Memory is invariably selective. Your columnist, Phil Boas, remembers Watergate when he felt a "pall." For him Democrats are like the crowd cheering on the guillotine during the French Revolution. He describes our culture as rancid. Sorry I didn't feel doom and gloom at the time of Watergate nor do I now. I do not think we are a nation "sliding downwards." But I understand Boas's feelings. As a long time Republican, having to watch his party given over to right wing demagogues must be beyond depressing. As to the threat from the left, the nearest politician I can find with the slightest resemblance to a communist or socialist threat is Bernie Sanders with his winter mitts and the unbelievably beautiful Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez. Long may that trend continue.

At the time of Watergate I felt America was coming to its senses. I had watched the horrors of the Vietnam War as well as the assassinations of two Kennedys and Martin Luther King but I had also watched film of the courage of American soldiers going ashore on Omaha beach to keep us all free from fascism. They were all allies. America as far as I was concerned in the 60s, however, was a sick country and needed healing. The country had not awoken to the horrors of slavery and segregation nor to its colonial history. But slowly the country changed as the world changed and peaks in Arizona were renamed. The healing came at a snail's pace. Nicaragua, the Contra Scandal, the stupidity of the Iraq War, all three tragedies were under Republican administrations. I have quietly watched President Trump's populist nonsense for four years. Clorox? Negotiating with Putin and President Kim? We need to understand our present involvement in the world. We gave Russia the technology to exploit its oil and gas reserves. We gave China its industrial power base because we believed that, like Japan and Germany after WW2 the country could grow into a democracy and we wanted it to produce cheap goods for us. The Chinese, emulating the Japanese, produced those goods and have progressed. The latest successful protests about the Covid lockdown, where the government backed down, give us a whiff of how homeowners and the new 40 million middle class in China can be a political force to reckon with in the future. After all, our democracy didn't appear overnight.

Older people have a tendency to think that when they were young everything was better. It wasn't. In 1960 we owned 60 million cars, now we own over 270 million. Americans are better off, have nicer houses, have supermarkets packed with food and goods from around the world. We are also healthier overall. We can cruise, travel and above all vote. Our universities and research facilities are the best in the world. Americans believe in progress. We are going to the moon again. As Megan McCain, one of my ex-students, wrote, "You don't Make America Great Again, America is already great." We are the beacon of hope for Ukraine and many other countries; we stand by our allies; and our word and values stand for freedom and democracy. Our partisanship and arguing are other words for democracy. I would vote for a good Republican candidate who believes and defends democratic values and the Constitution. Many independent Arizonans will do the same. We may all make mistakes but we acknowledge them and move forward. We are imperfect as the founding fathers recognized so they created a system of checks and balances and the separation of powers. It's frustrating but it's called progress. Let's get on with it and give ourselves a pat on the back. We can and will do better. America is a GREAT country. I challenge anyone who reads your newspaper to find a better or more successful one.