Lee and Byron Stookey

Trump excels at fueling a backward revolution

Revolutions rarely are fomented by the people at the bottom. They're fomented by people who sense that things could be different. And that is true whether the revolution is forward looking or backward.

What President Donald Trump has shrewdly fueled is a backward revolution, rallying people who vividly sense how things used to be different. They are neither the down-and-out nor minorities. The angry people at Trump rallies are largely white, blue-collar men with little college education, supported by wives who share their husbands' attachment to traditional order.

And what the men have lost in the course of two generations is self-respect: self-respect that once inoculated them against fear of minorities or immigrants and resentment of liberal elites.

Most noted have been the effects of changes in work. Increasingly since the 1960s:...

Read More

Bernie’s history lesson: free tuition not revolutionary

Bernie Sanders said recently: “When we make public colleges and universities free [we are saying to every child that if they] study hard, take school seriously, they will be able to get a college education regardless of the income of their families.” “That is revolutionary and will transform our...

Read More

Sharing the pain

In her March 2 article (“Not in their backyard after all”), Olga Peters did a careful job of describing the outcome of our South Main Street project.  However, we would like to make one clarification: our losses would indeed have been about $21,000, but, thanks to Stevens & Associates'

Read More