Nostrovia! Here’s to you and here's to me. A thought on the last 17 days.

 

Nostrovia! 

At parties, my friend Chris Hanson used to toast,

“Here’s to you, and here’s to me.

Sometimes we may disagree, but here’s to you, and here’s to me.

After which he’d shout “Nostrovia!” meaning “To your Health.”

Followed by a joyous “F..king A,” as we tossed back champagne.

Chris left us in 2015. I wonder what he’d think of the last 10 years.

As a consultant, I’ve learned to not talk politics with my republican clients. However, as a lifelong democrat, I was always honest about my liberal and progressive views.

When I believe I am right. I will fight for my point of view.

However, when I am wrong. I will admit it.

I’ve learned what a mistake it is to be brutally honest or to burn your bridges.

My philosophy has been, to try to respect you and your way of life, even when we disagree.  

That way, I could still like and certainly enjoy my friends' company.

However, what we disagree on is expanding as what we can agree on seems to be shrinking.

When did lies and opinions become an alternative facts and scientific truths?

Was it in 2015 when Trump came down the escalator?

Or, did it start before Trump?

In the 1990s McConnell defeated campaign-finance reform and the floodgates opened.

How about in 2010 when McConnell declared, “one and done,” meaning the senate wouldn’t pass any of Obama’s bills, and denied a hearing let alone a vote on Obama’s supreme court nominee.

What about in 2020 when McConnell vowed to block all Democratic legislative efforts, saying, “Even if I feel it’s a good bill. They shall have no victories.”

After all of that, I hoped the world was slowly returning to sanity.

Then came the election in November.

And now the chaos and farce of the last 17 days.

It feels like the country has gone insane.

It is true you can’t erase history, however signs of our history can be covered or removed like portraits in the Pentagon and CIA. Books can be burned and history can be rewritten.

A riot becomes a rally. A traitor becomes a patriot.

Ask yourself, how similar is the intended outcome of the 2025 plan to Orwell’s 1984.

Can the courts really stop a leader who doesn’t care?

A leader who demands that networks, reporters, and ordinary citizens be investigated for their truth telling and opposition to the leader's lawlessness, corruption, and overt power grab. 

I doubt Trump ever read 1984, so perhaps we will be spared the “Thought Police.”

Still, perhaps, all this is better left unsaid or at least unwritten.

I hope at least among friends I can still toast, “Nostrovia! To Your Health.”

Because the alternative is “Here’s to you and here’s to me, and if we disagree, F..k you.”