Finneran: All In The Family

Friday, December 16, 2016

Tom Finneran, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

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Oh God, families are weird. Funny too. It’s not limited to Archie and Edith Bunker and their “Meathead” son-in-law............

Most of us have several families. The one we were born into. Then there’s the one we married into. Then there are the families our children married into. Then there are the families of our children. One hopes that the love and laughter of all our families far outweigh the occasional fights. 

At some point you’ve seen enough of this thing called the human family and then you die. As for those whose faith promises eternal life, consider the fact that death will offer no respite from family lunacy. Rather, we’ll have “eternal joy” with our loved ones. Upon reflection, I hope that heaven has lots of beaches for long solitary walks............................

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Maureen Dowd, she of the red hair and flaming liberalism of the New York Times, has triggered these thoughts of “all in the family” fun and games. A recent Dowd column had me rolling on the floor in post-election merriment. Apparently her brother Kevin does not share the same political view as his well-known sister and he drilled the Democrats in mourning right between the eyes. For an LOL read of his Obama/Clinton report card, read on:

“Donald Trump pulled off one of the greatest political feats in modern history by defeating Hillary Clinton and the vaunted Clinton machine.

The election was a complete repudiation of Barack Obama: his fantasy world of political correctness, the politicization of the Justice Department and the I.R.S., an out-of-control E.P.A., his neutering of the military, his nonsupport of the police and his fixation on things like transgender bathrooms. Since he became president, his party has lost 63 House seats, 10 Senate seats and 14 governorships.

The country had signaled strongly in the last two midterms that they were not happy. The Dems’ answer was to give them more of the same from a person they did not like or trust.

Preaching — and pandering — with a message of inclusion, the Democrats have instead become a party where incivility and bad manners are taken for granted, rudeness is routine, religion is mocked and there is absolutely no respect for a differing opinion. This did not go down well in the Midwest, where Trump flipped three blue states and 44 electoral votes.

The rudeness reached its peak when Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed by attendees of “Hamilton” and then pompously lectured by the cast. This may play well with the New York theater crowd but is considered boorish and unacceptable by those of us taught to respect the office of the president and vice president, if not the occupants.

Here is a short primer for the young protesters. If your preferred candidate loses, there is no need for mass hysteria, canceled midterms, safe spaces, crying rooms or group primal screams. You might understand this better if you had not received participation trophies, undeserved grades to protect your feelings or even if you had a proper understanding of civics. The Democrats are now crying that Hillary had more popular votes. That can be her participation trophy.

If any of my sons had told me they were too distraught over a national election to take an exam, I would have brought them home the next day, fearful of the instruction they were receiving. Not one of the top 50 colleges mandate one semester of Western Civilization. Maybe they should rethink that.

Mr. Trump received over 62 million votes, not all of them cast by homophobes, Islamaphobes, racists, sexists, misogynists or any other “ists.” I would caution Trump deniers that all of the crying and whining is not good preparation for the coming storm. The liberal media, both print and electronic, has lost all credibility. I am reasonably sure that none of the mainstream print media had stories prepared for a Trump victory. I watched the networks and cable stations in their midnight meltdown.

The media’s criticism of Trump’s high-level picks as “not diverse enough” or “too white and male” — a day before he named two women and offered a cabinet position to an African-American — magnified this fact.

Here is a final word to my Democratic friends. The election is over. There will not be a do-over. So let me bid farewell to Al Sharpton, Ben Rhodes and the Clintons. Note to Cher, Barbra, Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham: Your plane is waiting. And to Jon Stewart, who talked about moving to another planet: Your spaceship is waiting. To Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z, Beyoncé and Katy Perry, thanks for the free concerts. And finally, to all the foreign countries that contributed to the Clinton Foundation, there will not be a payoff or a rebate.

As Eddie Murphy so eloquently stated in the movie “48 Hrs.”: “There’s a new sheriff in town.” And he is going to be here for 1,461 days. Merry Christmas.”

So wrote Kevin Dowd to his famous sister............those Irish brothers sure know how to tease their Irish sisters. As if his little essay was not quite enough of a painful critique, the rest of Maureen’s clan decided to serve “Trump wine” at the family gathering. I wish I had been there.

Here’s my bet however---That Miss Dowd herself laughed the longest and the hardest. After all she’s a red-headed Irish girl, legendary for the ability to poke fun at oneself, to see the humor in the midst of life’s troubles, to throw a punch and to take a punch. 

It’s all in the family and I hope that you cherish yours.

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Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.

 

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