There is so much running through my head, feeling helpless as most Americans should feel in these trying times, as I am drowning in obscurity, struggling with the “Us versus Them” syndrome of public indulgence. Like the President, I take to Twitter to share my thoughts, taking care not to attack another human being by calling names as to their principles or beliefs. Recently, I commented on a tweet by @JudgeJeanine in her use of the word snowflake in her description of a significant portion of the American population. My growing concern is with her language, likening it to a fire-spewing dragon following an oil tanker. Therefore, when you want your followers to jell and believe in you to infinity, add a joke adjective to your commentary. Like a dog whistle, in politics, the adjective serves as an adhesive, the gum, the bonding agent of we versus them. It’s a rhetorical strategy, attacking a person’s character, motive, or some other attribute rather than discussing the substance of the argument itself. No doubt she would call me a snowflake if my beliefs conflicted with Her’s. Nothing is funny about the 22 years of my life in the military with an oath to defend Judge Pirro’s right to free speech. “Loose lips can sink ships.”

The seeds of dysfunction are planted, germinating, and becoming normalized. The human nature of defensiveness sets in, and partisanship becomes deadlocked. We are in a pickle. The only ones who can change these spontaneous discourses are “We the People,” not the headliners of demagoguery. If we, the people, actually believe in The Preamble to the Constitution, we don’t attend church to learn the art of degradation.

  Henry Lee Faulkner, Chief Navy Counselor, US Navy Ret.

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Guidance Against the Odds ©2016