Autumn 2018 in Northern Nevada: Calm before the Storm?

It’s beautiful in northern Nevada this second week of October.

Early autumn colors of red, orange, purple and yellow are bursting out many places.  And while temperatures are rather mild, the air is already clear and crisp.  After the smoke from many western wildfires this summer, clear air is a great relief.

Fall brings many annual festivities, apple picking, last barbeques of the year, the smell of wood burning in nearby fireplaces.  Pumpkins and Halloween decorations earlier every year.  Even the return of bears to yards in our small towns, hoping to get to the apples first, and the deer seeking the last tomatoes on our vines.

Students are diligently studying their math, Spanish, history and even nutrition.  Although professional football has forfeited its charm and much of our interest (and everyone else’s, it seems), high schoolers still run cross-country, and college football stokes a bit of conversation at the office.

These things are timeless, thank goodness.

Major League Baseball has had a great year.  Not the least, in Ron’s view, because his Dodgers won their sixth straight division title and their first playoff series.  James, of course, is in heaven because his Red Sox had the best record in baseball and are poised in their series to knock out the Yankees we both despise (doesn’t everyone?).

What could be better than a Dodgers versus Red Sox series?

For the two of us, there’s also Ron’s re-election campaign, plus doing our very full-time jobs at the same time.  Although the last few months and the next one are very hectic, we are grateful for the opportunities to do good public service and to take our message to the people.

James’s wife Vicki has been a god-send to the campaign, with many colorful ideas and a masterful job decorating the truck for parades.  Ron’s wife Kathy and daughter Karyn have been more energized, enthusiastic and helpful than ever.

We’re blessed that once again the Controller’s office election will not turn into the kind of mud baths the gubernatorial and senate races have.  We’re happy to be able to focus on the jobs we’ve done, both low and high profile, and tell folks that if you re-elect Ron, we’ll do more of the same.  Likewise, the fact that we’re reliable, dependable limited government conservatives with long solid track records to prove it.

So why a sense of foreboding, even dread?

It’s not just the ugliness, hate, dishonesty and rejection of all principles and decency by senate Democrats, progressives, statist liberals, lamestream media and other leftists in the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process for the U.S. Supreme Court the last month.  Indeed, that was one of the worst experiences we’ve known in politics and American life.  Disgusting almost beyond words.

With that episode finished, one would hope we could enjoy the blessings of our favorite season and the kind of campaign (for us, at least) civics textbooks describe.  Telling voters how we’ve taken care of the nuts and bolts of day-to-day back-office functions that are so important even though they put folks to sleep.  Discussing the much higher profile fiscal and policy challenges Nevada state and local governments face.  Renewing old acquaintances.

One would hope we could do that as we look forward to the election and holidays.

But, no, even with the temporary relief from the swearing in of Mr. Justice Kavanaugh, we feel the foreboding, the dread of the future.

For his opponents not only took everything to a new low, but they’ve already promised that the future holds the same, only more.  Their politics of personal destruction to get whatever it is they want at any time.  Their rejection of any and all fundamental principles that stand in their way, using such nonsense claims as due process and the presumption of innocence apply only to criminal matters.

Also their despicable politics of identity groups continually at war and rejection of our common humanity, or any attempt to find common ground.  Plus scorched-earth tactics and destroy-you strategies.

America is still mankind’s greatest political, social and economic enterprise, and the American people deserve better than that.  Your votes in the coming election will help determine whether things remain calm or get stormy.