Thanks

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

As this election season comes to an end, I want to thank the publisher and especially you, the readers, for encouraging me as I have expressed my opinions.  

In a few days, hopefully, we’ll know how this election turns out. It has been an especially tense election season, when, if we truly followed the Biblical guidance, it would never be. The Bible says all government officials serve at the will of God. And it means all – no exceptions.

Often I am envious of my Mennonite friends along the Sugar Tree Ridge area. Invariably, they ask me, “Now, who is the president of the United States?”  

They have the New Testament approach to our elected (and unelected) government officials. But my excuse is politics is "so much fun." I just hope it is accepted when I get to the Pearly Gates, so to speak.

Although I was born during the Truman Administration, the first presidential race I remember was the 1956 contest between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. In 1960, on the day after the spring day when John Kennedy won the West Virginia primary and clinched the Democratic nomination, we were staying in a hotel in Charleston, W.Va.  

I remember it distinctly. I had sunny side up eggs for breakfast and the restaurant table had a glass top; never saw that before. We were on our way to Roanoke to a funeral.  

About 10 miles after we started out that morning, I got car sick. And I think that happened for about every 10 miles until after lunch time (I didn’t eat lunch). We almost missed the funeral due to my roadside stops.

The 1964 presidential race was while we lived on the farm at Marshall. Don’t remember so much about that one.

In 1968, I was a freshman at the University of Cincinnati. Hubert Humphrey came to the campus (I saw him). Richard Nixon visited the old Cincinnati Gardens. I was there, too.

In 1972, I got to vote in the presidential election for the first time. Don’t remember much about it or the 1976 election, although I do remember the USA 200th anniversary on July 4 that year.

In 1980, we had moved to Cape Girardeau, Mo., and I was quite interested in that race.  I had had enough of Jimmy Carter; and apparently, I was not alone. There has been a lot said in this cycle about Reagan carrying every state but Minnesota in 1984. Quite frankly, I don’t remember it.

In 1988, we were living in Wadsworth, Ohio (near Akron). What I remember is George Bush being shown a scanner at a checkout lane in a grocery store (obviously, he didn’t get out much) and Dukakis in the military tank – both amazing video opportunities.

My mother was in intensive care in the Middletown, Ohio hospital during the 1992 election. She lost consciousness upon hearing that Clinton had won and didn’t revive until the next Valentine’s Day (absolutely a true story).

By 1996, I had moved to Atlanta when Clinton won his second contest.

In 2000, after all the mess of that race, we were at a Christmas party a few weeks later.  

I got to talking to this lady I did not know (I knew her husband). I was surprised at her vacuous thinking. When she told me she had written letters to “the nice” Bill Clinton and he had personally answered them, I lost it.  

She then announced very loudly, “I am leaving, ---- (her husband), please get my coat!”  

When my wife, Laura, heard what had happened, she (Laura) was appalled, and I was in the dog house for a period of time for being so insensitive.

I thought 2004 was a snoozer.

The race of 2008, I felt, was a watershed event and led to the divisiveness we have today. I remember about a week before the election being at a friend’s house in Wisconsin. We were gravely worried about the direction the country seemed to be heading. I just saw him this past week in Oxford, Ohio, and we reflected on the perspicacity our thoughts of that evening 16 years ago had been.

As far as I was concerned, the race of 2012 was a throwaway race. Based on the mood of the country, no one could beat Obama.

I found the results of 2016 particularly pleasing. I have said many times before that Donald Trump is the kind of client I have had to deal with throughout my career and his personality, while I don’t particularly approve of it, is one with which I am thoroughly comfortable.

You can say what you want about 2020, but I felt the Democrats were motivated to win it by whatever means necessary (read into that what you wish).  

And now we are here, 2024, with just a few days to go…

Thanks for reading.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.