Hard-A-Starboard

 

As Democrats and Republicans alike suffer the rock salt stings fired from the blunderbuss of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and assorted staffers, the world continues to turn. The Democrats are out of options, not so the Republicans. All they have to do to stop the carnage is to reach across the aisle.

But that won’t happen until the Democrats provide a safe way to do this. It certainly won’t be anywhere near those on the far left who would give no quarter to those who don’t hold with all their values. No, this will require a course correction away from the Trump iceberg destined to sink the USS America. The hard-a-starboard order was given long ago but it may be too late for the hard-a-port correction to be successful.

The maneuver described above is called “porting about” and uses old sailing tiller movements. In 1912, First Officer Murdoch gave those instructions to turn the Titanic’s bow first away from the iceberg and then to turn back in the opposite direction to swing the stern away and clear. Those orders came too late, and we know the outcome.

Right now, Trump’s standing order is full speed ahead and the iceberg is fast approaching. Will some Republican see the danger and grab the helm soon enough to avoid the fate of the Titanic, or will it be too late? A serious course correction is needed, and we can’t wait for climate change to melt all the icebergs.

The best this country can hope for would be a mid-term election shift or enough Republicans to stop dragging their knuckles and begin to walk upright. Either scenario or some combination could delay things to allow for the course correction toward the center. As we have now seen, neither the extreme left nor the extreme right are good for the country.

Our future world after Trump, needs a centrist leader and at this point I don’t care if he/she calls themselves a Republican or a Democrat. All this “porting about” isn’t getting us anywhere, we are seriously taking on water, and we run the risk of sinking the whole damn ship.

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Postscript: Tiller movements can be confusing. When the tiller is moved to the left (port) the ship steers right (starboard), and vice versa. Hard-a-starboard would steer us to port.