If the most important presidential election of our lifetime were a realty television show it would be Jerry Springer not Dancing With The Stars.
For readers who’ve never seen the Jerry Springer Show, it highlights the seamier side of America’s collective character. Guests were everyday people confronted on a television stage by a spouse or family member’s adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, transvestism, hate group membership, or other controversial situations before a screaming audience of cheerers or hissers depending on whose side they took. These confrontations were often promoted by scripted shouting or violence on stage.
But this presidential election is not George Bush’s thousand points of light or Barack Obama’s ability to inspire the nation. It’s more like our country drunkenly urinating at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Have we no respect?
These thoughts came to me recently when I received a call from Glenn Nocera, the Republican, Conservative and Independent Party Candidate running against Democratic and Working Families Party Candidate Robert “Bobby” Carroll for the open 44th Assembly District seat left vacant as longtime Assembly Member Jim Brennan is retiring.
Besides being a candidate for the assembly, Nocera is also the president of the Brooklyn Tea Party and a huge Donald Trump supporter who has signs in his window and on the front lawn of the Kensington house he shares with his sister.
Nocera wanted to know if I would cover the fact that his family home is being terrorized by a person and/or people, who have repeatedly ripped down his Trump signs and egged his house.
“I posted what happened on the Kensington Facebook page, and a handful of people said sorry but quite a few people didn’t,” said Nocera. “You don’t see me knocking down Hillary Cinton signs. Everyone should respect everyone’s views and act like human beings toward each other and not destroy people’s property. It’s really disgusting. At the end of the day I feel like I’m in a third world place and can’t express them myself. This shouldn’t happen in our country.”
I asked Nocera if he thought his house was possibly attacked because of Trumps incendiary comments about immigrants and others, and about people who opposed him were beaten and attacked at Trump rallies.
Nocera responded that the people who were attacked were professional provocateurs that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) sent to Trump rallies to incite violence. However, he did admit this is the first time vandals had struck his house despite also putting up poster of John McCain right years ago and Mitt Romney four years ago when they ran against Barrack Obama.
Hillary, on the other hand, is and should be an inspiration for women, but behind her all-too-often smug smile are the markings of the wink-wink, wait-your-turn insider status for which the Democratic Party has a growing and well-earned reputation.
And now as we’re on the brink of choosing the new leader of the free world, Team Clinton is rightfully worried about the Black vote. She’s even brought in the big guns – Beyonce, Jay-Z and LeBron James to share some stage time with her. And she has reason to fear not getting a large Black vote turnout because she has never really done much to earn the Black vote. But at least for now, a majority of Blacks would buy the Brooklyn Bridge if Democrats were selling it.
Then again as a Jew, I’d be insane to vote for Trump. For any Jew that knows his history should know that when a political leader starts bashing groups like immigrants, Muslims or Hispanics they’ve got to know Jews aren’t far down that list.
So in the end, I’ll hold my nose and vote for Hillary in the hope that if she wins she’ll step up to the presidential plate and rise to the position.
And if she doesn’t then one of the greatest things about American democracy will come into play. In four years, we’ll have another election.
And hopefully we’ll get it right next time, and have candidates for which we can again be proud.
