As I had originally envisioned this post, I was going to start by offering my opinions on tribalism, on an individual’s limited–but real–obligations to strangers, on the notion that far more than two ways exist to define the relationship between citizens and their government, etc. However, I realized that I would either be preaching to the choir or engaging in an exercise in futility. As I wrote here, I believe that real political debate has ended in the US. What I didn’t write, but also believe, is that what used to be America’s gift for compromise, for sides giving a little in order to make progress, has vanished. Compromise is now considered a dirty word at best and treasonous at worst. Sorry to write for the nth time, but blind adherence to any ideology is not an optimal behavior, in my opinion.

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The following fact is only of significance to me, but this is my blog, after all. Even without having a plan that would avail me of analytics provided by the Evil Empire (aka Google), WordPress displays all manner of data. One such piece of data is a list of the top six people by number of published comments out of the last 1,000.

For many months, 56PackardMan was, by far, the leading commenter on Disaffected Musings not counting yours truly. When I looked this morning at the ranking I was saddened that 56PackardMan is no longer on the list. Don’t get me wrong; I am happy that the average number of comments per post has increased in 2020 by 54 percent compared to 2019. I very much enjoy comments from photobyjohnbo, Dirty Dingus McGee, Philip Maynard (among others), who are “The Big Three” of commenting. (An inside joke for Dr. Zal with no disrespect intended to anyone.)

Still, 56PackardMan was this blog’s biggest supporter. Without my asking, he would put links to my posts about Packard and Studebaker on the appropriate forums, which would boost readership. He supported my efforts even though we don’t agree on many issues facing the country and the world. This is an exception to the current state of affairs that led former Speaker Of The House John Boehner to remark, “We can no longer disagree without being disagreeable.”

I, along with many of his regular readers, hope that 56PackardMan will return to the blog world someday. From a Hemmings ad (for a car no longer available) a picture of one of his absolute favorite cars, a 1956 Packard 400:

 

 

#MondayMusings

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#1956Packard400

#somanycarsjustonelife

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