"Let's make America great again," was the compelling slogan from U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. It's an intriguing message, suggesting a return to some undefined period of prosperity and general well being.
No date given, no measure of what "great again" really means,
Just a folksy wish to re-visit some imaginary time which was supposedly better.
It's not going to happen - and Trump knows it. Plus, it's a given (with apologies to Thomas Wolfe) that you can never go home again.
Most of us know that, most of us wouldn't want to, but in the minds of some of Trump's supporters there was a better time in the U.S. and its time to go back.
Let me cite a personal example. In the fall of 1962 and in early 1963 I played piano with a bar band in Streator, Ill.
There were lots of bars in Streator, many with music.
Streator isn't a city that easily comes to mind, particularly for Western Canadians, but in the 1950 and '60s it was a small-town powerhouse. Streator was the home of the Owens Illinois glass company, its specialty being beer bottles.
According to the archives, 3,700 people worked in the bottle plant, which explains the bar activity.
Wages were high, bottled beer was popular and for Streator in the 1960s, America was great.
That was then, this is now.
A recent check shows 210 people currently work in the Streator Owens Illinois bottle plant making a specialized product for Miller Brewing. The population of Streator has dropped from 17,000 in the 1960s to 13,000.
Those 1960s swingers who came to the bars are now retired, their children and grandchildren are in some other industry - probably in some other community - and the good old days of a high-paid guaranteed job at the glass plant are gone. What happened?
People still drink beer, maybe more now than in the 1960s, so Streator should be booming. Well, yes, people still drink beer but 55 per cent of beer brewed in the U.S. is sold in cans, only 35 per cent in bottles with the remaining 10 per cent in kegs.
Moreover, 97 per cent of beer bottles are recycled. Plus companies like Owens have international production facilities, including for a time a glass plant in Lavington, B.C., just east of Vernon.
Can Trump make Streator great again? Sadly, the answer is no.
Sadder yet Streator, Ill. is a microcosm of how the U.S. economy has changed.
Factors such as environmental awareness, globalization, international supply lines, price competitiveness and consumer interest in local products have made the world a different place to do business. In many industries the U.S. has been left behind and Trump cannot change that.
Remember Billy Joel's Allentown: "Well we're living here in Allentown and they're closing all the factories down."
Joel could have just as easily written about Streator, or hundreds of other American cities. Trump has attempted to find a culprit in the decline of the American manufacturing industry by pointing the finger at illegal immigrants, in particular Mexicans. He'll build a wall, he'll deport by the millions, he'll call people names but none of that will change the economic reality of the U.S.
The man is a hoax - and given that he also manufactures his own products offshore - he knows he's a hoax.
Simply put, Trump has pitched a line, given stupidity a voice and captured the limited imagination of those who can't see through his snake-oil hustle.
America will be great again when it returns to the policies that made it great in the first place, such as quality public schools and post-secondary institutions for all, plus an open and encouraging immigration system.
None of those issues appear in Trump's platform.
Following the three presidential debates, new problems for Trump have surfaced. It appears The Donald has an issue with his behaviour around women. Not a good thing nowadays.
Indeed it seems the Republican Party may be backing a presidential candidate who could best be described as "The Groper in Chief." A sad commentary and not the ticket to electoral success.
Plus his refusal to unconditionally accept the results of the upcoming election point to a banana republic mindset.
Let me close with one more comment about Trump. In the second presidential debate he took a shot at Canadian health care. Yes, it's slow in managing non-emergent procedures, but it's far better than the U.S. system. The best measure being life expectancy. In a 2015 World Health Organization report, average life expectancy (men and women) in Canada is 82.2 years. In the U.S. it's 79.3 years.
One day America may be great again, but it won't happen in the near future and certainly not with anyone like Trump in the White House.
