We had those big, thick Sears-Roebuck and J.C. Penny catalogs. Glossy pages, in color, beautiful, marvelous catalogs. And for several weeks during the late, late, fall, we would cart those catalogs around like little old Sunday school teachers, guarding their bibles. The best was on Saturday mornings, when we were allowed to have waffles, or pancakes, and we could eat in the dining room with the cartoons playing on the TV. We’d sit on the floor along the bare wall with those catalogs sprawled open on our laps, ink pens in hand, and we’d begin the careful process of selection.
It was the most exciting, engaging, powerful task a four-year-old could ever imagine, flipping through the pages, and back again, comparing items, analyzing the possibilities, making very small check marks, flipping back again. And then finally, after many weeks, and much deliberation, the final marks were made. Three circles with your initials by them, and a #1, #2, #3. And then it was over. The choices had been made, and now was the wait until Christmas morning.
Most of the time, “Santa” would bring us what we had carefully denoted in the catalog.
But there was one year. One year. I didn’t get any of my picks. Not one. I was crushed. Disappointed. I was in complete dismay.
And this?
This was the Iowa Caucus.
How could this have happened? Today was supposed to be like Christmas morning, with my #1, #2, and my #3 picks, bursting through the finish line tape.
And there were no results at all. Like Santa didn’t even come down that dagnabbin’ chimney.
This plays right in to Trumps might and force in his likeliness of re-election. He has long said the Democratic Party is a bunch of bumbling, doddering numbskulls. I’m beginning to wonder. Iowa is saying there were inconsistencies in the results. Blah, blah, blah.
Apparently, there is NOT an app for that.
I can only say that this is more than disappointing, for all of us, who are so tired of the tumult and the mayhem of President Twitter. This feels like a crushing blow. Like, right out of the blocks, our runners all fell, and the other guy is already 99 yards down the track in a 100 yard dash.
There’s no removing the damage that’s been done to viability of the Democratic party. And all those Independent voters across the nation, not knowing which way to turn?
As they say in Star Wars,
“I just felt a huge shift in the Force.”
But late this evening, the results are finally trickling in from Iowa, with Mayor Pete edging ahead.
Now we look toward New Hampshire, and the rest. Let’s get out our fingers and toes. Or anything else that will do the counting, that counts.
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“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
― George W. Bush
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“It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system.”
― Dan Quayle
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“I would have made a good pope.”
― Richard Nixon
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