needed to expel the social pathologies created by their racist legacy and the right wingers fight welfare payments tooth and nail that sustain, contain, and isolate poor blacks from them.”
Lesotho, Sharon, and Eddie stood up to applause. Virtually every other young black person did too and some white liberals joined them.
“President Reagan has assured white middle-class Americans that it is a Christian act to disinvest in our minorities. Conservative Christian whites proclaim they help wean blacks off of their dependency on government. They are friends of the poor by making them poorer.”
Cohen’s harsh charges angered some whites to boo. “Reagan deserves better.” One older white man heckled; “You owe him your God forsaken Nobel prize.”
Phillip Mason was livid. Cohen’s called a lot of people names and rehashed a lot of old shit better left unsaid. Stoking Xeranga’s rallying cries and angering conservative whites is a big step backward for the city’s image.
Allie kept pounding away. “Our homicide rate shocks the nation but not the average Atlantan. We claim to want higher salaries for our police then demand that our underpaid centurions crush frustration with firepower.”
James Epworth, CEO of Atlanta’s third largest banks, was aggravated. “If I had a gun, I’d shoot that damned demagogic Jew bastard right on the spot.”
Cohen’s next words cooled Epworth’s anger momentarily. “All Atlantans should never forget that this city’s prosperity is stimulated by the collective intelligence of its audacious and concerned commercial sector.”
Epworth ached for Cohen’s positive streak to continue. Allie’s pause made the banker paranoid. I know that Cohen’s setting us up to drive home another bitter impression.
Epworth was right. “The white corporate elite sits precariously perched on the backs of a large, sullen underclass that has little regard for central city real estate values or the well- being of the community at large. Survival and pleasure are the underclass’ preoccupations and pursuit.”
Lesotho and Mack and the rest of the audience were transfixed by harsh truths rarely heard from privileged white men. Cohen expressed black feelings more sharply than they were comfortable hearing. He was determined to make whites and blacks honestly face up to their social realities and pathologies and finally deal with them.
“What can we do for, or about our sizable underclass, the product of the defects in free market capitalism, slavery, the Middle Passage, segregation, lingering racism and disastrous social experiments?”
That question sucked the air out of the audience and hall and silence ruled.
“A stigma of worthlessness has been stamped upon a segment less equipped to compete to the degree that the group has for the most part given up. Stand forewarned; we can’t go on ignoring the alienated hordes of forgotten America.”
The air did not return to the hall until after the next statement. “I urge you to consider my perspectives and not easily dismiss them as another do gooders lament. With all of us pulling together, we can achieve an improved quality of life for all Americans.” A few people applauded.
“I present a remedy by sharing details of NDMA, National Defense Metropolitanization Act, designed to merge the central city and suburbs into a unified tax district. The result of consolidation is equalization of municipal service costs across the designated metropolitan district or region.
“I conclude my speech with a quote from Leviticus, XIX, 33-34. If a stranger sojourn in your land, ye shall not vex him. That stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you. And you shalt love him as yourself for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Major Speech 3: Mayor Allie Cohen’s Four ‘Big Bewares’ to the visiting Democrats in 1988
“I will waste no time in delivering my important message to Americans, a speech that deprograms Americans from the confusing doublespeak of the Reagan years by paraphrasing lines from Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism.
“For eight years, President Reagan has cloaked himself in the image of FDR and undermined the New Deal and Great Society at every opportunity. His lean, mean safety net has reduced Roosevelt’s and LBJ’s communitarian society to atomistic Social Darwinism, the barest step above a dog-eat-dog society. I predict that someday the smart history teachers of the future will present the Reagan Era as a neo-Gilded Age, a time when caring and compassion became wimpy!”
Laughter punctuated Cohen’s delivery and helped him to set up his finish with a flurry, the four big bewares.
“Beware of sunny smooth communicators who dangerously simplify complex problems so the masses will buy unworkable solutions.
Beware of a movement that tells Americans that everything they say is possible when we know that none of it is true.
Beware of a chief executive that bills himself as a guarantor of liberty, yet doggedly chips away at our social and cultural freedoms.
Beware of leadership that judges ideas with political litmus tests rather than by merit, common sense, reason or the public welfare.
“That is why I urge y’all to vote Democratic this November so that America may go forward once more.