(Written in a Down East accent)

Now, I don’t often choose to explain to folks in detail exactly what my politics are. For one thing, if I’m going to write honestly about the issues and try to tell you the facts of the matter, my politics don’t make any difference; truth is truth, and politics (as we all know) is something else entirely — and I’m here to tell the truth. If it disagrees with my position, it might just be I’ll end up changing my position, which is the way it ought to be.

The other thing is, if you’ve read much of what I write, the way I feel on the issues ought to be pretty apparent by now, so if you don’t get it you’re obviously not reading, and why should I give a hoot what you think of me anyhow?

For the past four years I’ve had people thinking I’m a secret Trump lover and closet Republican, for all that I’ve expressed myself — and quite cogently, I feel — in favor of massive healthcare reform followed by Medicare For All, and then for some sort of rent reform followed by the institution of a Universal Basic Income. I approve of opening up immigration on the theory that the Social Security fund is running dry and it can use all the help it can get, and that means increasing the labor pool. I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, and I illustrate why by explaining that drug dealers resisting arrest is exactly the sort of tyranny the Founders intended we fight back against. If any of that sounds like a Trump Republican, I guess I’d like you to tell me which one.

And now that Trump’s out of office — yes, I’ve heard that Q or QAnon or whoever he is says Trump’s still president in secret, but I guess now Biden’s done his first State of the Union that ship has pretty much sailed — there’s a bunch of Republicans upset with me that I’m not giving Biden a harder time. There’s also quite a few Democrats who are seriously pissed off at how hard a time I’m giving the Biden Administration. I guess there’s not many people happy with me right now, and that’s fine, because I’m not here to make people happy, not so much. That’s the thing about the truth: You don’t get to pick and choose. A thing is either true or it’s not.

And the truth of the matter is, Biden may not be accomplishing all that much, but on the other hand right now we’re in a hole and there’s only just so much digging you want a fellow to do when you’re already in this deep. The fact that he can’t seem to get things done might just be a point in his favor whether he deserves credit or not.

Yes, I know: There’s vaccines going out by the millions every day. He didn’t set that up; it took a year to develop them, and the funds were already allocated — and even Congress isn’t going to sit by and refuse to pay. COVID cases are dropping from four months ago, but they were already well on the way down by the time Trump left office; that’s the doing of neither one of them. People are putting out Help Wanted signs, but they’d be doing that no matter who sits in the Oval. It’s time, and folks know it, and the best thing the President can do is stay the hell out of the way — which he’s doing, even if not exactly by choice.

For the rest of it, so long as there’s politics involved, I’ll continue to cheer on the good decisions and condemn the bad ones, no matter who’s making them.

It’s like the old farmer who noticed his well water was tasting funny, so he sent it off to get tested. Well, the state engineer came down himself to inspect the place, and he noticed the well was awful close to the septic tank. He told the farmer, “Either you can stop using the well, or you have to stop using that cess pool.” The farmer figured he could live without the indoor plumbing, but he needed the water, so he started using his old two-holer outhouse again — what they used to refer to as ‘primitive septic’ — way out in the back yard. Three days later, his well ran dry.

Here, just inside the blast radius of the Capital, I guess we’re a fair way from running dry.

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