Through the years I’ve been called a “fill-in-the-blank liberal.” I care only that the noun is inaccurate. I am an ‘independent” voter and have kept the surface attitude of “a plague on both your houses” since the Vietnam War era. My family and all their friends were staunch Republicans. I would have voted for presidential candidates Gordon Rudman and John McCain had the latter not appointed Sarah Palin as his running mate. I protested against Lyndon B. Johnson and was most critical of Barack Obama’s “hit” on Bin Laden and his slap-on-the-wrists to the major banks during the real estate crisis. So, I’ve drunk no Kool-Aid of any flavor. Thus, I’m left to wonder, as a start, at our senator’s vote to approve Kristi Noem’s nomination as secretary of homeland security. Closer to home, I wonder that our current governor, who assured the cameras that “Trump is the one” as she maneuvered for election, has yet to express disappointment, or wrong-headedness or anything despite President Trump’s efforts to ravage the institutions of the federal government. After Trump’s first run and the leaked clip where Trump assured that he could x, y, z with women because he was a celebrity, Gov. Kelly Ayote was all a flutter about the sanctity of her daughter. I think the daughter was safe at the time. Yet, Ayotte is mute about the impending generalized assault on the nation. I guess if you’re a celebrity...

Doug MacKinnon

Meredith