One Woman's Viewpoint

There are many tough tasks ahead for the 47th President of the United States. Military readiness will be at the top of the list. The report of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, ordered by Congress, was released this week, and the news isn't good. The analysis is that the last time the United States was prepared for a global military conflict was during the Cold War, 35 years ago.

According to the Commission the Department of Defense's business practices are "archaic" and "risk-averse." Its research and development and procurement process is "byzantine." The industrial base is insufficient with regard to supply chain, workforce, and production capacity. Weapons systems are decades old. Military personnel are "stretched to the breaking point."

This week, presidential polls are moving again, in the opposite direction. After the Biden campaign made the determination there was no path to victory, the President announced on July 21 that he would not accept the Democratic nomination and he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

The negligible momentum gained by the Trump/Vance campaign after the Republican convention vanished nearly overnight as voters contemplated a candidate not eligible for Social Security (whether Social Security is still solvent when Harris reaches 65 is another matter entirely).

The second half of July has had no shortage of blockbuster political news stories. In less than 48 hours: Federal judge (and Trump appointee) Aileen Cannon dismissed all charges in the classified documents case against President Trump; Trump announced his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, a former critic reborn as a MAGA zealot exactly half his age; and of course, the failed assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania Trump rally over the weekend that killed one attendee and critically wounded two others.

I have been watching the White House's damage control effort after President Biden's catastrophic debate performance two weeks ago. The White House staff and the Biden campaign are doing what they must as good political operatives – insisting that President Biden is all in for the upcoming Democratic Convention and November election – but the response from the candidate himself is not robust enough to eliminate concerns about his fitness for office.

On July 5th, President Biden gave an exclusive interview to ABC's George Stephanopoulos intended to reverse the damage done at the June 27 debate. The reviews were not complimentary, except for The Washington Post, who raved over Stephanopoulos' sensitive interview technique, but in the main ignored the candidate's performance.

Now that parade days are behind me, Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. Growing up in Silver City, the morning of the Fourth was always consumed with The Parade. My mother was in Full Broadcast Mode, doing her regular 7:15 a.m. radio show, and then heading downtown to announce the parade. It seemed someone in the family was always in the parade, and once I was in junior high, it was always I.

Parades are much more fun to watch than be in unless you can be a politician in a fun car with the A/C on. Parades are hot. Fourth of July parades are the hardest on the marching band and those immediately behind the horses. By the time the thing is over, sunburn and heat exhaustion are real things, and everyone needs a shower and a nap.

After everyone was rested and refreshed in my family, there were a few sacrosanct traditions: a cookout, Eskimo Pies, fireworks, and watching the musical 1776. I still know the entire score by heart.

I am three decades into largely parade-less July Fourths with few regrets. And the same traditions largely hold, especially monsoon season beginning the afternoon of the Fourth.

As I have had the privilege of reading a little history over the years, I like thinking about what Independence Day started worldwide. It terrified Europe. Poland established a constitution in 1791 (I don't think it lasted very long, thanks to the Prussians and the Russians). France established its republic, very messily, in 1792. Everyone else's Independence Day in the Western Hemisphere is an idea they stole from us, and Canada didn't even get there until 1982.

I realize this makes me sound like an obnoxiously proud American. That's just fine.

Our country's founding had several things going for it: a mother country across an ocean; internal political factions who didn't want a civil war or possess a guillotine; native residents already largely subdued by the original colonizers. Essentially, the first residents of the United States had a sparsely populated territory to themselves an ocean away from the great powers of Europe. It was a perfect setting to build a nation during the Enlightenment.

It stands to the ideas of the era and the minds of the people who wrote our founding documents that those documents still work 248 years later.

Last summer I got to see 1776 live. I missed the part where the production was described as an all-female cast. I still knew all the words, and Benjamin Franklin was still wry and chuckling while played by a Black woman and John Adams still a pain in everyone's backside. Somehow, it worked.

Like the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the drama and human story of 1776 works no matter the cast. Some ideas simply work no matter the context.

(Not everything is as timeless as the Declaration of Independence. Eskimo Pies were renamed in 2021, as "Eskimo" is considered offensive to the Inuit, Yupik and Aleut peoples.)

Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican, she lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

A Washington Post election feature this week identified the emergence of a new group of voters that may decide the 2024 election. More prevalent in swing states, their common thread is this: they are skeptical/patently disappointed/furious that out of more than 300 million people, the best two people we have to stand for the office of President are Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

These are the "double haters" and I have found my tribe.

The President's son, Hunter Biden, was convicted this week on three federal charges stemming from a 2018 handgun purchase where he was found to have lied on his application to purchase the firearm.

Pretty much what we learned from the trial and speedy verdict is that Hunter Biden is a mess. There was very little meat to the trial, to the point that MAGA-world is responding with "YAWN," and fellow-newly-convicted-felon Donald Trump is calling the trial a "distraction" from the "real crimes" of the family.

Fifty years ago, President Richard Nixon, facing three articles of impeachment over the Watergate break-in and wiretapping scandal, resigned from office. Pardoned just a month later, Nixon would spend the rest of his years in quiet retirement, always tainted by Watergate. 

Thirty years ago, a special counsel was appointed to review President Bill Clinton's involvement in the failed Whitewater real estate project; scandals for Clinton snowballed from there, as Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky came into the public eye for their alleged affairs with the President. Clinton remained defiant and successfully withstood a Senate impeachment trial. He went on to set up a multi-billion-dollar charitable foundation, and former First Lady Hillary Clinton went on to become a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.