THE MISSION IS CLEAR
And then there was one...
Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. As much as I hate to say it, I kind of saw it coming. That's not a diss of the man; I liked most of what he had to say and was thoroughly prepared to support him had he won the nomination.
But I also had serious doubts that he would earn that nomination, for one reason: the "socialist" label, which unfortunately even some Democrats (especially here in this neck of the woods) view as being distinctly un-American despite the fact that so much of what we have come to view as important to our lives - little things like paved roads and fire and police protection and clean running water and public libraries and public schools or mail delivery or going to college via a subsidized school loan, that sort of thing - are derived from forms of socialism.
So now, just as I feared, Bernie supporters are throwing up their arms and weeping and wailing and rending their garments and proclaiming that we've doomed ourselves to four more years of Trump.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: THAT is the attitude that will doom us to four more years of Trump.
If everyone who came out in support of and cast primary votes for ANY of the other Democratic candidates come together and vote for the Democratic nominee, Trump will lose. It doesn't matter if that nominee is Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders or Ferdinand Lobomowicz.
The mission is clear, and has never been more clear than it is right now: TRUMP MUST GO. If we want to get this nation back on track, to reclaim the moral high ground and the world leadership status we have lost since 2016, if we want to ensure that the Founding Fathers’ grand experiment continues and shines a beacon for the rest of the world to see, then that must be the objective. Trump must go. Simple as that.
Mark my words: If Trump is re-elected, it won't be because Joe Biden was the opposing candidate.
It will be because everyone who supported somebody else all decided to take their ball and go home.
In : Opinion
Tags: politics america
John A. Small is an award-winning newspaper journalist, columnist and broadcaster whose work has been honored by the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association, and the Oklahoma Education Association. He and his wife Melissa were married in 1986; they have two sons, Joshua Orrin (born 1991) and William Ian (born 1996).
Mr. Small is the News Editor and columnist for the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, a weekly newspaper headquartered in Tishomingo, OK. He obtained his nickname, "Bard of the Lesser Boulevards," from a journalism colleague - the late Phil Byrum - in recognition of the success of his popular newspaper column, "Small Talk." (In addition to the many awards the column itself has received over the years, a radio version of "Small Talk" earned an award for "Best Small Market Commentary" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1998.)
John was born in Oklahoma City in 1963; lived in the Bradley-Bourbonnais-Kankakee area of Illinois for most of the next 28 years (with brief sojourns in Texas and Athens, Greece, thrown in to break up the monotony); then returned to his native state in 1991, where he currently resides in the Tishomingo/Ravia area. He graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1981, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais in 1991. The years between high school and college were a period frought with numerous exploits and misadventures, some of which have become the stuff of legend; nobody was hurt along the way, however, which should count for something.
In addition to his professional career as a journalist he has published two short story collections: "Days Gone By: Legends And Tales Of Sipokni West" (2007), a collection of western stories; and "Something In The Air" (2011), a more eclectic collection. He was also a contributor to the 2005 Locus Award-nominated science fiction anthology "Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe," edited by Win Scott Eckert. In additon he has written a stage play and a self-published cookbook; served as project editor for a book about the JFK assassination entitled "The Men On The Sixth Floor"; and has either published or posted on the Internet a number of essays, stories and poems.
He has also won writing awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Library of Poetry. He is a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce in Tishomingo; was a charter member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, the local literacy advocacy and "friends of the library" organization; served as Johnston County's first-ever Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator in 1994-95; served two terms as chairman of the Johnston County (OK) Democratic Party; and has taught journalism classes for local Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs. He is a member of the New Wold Newton Meteorics Society.
