Is Trump an aberration or is America changing?

Listen.  Put your hand to your ear. Can you here it?  (Silence). That’s the sound of the Trumpites hollering about all the election fraud.  Oh, that’s alright.  You see, the Republicans won. There’s only election fraud when Trump and Republicans loose.
Trump said in Pennsylvania a few days before the election that there was “massive cheating and fraud.”  “Stop the Steal” the Trumpites shrieked.  That is until the election outcome was secure for the GOP. The results came in and Trump strongly carried Pennsylvania.  Then the previous election deniers changed their tune, and the issue simply faded away.
I followed the charges of election fraud closely, as I was Louisiana’s chief elections Officer for eight years back in the 1980s. From that time forward, I rarely  saw any evidence of widespread election fraud.  There were occasional charges of vote buying and registering of unqualified voters on the local level. But any evidence of a pervasive organized effort in any state across the nation just did not exist. Unless the Mega gang thinks otherwise and wants to have a new election….,.Yeah! Right!
My Democratic friends (I’m a registered independent by the way) are appalled at Trump’s hold on the nations politics, and swear it’s just an aberrant and temporary happening.  His opinions are “just not who we are,” they are saying.  But are they right? Are not  a majority of Americans  in agreement with Trump’s opinions, no matter how outlandish, as an example of  exactly who we are? And don’t buy into the view that the new President has changed the views of a majority of voters in our nation.  I would suggest that what he did was to reveal how his positions are the same as  the millions of Americans who voted for him.  
Let’s just be honest.  The America many of us grew up in has changed.  I don’t mean “the good old days” that some would aspire to.  I mean the lack of a moral code; basic decency and concern for others that was more apparent in days gone by.  Let me offer a few examples.
When I was growing up, volunteering in one’s local community was a part of the culture.  It was what we did. Recently, a report was issued by  Census Bureau and AmeriCorps concluding that volunteering has taken a major reduction in recent years.  Yet the need has never been greater.  There is a demand for volunteers to help in schools, churches, local food banks, and many other local groups.  Membership in civic clubs has dwindled significantly, with a number of clubs shutting down.  When volunteer organizations ask for help, the response they too often receive is that “we are just too busy.”
Church attendance has dropped significantly. In my younger years, I felt guilty if I didn’t attend church on Sunday, My family took us to church Sunday morning and Sunday evening. So many Americans, even those who say they love the church, feel no guilt in there disassociation from religious attendance. (And by the way, my most recent book, Jesus, Jews, Jihad and Me, deals with my personal struggle of trying to relate more to religious beliefs).
Volunteering to serve in the military or national support groups like AmeriCorps is passe’ to so many. “We are just too busy with our lives,”  is a general response. President John Kennedy’s charge to the nation, “Ask not what your country can do for you. As what you can do for your country,” is not reflective of how many Americans feel today.
And where did all the open swearing in the public domain begin? It seems like it was just a few years ago where no one would use a four letter word in a public pronouncement or speech. Now four letter words abound from the President to numerous public figures. I sat with my grandsons to listen to the Alabama football coach, following a recent game, spew out four letter words, one  after another. His foul mouth offers a terrible image for our kids. Someone should wash his mouth out with soap.  
 These changes (not for the better) cannot be blamed on America’s new President. He just has recognized  how America has changed for so many. Look in the mirror. Trump is just a reflection of so many of us.  As columnist Carlos Lozano wrote recently, “What was considered abnormal, even un-American has been redefined as acceptable and reaffirmed as preferable.”  How sad. What did Pogo say? We’ve seen the enemy, and the enemy is us.
 
Peace and Justice

Jim Brown