What makes a great politician?

[L Verge]

I think Kate's and David's feelings are already hurt, Gene, but fighting back and expressing their viewpoints is how they deal with it -- just like most of us who care deeply about things (especially the future of our country). I just want to add my two-cents in saying that I would never trust any comments printed in either the NY Times or the Washington Post. In fact, as most of you know by now, I don't trust 90% of the media, and I keep my radar up on the other 10%.

Going to college in the 1960s, I was exposed to a lot of liberal professors and radical thinkers who were hopping from one venue to the other, and I still accuse them and others of starting the downhill slide that we are still in. I did have one U.S. history prof, however, who was young and feisty; and he's the one who warned us every step of the way to beware the mainline media. He accused them of establishing the Fourth Estate in our culture and being determined to sway thoughts instead of reporting facts. It has been 55 years since I was in that class, but his words still ring in my ears when I listen to or read so much of what comes through the media.

My thoughts (and then I'll try to shut up) are that Kate is correct in saying that President Trump was referring to countries with severe cultural problems - not races or individuals themselves. Again, the media today is trained to flip out the race card immediately whenever the opportunity arises. Unfortunately, more and more citizens are using the same technique.

David quoted Paul Ryan as being from an Irish background. I just did a lengthy article in the Surratt Courier on the history of the lowly potato (yes, the potato!). At least 50% of the article pertained to the effect that the spud had on Irish history and the resulting immigration into the U.S. in the 1840s and 1850s - immigration that resulted in clashes of culture, religion, gangs, etc. that lasted for years as the American culture tried to assimilate the Irish.

This is the same issue that President Trump is referring to today, imo. We know that the Irish ended up being an integral part of our society, but it wasn't easy for either them or the entrenched U.S. citizens. Much of the same has gone on over the past 20 years with the Latino immigration. I have lovely Latino friends, but I also live in the DC suburbs which are heavily plagued by MS-13 gangs. And, while the media here is attacking President Trump on his immigration views, they are also screaming and giving front page coverage to the atrocities being committed by such gangs. It seems that everything has to be sensationalism today.

As for quotes from various politicians - either inside the Oval Office or hiding in their offices on Capitol Hill, they are above all else, politicians with a desire to keep being politicians. Therefore, a great majority of them will say what they think their constituents (or big corporations) want them to say in order to get re-elected. They don't worry about doing their elected duties and trying to solve some of the problems already upon us before we even bring on new ones.

Those are my thoughts and I'm sticking to them and hope that I have not offended too many of you.