I’m a liberal columnist. My dad is a Trump supporter. On this holiday, he gets his say | Opinion

Every year on Thanksgiving, New York Times columnist and noted liberal, Maureen Dowd, turns her column over to her brother, Kevin Dowd, a slightly-less-noted conservative.

But I’ve got a noted conservative in my life, too: my father, Mitch Epley. Well, he’s notable to me, at least.

My dad has lived in Sacramento for more than four decades. He taught me a lot about writing, and a lot about politics too — even though we rarely agree on the latter (and, frankly, I’ve since surpassed him in the former. Sorry, dad.)

So, with a hat tip to the Dowds: This Fourth of July, I’m handing over my column inches, typically filled with far-left ideologies, to my Trump-supporting father. I do so partly in the spirit of democratic dialogue and patriotism across party lines that I believe Independence Day should inspire in all Americans, but also because it’s always been the Epley family’s favorite holiday to spend together.

Take it away, dad.

I’ve been given a unique opportunity to express my opinion today, but I think it’s hard to tell where a person stands if you don’t know their background.

I’m a retired systems engineer who did not attend college. I received my technical education from the U.S. Air Force. I have been married, widowed and remarried again. I am a registered Republican who enjoys and respects firearms, voraciously reads science fiction novels, loves Monty Python and my two cats. I respect lofty ideals, realism and dialogue about new ideas — and the people who espouse them thoughtfully and civilly.

My first real impression of politics was the Richard Nixon-era Watergate trials, where our president was pilloried for tragically simple crimes by today’s standards. With the subsequent pardoning of Nixon by President Gerald Ford, I learned about the silent powers that be: those who govern the nation’s agenda. I saw the little guys — the common people — be minimized, obscured and dismissed.

In 2024, the common people spoke up against the ivory towers of academia, special interest groups and, dare I say it, the media. And, as I see it, the people won: Welcome to MAGA.

My father, Ed, was a liberal activist. I believe he thought that if he gave people the chance to think about alternatives, most would make the right decision. He wanted to make people think, and he believed that being dispassionately and intellectually informed might help steer events and decisions in a new direction.

He had a great hope for humankind. His granddaughter Robin, who normally writes in this space, is of a similar mind.

So that makes me an outlier in the family. I didn’t bother voting in 2016, but I voted for Donald Trump the last two times. I actually don’t support all MAGA ideals, but I am not “woke,” and I’m certainly not politically correct. I consider both those ideologies to be outliers of good government and of common sense. I knew that by supporting Trump, I was enabling a kind of corrective evil upon our country. I don’t like him much, but I voted for him.

Unfortunately, given the choices provided to the voting public last November, the alternative to Trump was philosophically, optically, morally and cognitively far worse. I believe Trump is better suited to be president than Kamala Harris was, and I would certainly not vote for her if she runs for governor next year.

America is a world leader and, to continue as such, we’ve got to have someone in the lead who appears, at least charismatically, to be a leader. But there’s nothing in the Constitution that says our president must be a nice person or a likeable individual.

I’d prefer a president who appears to be a risk-taking, narcissistic American: someone who is in love with the concept of the American Dream and our ideals. Nothing says the president can’t be a bad guy — just so long as he’s our bad guy — and boy, did we hit the jackpot.

It would be preferable that our elected and appointed officials were paragons of truth, justice and the American way. But superheroes and villains seem to only exist in fiction. Or do they?

Giant corporate structures, dismissive and profit-focused healthcare magnates, and greedy, self-serving power and gas companies qualify as supervillains as well as any fictional ones.

While the current regime is (supposedly) financially-oriented, oddly enough, that’s the side that’s trying to reduce our bloated bureaucracy by forcing economic revisions and trying new paths.

It will hurt. It always does. It will make people uncomfortable and confused, and may cost some people their way of life. But I don’t believe government service was ever intended to be a perpetual gravy train. The train has gone off the rails, and we must try something different.

There will be questions of legality: Who violated what? What rules were broken? Who abused the auto signature machine? Who traded guns for hostages and who profited from insider knowledge? Who sold influence in search of money, nepotism or power?

That said, if you play a corrupted game, you win corrupted prizes. How can we be surprised?

Trump is nothing if not the King of the Deal… and this administration is (probably) only for another three years. Then we all get our chance to overcorrect again. Or not. Maybe we’ll go even more conservative. But we will move forward, maybe not at the speed people want.

I see this as a Hail Mary presidency, with a quarterback a lot of people don’t like, in a game we really can’t afford to lose.

But after more than 60 years of watching people fight and tear down society just to build it back again, I just cannot work up the social angst it apparently takes to participate in today’s politics. We need to think dispassionately about global, national and local politics; but act personally with compassion and common sense.

This story was originally published July 4, 2025 at 7:00 AM with the headline "I’m a liberal columnist. My dad is a Trump supporter. On this holiday, he gets his say | Opinion."