By Jonathan Reisman

This is the summer of our discontent in the annus horribilis of 2020:

* Rioters and arsonists are described as “mostly peaceful protesters.”

* The legacy media is an open and unapologetic arm and mouthpiece of the Democratic Party.

* The Democratic Party - the Party of the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow and racist Presidents Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson - nominates a cognitively impaired 40-plus-year veteran swamp creature and pledges to “change” America by ending free speech and reinstating racial discrimination through diversity and “anti-racism” training and indoctrination. 

*The Supreme Court of the United States, supposedly marred by two Trump appointees, finds that the word “sex” in 1964 actually meant sexual orientation and gender identity.

* SCOTUS also ruled that unconstitutional executive orders of a Democratic President could only be overturned by a Republican President if that Republican President presents reasons for that reversal with which the Court agrees.

* The Chinese Communist Party unleashes a pandemic, damages our economy, lies about it, and interferes in our election trying to defeat President Trump while supporting his opponent and his corrupt drug and sex-addicted son - all without consequences.

* A wall of political ads attacking Susan Collins as a hypocritical corrupt swamp weasel and Sarah Gideon as a hypocritical do-nothing wanna-be swamp weasel threatens to drown out everything else while poisoning the well of political discourse.

* Democratic Governors and Mayors across the nation reduce freedom in the name of public health and Black Lives Matter, then move the goalposts from “flattening the curve” to whatever pretext they can find to damage President Trump’s reelection chances. Gov. Mills, caught between a deep blue 1st Congressional district and a purple 2nd CD that voted for Trump, is doing a careful but unsuccessful waltz that simultaneously damages Trump without appearing too obviously partisan. Rep. Jared Golden has a similar dance card.

* Sen. Collins, no Trump fan herself, also has a 1st/2nd District tango to deal with, as does Speaker Gideon, except in reverse. The first Republican President had it right in 1858, for Maine and the nation: “A House divided…cannot stand.”

* Former Gov. Paul LePage’s ambitions to return to the Blaine House in 2022 got mixed results. His handpicked candidate, Dale Crafts, won the nomination to challenge first-term Rep. Jared Golden, but his three State Senate primary endorsements all failed (although Larry Lockman should be well-positioned to take that State Senate seat in 2022). If Golden is to be defeated, this is the election that must do it, and if Crafts wins in November, LePage will be bolstered for a 2022 run. I have my doubts that a baby boomer can defeat the youthful Golden, however. To quote the President, “We will see what happens.”

* Baseball, the national pastime, went full woke with Black Lives Matter banners, kneeling players and upcoming team name changes (goodbye Cleveland Indians (racist), Atlanta Braves (racist, cultural appropriation), Texas Rangers (racist police), California Angels (Christian White Supremacist) and Chicago White Sox (White privilege). I went to my first baseball game almost 60 years ago with my father and grandfather. I took my sons to Fenway, and I enjoyed quite a few games at minor league ballparks in Pawtucket, Old Orchard, Portland, Buffalo and even Billings, Montana. I do not expect to set foot in a major league baseball park again, and I am frankly hoping that the season is prematurely ended by the coronavirus and owner and player stupidity.

* It is all about the election. Every action, non-action, outrageous lie, misbegotten media malarkey, protest, riot, prosecution, non-prosecution - all of it. For the Democrats, it is a lust for power. If they win the Presidency and the Senate, the filibuster will be abolished and the revolution will commence. If Donald Trump wins reelection, the resistance and riots will continue. Second terms are notoriously disappointing. Either way, the prognosis for freedom is looking pretty bleak.

Jon Reisman is an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias. His views are his own. Mr. Reisman welcomes comments as letters to the editor here, or to him directly via email at [email protected].