Opinion: The turn not taken

Matt Rourke / AP

Matt Rourke / AP Matt Rourke / AP

By PARKER POTTER

Published: 10-12-2024 8:00 AM

Parker Potter is a former archaeologist and historian, and a retired lawyer. He is currently a semi-professional dogwalker who lives and works in Contoocook.

Back in August, between the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention, I drafted a My Turn titled “How One is Greater than Forty-Five” that was sharply critical of Donald Trump. I never submitted that column for publication. Here’s the story behind the story that never made it into print.

Earlier in the summer, a friend of mine with a strong scholarly bent wrote an essay comparing Trump to George Washington. He began with a part of the statement that Rep.Adam Schiff made at the beginning of the first Trump impeachment. Schiff, in turn, had quoted extensively from a memorandum on government that Alexander Hamilton had sent Washington in 1792.

In his essay, my friend did a deep historical dive into the literary underpinnings of a quotation that Hamilton used in his memorandum to Washington. My friend’s essay is fascinating, but a bit too academic and a bit too long to find an outlet in the popular media.

In an attempt to help my friend get his ideas out, I took his research and theme and liberally reworked his essay into a My Turn column. In my version, I compared Trump to Washington in three areas: allegiance to principles, attitudes toward the military, and literacy. In each of those three realms, I found Trump to be inferior to Washington, hence the title “How One is Greater than Forty-Five.”

When I was finished with my version of my friend’s essay, I was pretty pleased with myself and thought long and hard about submitting it as a My Turn, but after careful consideration, I did not. Here’s why.

First of all, my essay was a little bit “off-brand” for me. I cover a wide range of topics in my columns, some of them pretty personal, some of them somewhat political. However, while my political leanings may shine through from time to time, my 1/45 essay was more partisan than anything I have ever published here, and for better or worse, I was reluctant to push one of my My Turns so deeply into partisanship.

Then, I thought about a column I wrote a while back, an exploration of why I write. In that column, I observed that any piece of writing is an attempt by the writer to get his or her reader to think something or do something.

I always think of that when I put pen to paper, and it dawned on me that even if I were inclined to move my brand in a partisan direction, there wasn’t all that much chance that my essay would have influenced very many people.

Trump supporters are strong in their support, and for anyone who is still undecided, my essay didn’t have much to say that hadn’t already been said by others. If all I could do was preach to the choir of Trump opponents, I wasn’t interested.

Beyond that, no matter how clever or well-written my essay was, it was, at its core, an anti-Trump piece. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had just about enough of anti-this and anti-that. Last month, in a couple of contested races in the primary election, I based my vote on which candidate engaged in less name calling and did less negative advertising.

I will admit that I really enjoyed finding witty ways to present my anti-Trump message, but I didn’t submit my column at least in part because I realized that I would much rather devote my energies to being for something or someone rather than against.

I talked all this through with Nancy Jo, after reading her a draft of my 1/45 essay, and she really put a point on things for me. Like my academic friend who inspired my essay, Nancy Jo enjoyed it quite a bit, but they are both in the choir I was preaching to, so their approval was not a strong argument in favor of publication.

Moreover, Nancy Jo astutely pointed out that people who are not in the choir also read the Monitor. What about those readers? Through Nancy Jo’s work with an organization called Braver Angels, she recognized that what I had written as a rebuke of Trump could easily be read by Trump supporters as a rebuke of them, personally.

I take a walk around Contoocook every day, and every day I pass by a house with a Trump sign in the front yard. I know the folk who put up the sign. I am friends with them. I am happy to criticize Donald Trump all day long, but as for my friends with the Trump sign, it is important to keep alive the possibility of a conversation with them in which we can each learn the other’s point of view.

My anti-Trump essay could endanger that possibility, so that’s a My Turn I chose not to take.