Rex Smith

There was a time, back when I was in my 20s, when what seemed to matter most to the American voters who lived around me was the apparent shortage of lids for canning jars. I was working for a Midwestern congressman then, and just about all people talked about across our rural district when they encountered their representative in Congress was – yep! – the canning lid shortage.

Not long ago, along a country road in the Mohawk Valley, I saw what struck me as an odd sight: an Amish fellow driving a tractor. You know, the Amish are known for horse-and-buggy transportation, because of rules in their culture limiting technology that the elders fear could introduce what they consider foreign ideas. So, as I understand it, Amish people can’t drive a car, but they can hire somebody to drive them; and while many Amish communities permit technology powered by 12-volt batteries, none allow 120-volt electricity. So, no, I don’t get the tractor thing.

They say there are no atheists in foxholes, but you sure don’t find them on the campaign trail, either. One of the striking data points in Donald Trump’s march toward a third straight Republican presidential nomination this year is how firmly evangelical Christians have lined up behind him. Of course, the Christian right has been almost entirely Republican for years now – 80 percent of white evangelicals voted Republican in 2020. But some of Trump’s opponents in the party thought that this year, they might be able to peel the church folks away from him. After all, the guy is – just my opinion here, folks – a mean-spirited, philandering, lying, cheating authoritarian who advocates policies that slam the door on refugees and immigrants, that perpetuate racism, and that further the wealth inequity here and abroad.

About four in 10 Americans believe in ghosts, and half of those people say they’ve seen one. I’m not in their camp, but I’ve sometimes found myself wishing to bump into some of those who have left this side of the veil.

In the men’s locker room at the rather posh club just up the street from our state capitol, you’ll find everything that a well-groomed male politician — or anybody who wants to look like one — might need after a workout and a shower: anti-perspirant and hair gel, packages of single-use toothbrushes pre-treated with minty toothpaste, a rack of disposable razors and, notably, a big canister of 8-inch combs soaking in aqua-blue disinfectant. But one day a while back, there were no combs to be found, which I casually mentioned to a longtime lobbyist who was shaving at the next sink.

Last week, in honor of the new year, I published a column laying out some good news – which I’ve tried to do regularly during my 40 or so years in the news business. Maybe it’s to sort of counter the perception that we folks in the media only care about bad news.

Have you noticed that these days, everything seems to have to be so important? Like, there’s suddenly a lot of commentary saying that a “sea change” is at hand – as though every new year doesn’t bring change, or every new day, for that matter. But a respected economist for Bloomberg News wrote the other day that a “sea change” is afoot in interest rate forecasts, and a political analyst said the 2024 elections will produce a “sea change.” And the more I heard of that, the more familiar it sounded. So I checked, and, sure enough, a year ago, we were being told that 2023 would bring a “sea change” for China policy, higher education and the investment climate.

I spent many years as a newspaper editor, and one of my favorite tasks during the last couple decades was picking the winning entry in our annual children’s holiday art contest – that is, a child’s drawing or painting which would become a sort of greeting card on our front page on Christmas Day. Of course, this being the United States of America, the task was soon invaded by politics. You may say that it was my own fault, because on one particular Christmas Eve a dozen or so years ago, I ordered up a tiny red caption atop a child’s sweet drawing of a Christmas tree. The caption said, “HAPPY HOLIDAYS.”

Some people you might consider experts believe we’re witnessing the beginning of the end of American democracy, with the leading Republican candidate for president openly talking about authoritarian actions he would take if he returns to the White House, and America shrinking from the task of protecting democracy in Europe.

Last month I participated in a seminar on “Why the Separation of Powers Matters.” What fun, right? Separation of powers is a topic that you just know is important but, given how short life surely is, that was an event that you might find an excuse to avoid. Still, there’s a lot to be said about the way our Constitution divides power among Congress and the President and the Supreme Court. It's not at all boring – really!