Politicians not what they appear

8 months ago

To the editor:

In 1955 at my home in Nashua, New Hampshire, Mom and Dad finally purchased a TV set.  As I recall, it was a Stromberg Carlson and what a beauty. I was 12. Little did I know that this media device would introduce to us the household views of the ongoing war of political objectives and those opportunists who wished to engage.

My dad, an extremely devout man of French Canadian descent, 43 then and a devout Democrat, would say to any who would listen, “Nous sommes Democrat, pas Republicain!”  Les Republicains? C’est  un partie pour les maudit riches, pas pour le monde comme nous autres qui travailles toute les jours.” (GOP is for the wealthy Protestants; Democrats are for the working-class Catholics.)

Confusion sets in.  By the time I am legally allowed to vote, I start observing behavior of the politicians, Dad’s words and what that all means. Is the struggle between rich man and poor man? Dad — an extremely devout Catholic with a built-in sense of maybe self-imposed admiration for the Catholic JFK, who was a great speaker and a man I adored — was in fact admiring a man who loved partying and  frolicking in the White House pool with multitudes of cuties. 

JFK was not saintly? I was totally destroyed.  Years pass and what do I find? I found that little Catholic boys and girls are not always necessarily pure, holy, devout, good and strictly for the church-going lower working class.  I find that  Adolf Hitler was at the time a 55-year-old Roman Catholic, just like my Dad and Mom, myself and my whole family, and just like the Kennedys, JFK, Bobby and Ted. Regular churchgoers since that time included the Clintons and of course the Pelosi duo of San Francisco. That truly injured my thought process.  

Now you ask, who will I vote for? I must avow the man who graduated from Harvard with honors from Florida gets my vote. Mr. Desantis is not only more educated than Mr. Trump, but so much less vocal, combative and a family man worthy of admiration from us all.

Lou Ouellette
Madawaska