looking back on a political bet

It was just about six years today that my younger son, all languid on the couch, bet me 20 bucks that Hillary Clinton would not win the Democrat election for president of the United States. Living as I do in a blue-blue-blue (Democrat) state (Massachusetts), I figured it was time for him to learn a lesson. I offered him odds on his bet but he declined -- 20 bucks, straight across: Hillary would not win.

Come the day after the election ... well ... the rest is history.

Donald Trump had promised them "good paying" coal jobs. Donald Trump had promised them a Republican health care plan that would bump predecessor Barack Obama's health care law out of the batter's box. Donald Trump had promised to kick the old guard in the seat of the pants. To this day, not one Republican has stepped up and said, "Ooops! -- I screwed the goose." Please notice that a tax cut for the wealthy is now firmly in place ... just as with George W. Bush, another Republican stalwart and another man taken as a dumb-bell.

Tell me -- if intelligence does not pay off and stupidity does not pay off, what, then, pays off?

I thought of this today as my son (and middle child) drove back from Florida where he and his newly-engaged sweetie, Hannah, had gone for a little down time. " "We guessed it was 70 percent not wearing masks," he told me as he drove back towards their house in Georgia and Hannah headed south to visit with her parents. Two minutes after we hung up, the phone rang: "Just thought you'd like to know I passed a gigantic Confederate flag," he announced without preamble.

I paid my $20 bill and tried to remember not to forget -- politics is not my strong suit.