By Dave Mulligan
The Trump administration may be based 3,000 miles away, but we feel its effects right here in Reno. It seeps into our neighborhoods like smoke from a distant, burning landfill.
The rampant division across America exists right here in northern Nevada as loyal conservatives stubbornly cling to their votes a year after casting them toward the untested, unorthodox Republican candidate.
My view from the left is really one of incredulity. Mr. Trump has, by some accounts, lied to America — looking straight into the camera and into our living rooms — over 2,000 times during his first year in office. Yet, his supporters defend this behavior. Somehow, they’ll justify his loose interpretation of the truth as “straight talk,” or suggest that his mistruths simply come from a “real guy who ad libs and speaks off the cuff.”
Really? Off the cuff? What does that even mean?
The best way for us to deal with it here is to work the system from this end and fight our way back to the top. That means nominating and electing regional candidates in the upcoming midterm elections who’ll bring ethics and decency back into our political system, as opposed to the bought-and-paid-for political tools who’ve simply been voting along with the deeply flawed man currently occupying the White House. Congressmen Heller and Amodei should be our primary targets.
They’ve clearly sold out and have demonstrated that they don’t have Nevadans’ interests at heart. Instead, they’ve supported legislation stripping us of our healthcare and voted for a tax bill designed specifically to enrich the donor class that financed their campaigns and continues to fill their coffers.
Is my view from the left biased? You’re damn right it is. But it’s a bias that has been well-earned. America’s standing on the world stage has been damaged to the point where our allies no longer trust us and our enemies see us as weak and divided. My bias has come from seeing our great nation devolve from that shining country on a hill into one that is ethically compromised and infused with greed and indecency. Even as a liberal, I’d take Ronald Reagan back in a second over what we have now. In the meantime, I’ll do my small part by raising my voice in resistance and casting my vote in November. I hope you’ll do the same. It’s time to clear the smoke.
Dave Mulligan is a local Reno resident of over 25 years. He is a published author (Mulligan’s Wake), television producer and a left-leaning political activist (Masses Unite). He lives happily on the Truckee River and is the married father of three (his most important role, according to Dave).
