In my last three posts I have tried to layout my perspective on how we have gotten to this level of political divide. As I indicated in my last three posts, I think the country started down this path in 1992 with the election of Bill Clinton and the Clinton’s use of the term a “vast right wing conspiracy to describe the Republicans and some of the main stream media. It has continued through the Bush and Obama presidencies that all culminated with the election of Donald Trump. In this post, I will focus on the Obama presidency.

The primaries in 2008 were considerably different for the two parties. The main candidates entering the primaries were John McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee on the Republican side and Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama on the Democratic side.

For the Republican’s, John McCain entered the primaries as the front runner. McCain was a conservative to moderate Senator from Arizona that had tended to be a maverick during his time in the Senate. McCain regularly bucked the party on key votes. He was disliked by the conservative wing of the party because of some of his moderate stances. His two main challengers were Mitt Romney, the moderate governor of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee, the conservative right wing Governor of Arkansas. After some early challenges in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, McCain was able to substantially secure the nomination on Super Tuesday.

McCain, in an effort to appease the conservative wing of the party, choose Sarah Palin, the largely unknown Alaska Governor. It turned out to be a horrible choice that the Democrats were able to exploit during the general election. Palin proved to be a very weak Vice President candidate. Her knowledge of basic workings of the Senate and Congress combined with her total lack of knowledge on foreign policy badly hurt the ticket. In Interviews she came across as a proverbial “deer in the headlights”. McCain was endorsed by President Bush but since Bush and McCain did not agree on many issues, Bush did not campaign for McCain and did not appear at the convention. This tepid support from the Bush wing of the party cost McCain in the general election. Many conservatives did not show up at the polls.

The Democratic primaries were surprisingly competitive and became quite contentious. At the start of the primary season, most Democrats believed that Hilary Clinton would cruise to the nomination. Before the primaries even started, she had lined up the endorsement of most of the key part leaders. The party, in an effort to ensure her nomination, had created a category of “super delegates” that were not part of the delegates won in the state primaries. This group was largely committed to Clinton thus giving her a large advantage entering the primaries. Despite the efforts to “tilt” the nomination in her favor, the nomination did not work out that way.

Barack Obama, a first term Senator from Illinois entered the primaries as a long shot candidate. He was considered to inexperienced and liberal to win the nomination much less a general election. Many people also thought that his name and Muslim background would hurt him. Obama though, mounted an aggressive campaign, presenting himself as a “new generation” Democrat who could attract a new coalition of people to the party. He did very well in both Iowa and New Hampshire and with that momentum behind him did very well on Super Tuesday. The rest of the primaries were a battle with Clinton and Obama splitting up the vote but slowly Obama was able to win the nomination.

Obama was a very effective campaigner while McCain came across as old and a part of the past generation. Obama came across as having a lot of fresh ideas. He was a darling of the media who saw him as dynamic and the leader of a new generation of political leaders. McCain expected the media to view him favorably because he had always enjoyed favorable coverage, but that was primarily because they saw him as a maverick who bucked the party. This changed when he became the nominee. The selection of Sarah Palin proved to be a significant mistake. She came across as being “in over her head” and was a disaster in interviews. Obama easily won the general election with almost 53% of the vote and 365 electoral votes.

Obama took office in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Depression. It had started in the last year of the Bush presidency. It resulted from the crash of the real estate market. The banking and mortgage markets largely seized up because of aggressive liberal granting of mortgages by banks. It resulted in several high profile investment firms and banks filing for bankruptcy. There was a great deal of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats to avoid a complete collapse of the financial system.

Obama during the rest of the first two years in office pivoted to health care reform which proved to to be a disaster. Obama decided to try and pass a health care reform overhaul. The way the bill was written and also the ‘selling’ of components the bill were horribly managed, thus allowing the Republicans to define the bill as being a massive government effort to nationalize the health care system. Being in health care myself, there were many components of the bill that were going to improve the health care delivery system mainly through regulatory changes to encourage closer collaboration across the care continuum. The administration did not highlight these aspects of the law. Instead of just reforming health care delivery, they also attempted to enact insurance reform which was a huge mistake. The debate was highly contentious and built on the already highly charge partisan divide.

Health care reform proved to be wildly unpopular due to the tax provisions and the fact that they attempted to reform the commercial insurance market. Many people were convinced that this was an effort to take away their insurance and force them onto public exchanges. The Republican Party was universal in their opposition to the reform effort. The efforts to defeat the bill were at times rancorous and bitter on the part of both parties. This effort and the rancor surrounding it definitely heightened the divide between the two parties. The tea party movement began as a result of health care reform. It was one of the keys to the Republican success in the 2010 mid-terms.

In addition to the health care reform effort, there was some general distrust of Obama. He was the first black President and there was a portion of the population that was not accepting of a black President. There was an effort by a few prominent conservatives, led by Donald Trump, to prove Obama was not a legitimate President due to not being born in the United States and therefore could not run for President. The so called “birther movement” was widely dismissed by most main stream members of both parties.

However, that combined with his appointment of Eric Holder to the position of Attorney General, further led to bitter partisan battles. Holder, in his position as Attorney General pursued an aggressive civil rights agenda. Most controversial was his pursuit of ‘consent decrees’ against several big city police department. These consent decrees basically gave a judge, appointed by the Department of Justice, legal oversight of the operations of these police departments by federal judges selected by the Justice Department. The decrees were generally pursued after high profile police killings of black men during traffic or other types of arrests. The consent decrees were highly unpopular in some communities and despised by the local police departments. The actions by the Justice Department under Holder elevated the level of bi-partisan rancor and further contributed to the political divide.

Republicans were able to seize on this to their political advantage. During the period leading up to the mid-term elections in 2010, general dissatisfaction with Obama and the Democrats led to the rise of the tea party movement that aggressively protested the health care reform law. The Republicans were able to take control of both the Senate and House in a landslide. Republicans were able to gain six Senate seats and 63 Congressional seats. Several current Congress members in the Freedom Caucus were elected in this Republican landslide. The Freedom Caucus made up primarily of conservatives has been a constant source of contentiousness between Republicans and Democrats

The rest of Obama’s first term was defined by continuous battles between the Democrat administration and the Republican controlled Senate and Congress. The battles over the budget in 2011 led to a government shut down that lasted for several days. There were on going battles over Obama’s attempts to pass climate change legislation and other bills that were views held by the liberal wing of the Democratic party.

By the latter part of of 2011, Obama had steadied his presidency and moved into 2012 in much better shape in the polls. He had been able to negotiate the Paris Climate Accord, had ordered the mission that resulted in the killing of Osama Bin Laden and implemented the provisions of the health care reform. He was able to somewhat easily beat Mitt Romney the Republican nominee in the general election. The Democrats were able to win back control of the Senate. This allowed Obama to appoint two liberal women, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Obama’s second term was much like the first term. There continued to be intense partisan squabbles over efforts to recover from the Great Recession, the withdrawal from Iraq and other efforts to implement some type of immigration. Obama was able to codify the DACA program that helped keep Illegals that had been born in the US maintain their citizenship.

It was this growing battle over immigration that Donald Trump used as a key to firing up his base as he entered the Presidential race in 2015. In my next post, I will cover the Trump presidency and how it ruptured the political divide.

In 1996, Fox News went on the air. Up to that point, CNN was the dominant and almost sole cable news outlet . CNN went on the air in 1980 and was the first 24 hour news channel. During the 1980’s and early 1990’s, it was viewed as a trusted news source that did not get into partisan preferences. The news division of CNN was well respected with what most people saw as respected reporters that gave a balanced view of the news. There was a perception that they were somewhat liberal but not partisan.

The creation of Fox News with Roger Ailes as the CEO, created a conservative alternative to the mainstream media, NPR and CNN. There was a core of the country that the elite leaders of the media were out of touch with mainstream Americans. In a short period, Fox tapped into a core of the country that wanted an alternative news source. Fox News was a ratings success with such commentators as conservative and sometimes controversial Bill O’Reilly and Shawn Hannity, Fox became a ratings and financial success. They represented a conservative view that many people related to. As a result to compete, CNN seemed to have no choice but to begin moving their coverage to the left.

Fox News was successful because it was able to tap into a general frustration on the part of many conservatives that began to grow after the 2000 election. The view that election was ‘stolen’ by a conservative Supreme Court that both CNN and the three major mainstream media, NBC, CBS and ABC became a rallying cry for Republicans. It cemented conservatives view that the mainstream media and CNN “tilted” the coverage in favor of the Democrats. The Bush presidency was a time that saw both Fox and CNN begin to adopt the views of their viewers and was the beginning, I think, of the move to the partisan divide that we have now. Fox became the “voice” for the conservative Republicans and CNN became the “voice” of the Democrats.

The major media had a generally dim view of George W. Bush and his approach to the presidency. The Bush-Gore election, which was essentially decided by the Supreme Court, splintered the country and most of the media portrayed Bush as not being an legitimately elected President. Many portrayed Bush as not being very bright and, in effect, made it seem as if Dick Cheney was the de facto president. The Bush presidency was probably the first example of the legitimacy of a duly elected President being called into question by many Democrats and the major mainstream media including CNN. The portrayal of George Bush as an illegitimate President, would eventually contribute to the same portrayal of Donald Trump’s election as be illegitimate.

The only break in this partisan divide was with the 9/11 attacks. The country and the media pulled together and helped us through the most horrific attack since Pearl Harbor. Gone on the nightly news was the partisan sniping that had begun to occur on a nightly basis. The media focused solely on the impacts that all Americans felt from this violent attack. However, unfortunately, the decision by George Bush to invade Iraq in 2003, based on a faulty premise that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD’s) led us back to and worsened the partisan divide. Much of the CNN and Democrat attacks were launched against Dick Cheney, Bush’s Vice President and his desire to take down Saddam Hussein.

The severity of the divide continued to simmer through much of the Bush presidency. In my next post, I will examine the explosion of the divide with the election of Barack Obama.

I watch the news every day lately and it leaves me dismayed and trying to determine how we got to this point. I will take a stab over the next few posts to articulate my thoughts on how we arrived at this critical point in our country’s history. There are so many points in the last 20-30 years that have contributed to this current culture. It is impossible to articulate all of this in a few paragraphs. I think we can still recover from this type of period but it is not something that happens overnight.

When Ronald Reagan left office in 1988, it felt like the country overall was united, and, while there were disagreements, they were mostly on policy and it felt like overall, our leaders could come together and find common agreement. The Senate and largely the house were both made up largely of moderates that routinely worked together to find compromise. I believe that even during George HW Bush’s presidency, that dynamic still existed. It seems like the first fissures began to appear in our political culture during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

In the first two years of the Clinton presidency, he introduced the first effort to change the health care system. The effort was actually spearheaded by Hillary Clinton and was wildly unpopular with the Republican Party. This was probably the first time since the Nixon presidency that an issue began to divide members of Congress along party lines with no ability to find compromise. The plan divided the Democratic party which ultimately led to its demise.

The divide was erupted even further during the Clinton Whitewater scandal and the Lewinsky affair that led to Clinton’s impeachment. As with the Trump impeachment, Clinton’s was along a party line vote. That was what resulted in the Clinton’s first using a term, “vast right wing conspiracy” that would begin to severely Divide the parties and reduce their ability to work together going forward.

In my next few posts, I will further explore how we have gotten to the point where we are so divided, including the Bush-Gore election, the establishment of Fox News, the growth of the Christian Conservative movement, the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street, Obama’s election and presidency, health care reform and how that ultimately led to the election of Donald Trump and the current fracture in the country.

This Sunday is Mothers Day. I am very lucky to have 2 incredible examples of Mothers in my life, my mother and my wife. My mother lived an extraordinary life and influenced a number of lives beyond our family. Mom died in 2019 at the age of 89.

My mom lost both of her parents before the age of 6. She was raised by her great grandmother. She never let losing her parents that young age affect how she approached life. It always seemed like whatever went on in our day to day lives, mom always found a way to find the bright spot. In her mid 30’s, mom decided to go back to college to get her teaching degree.

She went to work at Western High School as a history teacher at the age of 40. A couple of years later, she agreed to coach the women’s track program. She coached the team for about the next 15 years. During he coaching career, she had several girls win state titles. She was such a positive influence on so many girls during career as a coach and teacher.

In the early 80’s, mom became the meet director for the women’s high school division for the Mason Dixon Games, a major indoor meet. In addition she began working toward becoming an internationally certified track and field official. After retiring to Florida, both my mom and dad continued officiating meets. In the course of about 25 years, they officiated more that 20 NCAA track meets, 3 Olympic Trials and so many other meets it was hard to keep track. Her career as an official culminated in being chosen to officiate the Para Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. Mom was inducted into the track and field Hall of Fame in both Kentucky and Florida. She was truly an amazing women

My wife, Erma and I met at a health care conference in October 1995 in Nashville. It literally was love at first sight. She is beautiful, kind, giving and accomplished.

Erma had a 45 year career in health care management that was filled with many professional accomplishments. She was a great mentor and motivator who was universally respected by employees and other management. I believe that was due to her high degree of integrity.

In her personal life, she is a wonderful mother and grandmother. That was part of my attraction to her was seeing how important her kids were to her. She cares about them deeply.

I am very lucky to have met her. She has always been there for me through all the highs and lows No matter what the situation is, she can always find a way to see the positive. Her smile has helped get me through the worst of times. I love her deeply.

I recently downloaded Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless The USA” onto my Apple Music collection. I first heard this song right after 9/11. The first time I heard it was at our church on the Sunday morning after 9/11. Everyone sang the song at the top of their lungs and held hands in a show of unity. I will explain later in another post why it meant so much to me at the time.

For the next six months, you almost could not turn on the radio without hearing that song. I was at a conference about three months after 9/11, and at the opening session of the conference they had every attendee stand and sing the song. In my lifetime, I cannot recall any period when the country felt so united. Over the last several years, we, as a country, have definitely seen a fraying of that pride in the United States.

I thought that it would be a good time to remind everyone of the resilience of our country. Right now we are deeply divided. There are a lot of factors that contribute to the division. The rise of 24 hour cable news networks, that in some ways you could actually call cable opinion channels because they have a limited number of actual news programs. Social media has also played a huge role in creating divisions. You can search the internet and social media and find sites that support your opinion, however bizarre, that opinion is. This has further contributed to the division within the country.

As I think about the current level of division, I am reminded that the country has gone through worse divisions in its past. We were created by division. The Civil War, the depression, World War II, the 1960’s and the Vietnam war, the financial crisis of the late 2010’s and now. We have always as a country found our way out of these divisions. I agree with a couple of my friends that the current makes it more difficult than past situations, but I have all the confidence that we will weather the current divisions and come out on the other side of this a better country.

If you doubt that download the Lee Greenwood and it will boost your spirits and love of our country.

As I mentioned in my “Proud Grandparents” post a couple of weeks ago, our grandson Owen was competing in the USASA National Ski Competition on Copper Mtn., CO this week. We are so proud of what Owen accomplished at the competition. He finished 18th out of the 64 competitors that qualified for Nationals in the 13-14 age group. Below is video from his first run in the Slopestyle competition. He has made tremendous progress during the last year. We are excited to see where he goes from here

I suspect that this blog post may be controversial to some people but that is part of why I started blogging. As the CEO of a company, I was never able to share my opinions on various topics for fear that there would be backlash against the company for my views. Now that I am retired, I feel more free to share my opinions. I believe that we are too frequently unwilling to have a respectful discussion of controversial topics and potentially agree to disagree on our views.

There is a great deal being written and said by the media, celebrities and major corporations about the recently passed legislation in Florida, the Florida Parental Rights bill. I will only refer to it only by its real name not by what many people opposed to the bill are choosing to use which is a misrepresentation of what is in the bill. Also, this post is not about whether I support or oppose LBTQ+ rights. Everyone has a right to be what they want to be in this country. It is more about how any debate about a controversial topic in this country can be distorted by so many people on both sides of the discussion.

I am attaching a copy of the actual bill to this blog. Before you provide an opinion please read the full bill.

I don’t have all the answers for when you start teaching kids about sex and their “options” for what they choose to be as adults but the reason this bill was passed was due the desire of some people in the education community to begin teaching about sex and different “options” on kindergarten and grade school level. I may not have the answer for when is appropriate to teach this, but kindergarten and first grade is not the appropriate grade level.

The above image is from the NJ education department. This is a lesson plan for what to teach First Graders!! This is the sort of lessons that prompted the legislature in FL to pass the legislation. I support that decision. I would pull my child out of any school that thought this was appropriate to teach my first grader.

We have four grandkids. We are very proud of all of them. They each have unique interest. One set of grandkids live in the Atlanta area. The other family lives in New Hampshire. We enjoy spending as much time with both families even though they both live so far away.

Our youngest grandson in New Hampshire has been skiing since he was 3 years old. By the age of 5, he was doing black diamond moguls. He started doing slope style and rail jams competitively when he was 9. He has consistently been ranked near the top of the national rankings in each age group since he started to compete. He is now 13.

Each year he has progressed in his abilities and skills. He has incorporated 1330 spins and jumps into his runs. He was supposed to go to Canada last year to train on airbags the flips and other techniques that would have taken his runs to another level but COVID cancelled that training. As a result, he has had to work with a coach to try and learn on his own without the benefit of the airbags.

He recently completed his first backflip in practice. He has also completed some other flips. As you can see by his reaction, he was pumped. He is working on incorporating them into his runs. He leaves Friday to compete in the Nationals at Copper Mountain in Colorado.