Exotic Journeys: A Tourist's Guide to Philosophy
brought to you by Ron Yezzi
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
Minnesota State University, Mankato
© Copyright 2015, 2020 by Ron Yezzi
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Public Thoughts - Occasional thoughts on current issues
Public Submissions - printed in The Free Press, Mankato
Topics are listed alphabetically. Within a topic, the most recent letters come first. In some cases, the date of posting on the website might differ by a day from the printed newspaper. The Free Press creates the captions for submissions.
Politics 2024-2025
My View: Republicans lost when moderates were rejected; Ron Yezzi; June 6, 2025
Apparently, Washington Post op-ed columnist George Will (“Trump administration is pure progressivism”) doesn’t recognize the fundamental difference between democracy and dictatorship.
Let’s clear that up before describing Will’s fundamental mistake about Individualism.
The Trump administration (and the Republican Party) is a reactionary party trying to establish a dictatorship. That’s not progressivism. And neither is Project 2025.
The Democratic Party
For nearly a century, the Democratic Party has been successfully advancing and strengthening democracy with progressive programs.
Here’s a short account:
• Dedicated pursuit of knowledge along with supporting public education
• Overcoming The Great Depression along with both a better democratic government and a mixed economy that together lifted the well-being of people over nine decades
• Contributing to victory in World War II and establishing international collaborations to further peace, good will and shared prosperity, with the U.S. as the leader in promoting democracy
• Recognizing and guaranteeing the rights of everyone — and making up for past and present shortcomings
• Meeting the challenges of the environment and climate change.
No nation is perfect. The U.S. has made mistakes, some of them fairly large ones. Yet, overall, our government rallied to make life better and make our society and the world stronger in meeting these challenges over the past century.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party has steadily fallen down.
The Trump agenda now:
The Republican Trump administration — as nearly everyone should know — has launched a massive attack on major aspects of our present day federal democratic government.
This is not a limited attack on instances of fraud or incompetence. That is, they’re trying to destroy nearly everything that’s been gained in progressively dealing with challenges during the past century and to fundamentally change our democracy into an America First dictatorship.
Basically, a powerful, reactionary minority with outdated ideas is bent on bringing about our downfall.
People demanding a USA-first, white, Christian, male-dominated, gun-minded, anti-science world view are reactionary, not progressive.
Trumpian falsity, cruelty and dictatorship become the mark of our character; oligarchs flourish.
Abroad, dictators (like Vladimir Putin) become our buddy as long as they stick to their own domains (like Europe); (That’s why Trump can’t be trusted to stand with Ukraine); Longstanding Allies are treated shabbily and accused of taking advantage of us; The U.S. draws back from aid to people in dire need of assistance.
At home, facing knowledge they don’t like, the Trump “team” tries to ban it. Universities are under attack. There are efforts to suppress the press. Needed government programs and services are eliminated or minimized. Incompetent cronies get supervisory positions. Immigrants of color become enemies. Prejudice becomes respectable again. Climate troubles are ignored. Court judgments they don’t like are ignored. As a minority, they undermine the democratic system by promoting tactics like gerrymandering and court stacking.
And nearly all Republicans in Congress bow down to all this.
How can Will reject the progressive-reactionary distinction and insist instead on the dual progressivism in both democracy and dictatorship? Answer: Because he demands minimal government activity.
That brings us to two types of Individualism: pre-20th Century (that, traditionally, has largely defined the Republican Party) or else knowledge-based (that represents the Democratic Party).
Two types of Individualism
• Pre-20th Century Individualism: We’re self-made individuals who should direct our lives in better or worse ways in a free society, with minimal government interference
• Knowledge-based Individualism: We are physical, biological, social, mental beings whose individualism is the culmination of the interactions of these four types of experience. Expanded government action — in a democratic society — is a necessary accompaniment to apply that knowledge well.
Since the mid-19th Century, there has been an enormous increase in the social/behavioral disciplines: Sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, history, political science and journalism.
Accordingly, we have much more knowledge of the factors that affect our choices, actions, limitations and opportunities. To all this we can add physical and biological factors.
As a result, pre-20th Century Individualism is obsolete. It is not totally wrong, but it falls far short of what we need to know about conditions affecting human actions.
The great tragedy of the Republican Party, in my opinion, was their turning away from moderate Republicans. I mean people like Dwight Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, Earl Warren, Richard Nixon (30% of the time), George H.W. Bush (the father), and John McCain. For Minnesota, add Arnie Carlson and Dave Durenberger.
My View: Columnist's attacks on Walz off base; Ron Yezzi; printed September 12, 2024
What’s the real substance of Kathleen Parker’s attack, “Tim Walz isn’t exactly what he seems”? (Free Press, September 3, 2024)
She’s angry about two liberal bills regarding abortion and transgender treatment Governor Walz signed into law.
So she’s willing to latch onto any irrelevant issue Republicans bring up to make Walz look bad.
Charge 1: 1995 Drunken and Reckless Driving:
The judge, showing leniency, dropped the drunken driving charge based on Walz’ remorse and willingness to accept responsibility for his mistake. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving, paid a $200 fine, and had a 90-day driving suspension.
That judge’s decision has been borne out by Walz giving up alcohol consumption and making stellar further contributions to society as teacher, coach, National Guardsman, Congressman, Governor, and, now, candidate for Vice President.
But what about campaign staffers fudging on the issue (lying?) during his first campaign for Congress in 2006?
Walz not having any prior political record to run on, you don’t want to give the Republican opposition a mistake made 10 years ago, and no longer relevant, as an opening to turn voters against him.
For Republicans to take political advantage of the incident would also qualify as a lie in 2006 just as it does now.
By 2018, with an outstanding record serving 6 terms in Congress and then running for Governor, Tim Walz was more forthcoming in publicly admitting what happened and changed him for the better.
Charge 2: Walz’s Falsely Bragging to the World About His Military Service in Actual Warfare:
Walz was advocating for stricter gun control measures particularly with respect to banning military weapons and mentioned his military service as a way of showing that he had experience with military weapons: “We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Taking it, in this context, as a literal Walz attempt of “stolen honor” (as Vance did) is ludicrous. You would also have to include he was purposely lying about presence of stored military weapons on military bases and that they were used in training exercises.
Charge 3: IUI (placing sperm directly into the uterus to increase chances of pregnancy), IVF (fertilizing an egg with sperm in a laboratory and then transferring the resulting embryo into the uterus), and Walz’ Lies to Attack Vance
Having problems with getting pregnant and wanting children, the Walz’s turned to one of these alternative procedures; it was successful and they experienced the great joy of having and raising two children. Tim talked publicly about their success story through IVF. And he did it while criticizing Vance for opposing IVF.
It turned out though that they had made use of IUI. Wife Gwen announced the mistake. And they considered it an honest mistake, especially because IVF was more commonly used to describe these procedures.
Moreover, it’s worth noting that they easily could find parents who went through IVF with the same success story.
Parker is not buying it and also accuses Walz of lying by charging that Vance opposed IVF, when he and Trump have announced support for it.
Walz points to The Right to IVF Act that Vance opposed on June 13, 2024 and can point to Vance’s support for Project 2025, which strongly opposes IVF.
But Washington Post columnist Parker apparently places more faith in the veracity of Donald Trump and his acolyte JD Vance.
Hmm! During his Presidency (2017-2020), The Washington Post cited Donald Trump for 30,573 false or misleading claims.
This pattern continues constantly.
After a Trump news conference on Aug. 8, 2024, National Public Radio catalogued his producing 162 lies and distortions.
Kathleen Parker’s Own Sense of Outrage
(1) “Meanwhile, it is doubtful that Walz concerns himself much with the ethics of ‘women’s reproductive health,’ including abortion, since he signed a bill last year that would no longer require doctors to preserve the life of infants who survive abortion.”
My Reply: Walz owes no apologies regarding his ethics of “women’s reproductive health.” And, the reason why the law is changed to “care for the infant who is born alive” is evidence that, usually, health of the mother was endangered and the baby won't live long outside the womb.
(2) Charge: Walz is turning Minnesota into a sanctuary state for children seeking transgender treatment and “also believes that children, in some cases, should be allowed access to surgical and chemical procedures without the consent of their parents.”
My Reply: “A new study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that 81% of transgender adults in the U.S. have thought about suicide, 42% of transgender adults have attempted it, and 56% have engaged in non-suicidal self-injury over their lifetimes.” Maybe things have not always gone well growing up at home.
(3) “And you thought Republicans were dangerous.”
My Reply: I’m not in Tim Walz’s inner circle. But he’s one of the most admirable persons I’ve ever known.