“Festus and Uncle Remus ran into Captain Gooding down at the big box hardware store yesterday. Naturally, the topic of the election came up. Festus and Remus were still elated over President Trump’s victory, but Captain Gooding was surprisingly pensive. He suggested the three meet up at a nearby coffee shop a bit later in the day and discuss the matter in more depth. (The Captain had a bunch of home improvement items in the cart, and wanted to get them back to the house first, he explained. Plus, lunch was waiting.) Festus noticed there were a couple of discounted cans of returned paint in the Captain’s cart, and made a mental note to ask the Captain about them later.
At the appointed time, the three met up at the diner for coffee. It was mid afternoon, and the place was just about empty.
Once the three gents had settled into a booth and gotten their coffees, Uncle Remus broke the ice and asked Captain Gooding why he hadn’t seemed quite as excited about the Trump victory as Remus thought he’d be. Captain Gooding took a slow sip of coffee, set the ironstone mug down carefully, and looked about the diner. From the serious look on the Captain’s face, Festus figured he and Remus were about to get an earful, and he wasn’t wrong.
Mary, the waitress, was obviously listening in, and tha Captain started out by making a point of inviting her over to sit with them, which she did. Satisfied he had a quorum, Captain Gooding took one more sip, and told Mary it was especially good coffee that afternoon. (“Fresh pot”, she demurred.) Pleasantries out of the way, Captain Gooding commenced to talking.
Lookahere, neighbors, he began. I’m as happy as you are that a resounding majority of this nation’s adults had the good sense to reject the so-called “progressive” left’s agendas by voting against their chosen candidates. Chief Executive, Senate, Congress, all will see Republican leadership or majorities. Maybe not unbeatable 60% majorities, mind you, but solid enough majorities to get most business items passed and moving along. President Trump has the makings of a Cabinet of savvy leaders, who include enough former moderate Democrats that the next administration should be a solid representation of moderate, mainstream viewpoints. They might even be able to make some progress against the blob, at least at national level. But that’s the first point. Make America Great Again supporters have got to realize that President Trump’s focus is going to have to be at the national and international level. He’s got to captain the ship of state. In fact, just dealing with the State Department is going to occupy a bunch of his time. No way he can avoid that.
The new administration is also going to have to deal with the realities of energy issues at a national level, too. Drill, baby, drill will pay off in time, but it will take time before the results start showing up in terms of prices at the pump. And if he chooses to refill national and regional petroleum reserves emptied by profligate Democrats, that substantial diversion of petroleum away from consumption will, at least for some time, result in holding retail pump prices higher than they might otherwise be. Savings always come with the costs of differed enjoyment. It may be the prudent, adult thing to do, but there’s less to party on now if you are saving for future needs. Plus, the electric grid needs help – a lot of help. Block chain computing and AI (artificial intelligence) are notorious energy hogs. Solar and wind are OK in their place, but they both have issues. Solar works well during the daytime, on sunny days. It is far less reliable when those solar panels have a layer of snow on them, or at night, and hail storms and tornados and hurricanes are not kind to solar farms, either. Wind generation works when you’ve got Goldilocks winds: not too weak, nor too strong. And the physics of high energy density mass storage for renewable power generated in excess of immediate grid needs remains problematic. Pumped storage power projects work well, but I can’t think of a single Appalachain Mountain state that wants to see its mountain trout streams turned into giant impounded water battery systems. And Florida and the Gulf Coast states generally don’t have sufficient elevation to make pumped storage power projects viable anywhere near the coast, where most of the people and industries are.
Captain Gooding took a sip of coffee.
Donald J. Trump is a builder of large projects, and a promoter by trade. He’s going to have his hands full these next four years, at national level. I have no doubt he’ll do well for this nation and its citizens. But as for Making America Great Again, well, he’ll be a passionate leader and figurehead, but rebuilding true greatness can’t come from his words or his work. He can help reset conditions that will allow for MAGA, but he can’t do that work. No, folks, that is going to be on us, right here at home. And we have a lot of work to do. A lot of work.
Captain Gooding took another sip of coffee.
“Lookahere. Make America Great Again is a declarative statement. It’s a charge, an order, a dream, and a wish.
“Making America Great Again, on the other hand, is a huge task – a monumental task of sweeping proportions, and frankly, a whole lot of work. And the folks who are going to need to do that work, neighbors, are you and me and the communities we live in. Not the Feds, not even the states, but you and me – local folks getting together and doing the work. And I mean doing the whole job, and doing it right.
“Well,” said the Captain, “It’s not one job. It’s many jobs. Many, many, many jobs. It’s the same sort of broad mission that General of the Army George Marshall gave General Eisenhower in World War II: “Cross the English Channel and free the continent of Europe.” Doing so would take a couple of years and an almost unimaginable amount of time, talent, treasure, and tools – many of those tools invented especially for the invasion landing and the rest of the mission beyond the beach heads. Things like the mulberries and PLUTO. Mulberries were giant floating breakwaters, and PLUTO stands for “pipe lines under the ocean”.)
No, friends, Makng America Great Again is going to come down on the heads and shoulders of folks like us, all across this land. It’s not going to come from the White House, or Congress, or anywhere inside the DC Beltway. President Trump may be able to provide top cover for us, but it is going to be up to us to do tbe work. If you all see me as being serious, well, it’s a serious job we’ve got ahead of us. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how we’ll get ‘er done here locally. Way I see it, we’ve got four years to accomplish the mission – or at least get a good start done and behind us.
Captain Gooding finished his coffee. Mary asked if he wanted a refill, to which he replied no, he had work to do at the house. Festus was incredulous. “What do you mean? You are headed home now? Aren’t you going to tell us HOW we’re supposed to make America great Again?”
Sure, I’ll lay it all out for you, step by step, said the Captain, but not today. There’s work to get started on at the house, and the jobs are likely to keep me busy all weekend. What say we meet up again for coffee next week, and I’ll lay out the way I see the MAGA mission unfolding and what roles we can all play. But for now, duty calls on the home front. Anyway, I already mentioned step one, although you may have missed it.
With that, the Captain laid coffee money and a tip on the table in cash, stood up, excused himself, and headed home.
We’ll catch back up with him and the gang next week and see what he has to say when he lays out the nuts and bolts and gets down to the nitty gritty. Until then, happy trails!”