Frank Sinatra for President

America loved him and we trusted him - and he earned it. Which is more than we can say about our current leaders.

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

― Ernest Hemingway

One may not think of Frank Sintra as an institution, but he should be. His was a persona that united generations. He had a coolness that permeated popular culture. His voice smoothed the rough edges of social unrest, harkened the halcyon days of innocent love, and sparked the excitement of unlimited possibilities. You didn’t need to know Sinatra to understand him, but he seemed to know the worries, passions, heartaches, and dreams of millions. He understood you.

And mostly because he lived it. From wars to unbridled success, a spectacular failure, Rock & Roll, political and cultural upheaval, the British Invasion, lost loves, and recovered hope. And through it all, he was there — with an American optimism that so closely sidles up to stubbornness, it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

And perhaps as importantly, Sinatra knew his place — his duty — as the entertainer. It isn’t a moniker of condescension or rudimentary cheapness. It was a refined profession, as serious a responsibility as anything wanting an advanced degree. Sinatra had it, and he was a master of it. For in those moments of simple, dismissive coolness, or those improvised stage shows with Sammy and Dean were poured hours and hours of sweat and repetition, shoe leather, and hustle. The greats always make it look easy.

In his famous 1966 Esquire profile “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” writer Gay Talese wrote

Frank Sinatra survives as a national phenomenon, one of the few prewar products to withstand the test of time. He is the champ who made the big comeback, the man who had everything, lost it, then got it back, letting nothing stand in his way, doing what few men can do: he uprooted his life, left his family, broke with everything that was familiar, learning in the process that one way to hold a woman is not to hold her. Now he has the affection of Nancy and Ava and Mia, the fine female produce of three generations, and still has the adoration of his children, the freedom of a bachelor, he does not feel old, he makes old men feel young, makes them think that if Frank Sinatra can do it, it can be done; not that they could do it, but it is still nice for other men to know, at fifty, that it can be done.

Sinatra had and did what our institutions are failing at so miserably: our trust. And Americans trusted him because he trusted us. He provided the setting, the music, and the mood, but knew we could handle things from here. He made standing on a Las Vegas stage with a one-eyed black Jew not bizarre, a subtle strike against racism but for all the world to see. He could make political jokes and be pleased with laughter to hear a tittering crowd nodding and clapping approval. He didn’t take himself too seriously but did his job with the utmost seriousness. Sinatra wasn’t the way, but he was there to help.

It contrasts with what our institutions are so blind to understand. To have our trust, they have to trust us. But everywhere that isn’t the case. We have a corporate media that shape narratives and purposefully, misleadingly, and deceivingly doles out information because they believe they are better at making your decisions than you.

We have an administration telling us not to trust what we plainly see in our everyday lives: everything from the causes of inflation (Putin’s price hike!), to gas prices, to healthcare (turns out you can’t keep your plan), to what is actually in the Inflation Reduction Act, solving the baby formula shortage, the crisis at the border, and the unacceptable rise in violent crime.

The FDA, CDC, and National Institutes of Health hardly need a flashback summary of the myriad ways they took a sledgehammer to our collective trust — all because they didn’t think Americans were able to take on personal responsibility for keeping ourselves and our families and communities safe. Every public health policy advisement was taken and used as a mandate because those government institutions and civil servants did not trust you. And they went even further — just as climate alarmists continue to do — by stoking fear and planting a seed of a dystopian future unless they receive 100 percent compliance. And they know they cannot effectively get it by allowing us unabridged access to information. No, Americans may not be smart enough or understand the proper nuances that an “expert” provides, so there must be gatekeepers. And if she can do it with a song and a dance, well all the better.

The education establishment wants complete control over America’s kids, denying parents a chance to be heard at school board meetings through intimidation, teaching racial divisiveness and overtly sexual curriculum, all the while blocking school choice initiatives. Parents cannot — and should not — trust an institution that refuses to trust us to make the best choices for our kids’ education.

All of the distrust and contempt for Americans only deepens the divide between us. It starts with a man who made hollow promises to unite the country and move forward together and ends with a speech condemning half of us as threats to our nation’s very survival. It is all so very…un-American.

Americans want to be optimistic about the future. We want to live knowing our kids will at the very least have the same opportunities we had. We want to walk on the sunny side of the street. One can imagine, a star-lit evening parked beneath the stars after a dinner for two in the dark-lit back booth of an Italian restaurant. The leaves on the trees rustle with the faint sigh of autumn breeze. Gazing into the promise of a night where love flirts with wistful comfort, a soft touch…And the War is over, and plans are made. Hope, adventure, and the future await. The whispered words barely have time to form on the lips before they take flight into the moonlight. Sinatra is on the radio — "I've Got You Under My Skin" and thousands of young lovers dream a dream, together.

Sinatra did it by endearing himself to millions with his charm and keeping their secrets with a knowing wink of those bright blue eyes and sly turn of a furtive smile as he tipped his fedora and raised a glass to all the lovers and dreamers and heartbroken loners. We trusted him because he trusted us. It was all going to be okay.