It’s about those Trump yard sign slogans we are seeing around town.

To date, I have noticed three variations. The first, and to be fair, I think the rarest, is simply crass and in poor taste. I mean, what does “No more bull—t” add to the public discourse surrounding this presidential election?  It didn’t do much for us Boomers when we used it 55 years ago, and I don’t think it will do much for today’s imitators either. Come to think of it, assuming that the amount of bovine manure being spread around is relevant, Democrats could appropriate the same theme with greater cause. Thankfully, they have so far resisted the temptation to play the potty mouth card as a part of their campaign.

The two more common calls to action, “Make America Great Again” and “Take America Back,” are more interesting because one is unnecessary, and the other is an impossibility.

As to the first, I must admit that I failed to get the memo advising me America was no longer great. Here I am, drifting through life, fat (but not grotesquely so, thank you very much), dumb, and happy, thinking that the lowest unemployment rate in memory, the strongest stock market in history, more Americans having access to health insurance than ever before, the strongest military on the face of the earth, allies willing to work with us to achieve common goals, an industrial sector on the rebound, the strongest economy among all first-world nations, an inflation rate in decline, much overdue infrastructure projects being undertaken, still being the country pesky undocumented aliens are willing to risk their lives to get into by any means possible – even illegally – are good things. In my innocence, silly me, I believed all were indications of a country already great by nearly any measure.

There is a contrary view, promoted by MAGA-Republicans, a certain presidential candidate, and a vast right-wing echo chamber, that sees America as a country in carnage that can be saved only by them and only if their prescription for 2025 and beyond is followed to the letter.

If they and their fellow travelers are the source of a voter’s information, it is understandable for the faithful to wallow in the doom and gloom.

As to which view is more accurate, it must be pointed out that the flagship network pushing the carnage scenario has already been adjudged liable for millions of dollars for disseminating “news” coverage that it knew, at the time, to be false. On the trustworthy meter, draw your own conclusions.

The last slogan is probably the most interesting. “Take America Back” generates two immediate questions: take it back to “when?” and take it back for “whom?”

On the “when,” my money would be on the Fifties and Sixties. American industry dominated the world. Jobs were not hard to come by, and if they were lost during a recession, more opportunities would be coming down the pike. All sorts of modern conveniences made their debut and were gobbled up by a public who had surplus money to spend as the result of union-driven wage increases in the manufacturing sector. Middle class families were anxious to put the privations of the war years behind them. Televisions ads featuring women typically portrayed them in non-threatening “housewife” roles emoting over the latest gizmo due to go on the market. Despite seething discontent under the surface, minority groups largely kept quiet and gratefully took whatever scraps fell off the prosperity table. Amazingly, some of the minority groups being dealt with today had yet to be labeled as groups back then, so far were they beneath the public’s consciousness.

News flash: The conditions that made these halcyon days possible no longer exist. They’re not coming back.

In the aftermath of World War II, the only intact industrial and manufacturing base was our own. All the others had been bombed, blitzed, or even nuked, into irrelevance.

America is no longer the only player on the board. There are multiple competitors, including economic giants in Asia and the Far East that were economic nonentities not so many years ago.

This republic of ours is still great, but it’s no longer the only giant astride the world. Nor, if a prosperous world economy is a goal to be pursued (not to mention additional markets for our goods), should we want it to be.

Finally, who is the intended beneficiary of taking America back in time?

I suspect the answer is supplied by the title of one of the television shows popular at the time: “Father Knows Best.”

Under this theory, the answer to the future is the past. What apparently is envisioned is a return to a country where power resides in the hands of wise men, mostly Caucasian, married (with children), Christians, preferably Conservative Christians, who are convinced that our Republic has had its day and who are willing to sacrifice said Republic for a return to the halcyon days of yore.

Minimize the role of women and minorities, and, assuming elections will be used at all to put some lipstick on the pig, rig them to produce a desired result.

Can it be done? Will it be done?

No.

Think of a tube of toothpaste.

Think of our world as the product of squeezing toothpaste out of the tube. To “Take America Back” would entail trying to shove some toothpaste back into the tube.

Try it.

To say it can be done is a lie. To promise voters you will deliver on the lie is an even greater deception.