By Jim Dickson
I have, for as long as I can remember, been a political junkie. Even as a child, I enjoyed hearing my father and my uncle argue about then President Truman.
My father was a hard-and-fast Roosevelt guy and he considered Harry Truman to be a weak and ineffective replacement for the “Great Man.” My uncle, also a Democrat, never liked Roosevelt and considered him to be a borderline communist, Truman to be a breath of fresh air and a true American patriot, so the discussion was always lively. My mother would simply roll her eyes at both of them and walk out of the room shaking her head. I never missed a word!
I have lived through 20 presidential elections, but the first one that I really remember was the election of 1960 when Jack Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon. I was in high school at the time and by then old enough to understand most of what was going on, plus for the first time, the debates and the conventions were on TV. Needless to say I was glued to the flickering black-and-white TV screen when any of it was on.
I was pulling for the young and handsome Jack Kennedy and his beautiful wife, against dark and sinister “Tricky Dick Nixon.” I think that it was Winston Churchill who said, “If you’re not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart, and if you are not a conservative when you are older, you have no head.” That was true of me at the time. I was a card carrying liberal, full of heart, and Kennedy was my guy. And best of all, he won.
This all changed when I was in college and Barry Goldwater was running against Lyndon Johnson. I read Goldwater’s book “The Conscience of a Conservative” and a light went on in my head. I couldn’t believe how much common sense the man had about government and how the country could and should be run.
Having lived and gone to school in Texas, it was pretty well known that Johnson was a crook, a liar, and a thief, so Goldwater became my guy. From that time on I have always supported and worked for conservative candidates from either party. Some won and some lost, but I have always looked forward to, and enjoyed, the contest.
Which brings us to this year and the 2024 elections. For the first time I am not looking forward to this election season. Trump Derangement Syndrome is in full bloom on the left, and Biden bashing is at full throttle on the right. And most people don’t want either one of them to be President again.
I can’t remember when the country found itself in such a lose-lose situation. We have some very serious domestic and foreign threats and we desperately need a strong leader who can pull the country together. I don’t see anyone on the horizon who can fill that bill with a chance of being nominated.
The Republicans are going to have a stage full of candidates, some of whom are very good people. But they will probably self destruct in the primary like they did in 2020, and Trump wins the nomination. The Dems seem to be stuck with Biden and Harris, although Robert Kennedy Jr., seems to be getting some traction.
It might just be the year when third-party candidates succeed in getting elected, depending on who they run and if they can get on enough state ballots to win the necessary electoral votes. Whatever happens, it’s probably not going to be a pretty picture unless some of the good people on both sides can find a way to break through and get the nomination.
Born, raised and educated in the Southwest, Jim Dickson served in the U.S. Navy Reserve in Vietnam before a 35-year business career. Retired to St. Helena Island, Dickson and his wife are fiscally conservative, socially moderate and active in Republican politics, though they may not always agree with Republicans. Having lived around the country and traveled around the world, Dickson believes that the United States truly is the land of opportunity.
