Remember, this could be our last election
Don't miss out on Chapman Museum's latest fundraisers
Please consider supporting The Front Page with a paid subscription: HERE
I'm guilty of it as well.
With the presidential election just three weeks away, I believe that our country could be facing a calamity of epidemic proportions if Donald Trump is re-elected president.
So many others are saying the same thing.
Trump has promised to open concentration camps as a way of deporting illegal immigrants.
He has promised retribution to politicians, judges, election officials and journalists who dared to oppose him.
He has promised to weaponize the Justice Department and end Democracy as we know it.
And just this week he floated the idea of using the military to police the election and hinted that violence may be the only way to assure the election is run fairly.
And here is what is most frightening of all: He could win the election.
None of these abominations are deal-breakers for his supporters.
Poll after poll shows that Trump supporters dismiss the concerns as political rhetoric and on Wednesday a new New York Times/Siena College poll revealed that 41 percent of his supporters simply don't believe he will do the authoritarian things he says he will do, despite the fact he tried to do them in his first term and that the Project 25 authors have already devised a plan and identified the people who could carry it all out.
The conclusion by his supporters is that people who are offended by Trump take his words too seriously.
People like me.
Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster, told the New York Times he found in polling and focus groups that “people think he says things for effect, that he’s blustering, because that’s part of what he does, his shtick. They don’t believe that it’s actually going to happen.”
But what if it does?
Why would anyone take that chance?
For some time, I've viewed Donald Trump's schtick this way: He reminds me of a washed up beloved comedian telling the same old jokes and while the audience laughs, none of it is as entertaining as it used to be.
I believe Trump sees himself that way, too, not as a politician, but as an entertainer who looks for applause.
His torrent of lies in the past couple of weeks are especially disturbing.
So we all continue to treat this as just a normal run-of-the-mill election between a "tax and spend" Democrat and "trickle-down economics" Republican. We all will vote, wait for the results on election night and go about living our lives with whoever becomes president because we really don't believe our freedoms will be at risk.
I can't imagine it either.
Despite that Trump is a real danger, even I, deep in my soul, can't imagine it happening.
That the polls are wrong.
That the American people will once again rise up and do the right thing on Election Day.
That our courts, election officials and law enforcement will protect us.
Because?
Because, well, they always have in the past.
Honestly, that is pretty flimsy logic.
Earlier this year, a reader sent me a copy of Sinclair Lewis' 1930s novel It can happen here about an authoritarian presidential candidate who gets elected in 1930s and and ends our democracy.
It spooked me because of the similarities to Trump and his followers.
I began researching if I could carry dual citizenship in Ireland and the United States because my mother was born in Belfast.
I contemplated offshore bank accounts to protect my assets.
And I wondered if it was time to finish the research for the book I want to do on my parents' romance by being in Belfast on January 20.
Just in case.
Writing that now, it sounds like the ridiculous rantings of an old paranoid man.
But is it?
There is a letter to the editor in the newspaper today that sings the praises of Rep. Elise Stefanik and all the good she has done as our congresswoman the past 10 years, how she grew up in the district and is one of us. From what I could see, not a word of it was true and yet the newspaper allowed it to be printed.
General Mark Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, says in Bob Woodward's new book that Trump is "fascist to the core.
What does that mean?
According to Miriam Webster it means:
Fascism refers to a way of organizing society with an emphasis of autocratic government, dictatorial leadership, and the suppression of opposition.
So every voter should ask themselves this question before Tuesday, Nov. 5: What if Trump does what he says he will do? That's why Milley also said Trump was the most dangerous person in the world.
Baseball is back
Major League Baseball has revitalized itself as a professional sport this season.
The new pitch clock has pushed the game on the fast track and the average game time has been reduced to just 2 hours and 30 minutes. It was the lowest average time in 40 years.
While the playoff games have been longer so far - too many darn pitching changes - it has been entertaining, especially with the Yankees doing so well.
Hopefully, it has made baseball a little more popular.
Front Page
Thanks again to you faithful readers for supporting Will Doolittle and myself on our continuing journalistic journey.
Continue to spread the word to your friends and acquaintances that commentary and perspective on The Front Page are still important parts of the our citizenry dialogue.
Wine and chocolate
Tickets went on sale recently for the annual Wine and Chocolate event at the Queensbury Hotel.
Last year, approximately 400 people turned out for a fun evening of tasting wine and socializing and it's all for a good cause.
A finer experience
What has become an increasingly special event has "A Finer Experience" the night before the Wine and Chocolate event.
If you want a truly fine dining experience from the great chefs of the future, you have to experience "A finer Experience" where SUNY Adirondack Culinary Arts students pair wines with food in a truly special dining experience.
Tickets are $155 and sell out fast.
To reserve your spot, contact the Chapman Museum at 518 793-2826.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
As a dual US-Afghan citizen I would appreciate all of you to doing me a favor and voting for Kamala Harris.
When all is said and done, the problem our country faces is not Elise Stefanik, or even Donald Trump. It's ourselves.
No matter who wins the 2024 presidential election, we'll still be a divided country when it comes to certain American values. Values like resolving political differences through voting, rather than through threats of force and violence. Values like accepting the results of an election. Values like the peaceful transfer of government power.
If we as a country maintained these values in principle and practice, people like Donald Trump and Elise Stefanik could never be tolerated as candidates for office. But they're not only tolerated, they're revered.
This division is strange to me, because even as individuals with different political beliefs, we have much more in common than what divides us. But here we are.
So yes, we're on the precipice of possibly electing a man who does not recognize our basic American values of democracy, free elections, and civil politics. But it's more concerning that such a man has the support of half of our country. Our country facilitated Trump's political rise.
What does that say about our country? What does that say about us?