Choosing

MY SENIOR YEAR if high school, 1972-73, enthusiastically following the lead of our clique leader, the class president, I supported the reelection of Richard M. Nixon. "Reelect the President" I believe was our slogan, which I take credit for. Quite clever, I thought at the time. Now, mot so much. If nothing else, I can proudly say, or hide behind, that the worst mistake of my political life I made when I was seventeen years old. I felt betrayed by "Watergate", and became a firm, lifelong Democrat.On the other hand, I was twenty five in 1980 whenI voted for John Anderson instead of Carter, and lived to regret it. At the time, Anderson, a Republican, seemed more progressive to me than the safely ensconced centrist Jimmy Carter. Reagan's victory devastated me. It still does. Now Ronald Reagan appears well on his way or safely ensconced among the ranks of America's most beloved presidents, almost Rushmore ready, and yet to this day I still despise him, for his conservatism.This reminds me of the way both of my parents despised and repeaedly voted against my hero Franklin D. Roosevelt, for his liberalism, indeed, for his outright socialism. The generational political opposition of my parents and me had no bearing on our mutually loving relationship, nor should it ever, with anyone. I am embarking on a project which might become my tendency; to offer the following line to anyone and everyone, far and wide: politics is not important, friendship is. In a democracy, or a purported one, personal political opinions are precisely as numerous as rectums, and in many cases are no more pleasant to contemplate at length and share. Just as we humans are far more likely to tolerate bad, ineffective, or oppressive government than to alter and reform it,we are more incinded to toleratedeny, or ignore political corruption than to combat and reform it. I played tennis most of my life, but I never cheated, nor even considered cheating, because I knew in advance that doing so would make the game meaningless for me. I suspect that tennis players who get into the habit of cheatingusually don't continue ennis as a hobby for very long. To elect my favorite political candidate through gerrymandering, cheating,voter fraud, whichever or whatever, would be for me more hollow than, say, your average statement from Donald Trump, and that's goin' some, as they say. My best guess, and my best hope, is that there will eventually emerge from within the great state of Tennessee, and every other state,a growing belief that winning elections or anything else by cheating or rigging the rules aint worth, as Sam Rayburn once said of the Vice Presidency, "a bucket fo warm spit". Winning anthing by rigging the system is pure hollowness,as anyone who tries or does it full well knows. You want to defeat your foes at his best, not beause the system has been rigged against him. Itmay bethat Republicans are not being careful enough about what they are wishing for, and are seeking, with apparent success, to implement in Tennessee and all across the solid conservtive south, one party rule. We Americans are known for being choosy, for wanting and expecting real choices. Voting Republican is one thing. Having no real alternative is quite another. Americans deprived of real choices tend to become restless and angry. Surely to goodness even Republicans want to vote Republican for a better reason than having no other choice.