I figured out what I find wrong with this election cycle. Well, I have known all along, but have finally put some words to what I was feeling. America has lost its moral way, maybe.
Now, I am not talking about being a Christian nation, that is a post for another time and I can definitely put some words together over it. What I mean is we have lost our sense of good and bad, secular values of character and decency.
I suppose part of this is my nostalgia for a place and time that no longer exists. But, I am realist enough to understand that all the things that I miss, that have gone by the wayside, are replaced with things that others are treasuring as they live through them. Instead of drinking from a hose, my children will remember when you could not play Xbox or PlayStation on line. They may even have foggy memories of the dial up modem, which replace my rotary phone attached to a party line memory (which in a weird way, was kind of like a stone age Facebook, lots of lurking and listening).
Time stands still for no one, nor anyone's romanticized memories. I am not nostalgic for the world that cost my grandfather his life from a heart condition that would not have even required open heart surgery today. Nor for the world that required me to use pen and paper, and wait 2 weeks to hear from my family, during my first extended deployment. No satellite phones either, just MARS calls, which were exactly like Facebook without the pictures, cause two guys sat there eavesdropping on you.
There is much to admire and be thankful for, in the world that we live have today. But, that does not mean there are not relics from the past that would be useful to resurrect in our society. For one, we could go back to having some basic right and wrong, good and bad, expectation of morality in interaction. Me included, look, I am just as guilty as the next person.
But, there were rules in play, that were relatively adhered to, and worked for our benefit. We worked on racism, and maybe made progress. And, I hate to disillusion the young folks of today, who see a world of discrimination, but, it is very different today than it was, even in my youth. In 1973, when my family went on vacation, I remember asking my Mom if black people only lived in Maryland. Because once we got across the Harry Nice bridge on 301, we did not see another black person until we got back across the Harry Nice bridge coming home. All that federal desegregation stuff was good and all, but it had not yet come to be rooted in society. There was still enough segregation in place that it was noticeable to a five year old. Today, the segregation is replaced with economic isolation, and there are sections of every large city in this nation that you could wander for hours and never see a person of color, or wander and never see a white person. No sign says "Whites Only", or "Colored Only" but the rent sure as hell does. So, maybe we haven't made progress?
We worked on religious bigotry, and maybe made progress. I was born only 7 years after we elected the first Roman Catholic, the faith I was raised in, to the White House. There was a significant segment of the population that wondered if JFK would be told what to do by the Pope. Honest, its true. The great JFK was seen as something of a risk (besides being a war hero and Senator, bigotry knows no reason). All because of his faith, and his Irish heritage, there was an entrenched minority that would never accept that he was American first, because he swore an oath to be, and believed he was a Papist puppet. Today, we just have an entrenched minority that swears our President is Muslim, because of his name and his skin color, and swears that he is plotting to destroy America. 7 years into his term, we have nominated the chief bigot in charge of that little gem, to run to succeed him as President. It would not be okay if he were Muslim, that must mean he is a terrorist. And, if he swore his oath on the Kuran, it is non-binding, because only the Bible is sacred enough for oaths, though it says in the Bible not to do anything like swearing an oath. President Obama is viewed by many as illegitimate, despite attending a Christian church (though religion is not supposed to matter) and was a Senator. So, maybe we haven't made progress?
We have made progress on equality for women. We haven't, I was just checking to see if you were reading. We still have not passed meaningful legislation that determines that women are required to be paid consistently with men, for the same qualifications and experience. We have done stuff that really is not in the best interest of equality for women, like maternity leave. No, hear me out, because I don't have anything against maternity leave. But, if there is supposed to be equality, there should just be parental leave, that applied to both parents, to integrate a new life and schedule into their complexity. As long as we continue to determine difference based on sex, we continue to extend sexism. Most women are viewed as a risky endeavor when they get pregnant, that is the reality of today. After all, how do you manage without a needed employee for six weeks or more? You don't worry about that with a dude. Unless you extend the rights to both parents, and you then staff accordingly to absorb the expected absence. That is the thing with equal, see the racial thing above. Separate but equal never is. And equal can't be just between one race, or one sex, or one religion. It is either equal to everyone or IT DOES NOT FIT THE DEFINITION OF EQUAL.
I was involved in a conversation last night about wasted votes that prompted this rant. My vote will be wasted on the Libertarian candidate, and because I don't agree with the person I was talking to, I was deluded and militant. Well, maybe. I am convinced, completely, that the essential thing that is American is wrapped up in voting. Exercising that right, without fetters of taxation or publication, is everything America is based on. We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish a Constitution (and yes, I sang that as I typed it, thank you School House Rock). In it, it states that the people elect the representatives that form that government, and the government is subject to the will of the people.
But, we were a little too afraid (maybe with some justification, you did see Trump in that debate right?) about the will of the people, so we instituted the Electoral College. Supposedly to negate the disparity in population, South to North, but really to discount the number of black folk that were enslaved in the South. A fascinating thing, but, in all the elections we have held, we have managed to stay basically true to the will of the people. Except for 4 elections Quincy Adams/Jackson 1824, Hayes/Tilden 1876, Harrison/Cleveland 1888, and Bush/Gore in 2000. Out of all of the elections, these 4 were the only ones that resulted in someone winning the election without winning the popular vote. That is a pretty good record of getting it right, and all 4 of those elections put people in office that resulted in bad news for America. Objective history, not just personal opinion. But instructive about the will of the people. (Important historical note for all those Birther/Obama is a Muslim folks)
What has happened, is that we have entrenched ourselves in a situation of hate and anger. Blacks are angry about their treatment. Whites are angry about their treatment. Muslims are angry about their treatment. Hispanics are angry about their treatment. But, instead of identifying where those points of anger overlap, and can be addressed to the benefit of all, we devolve into name calling and bitterness. Look, I am part of the problem as well, no holier than thou condemnation. And if you have read this far, it is almost over, but this is important.
POLITICS WILL NOT SOLVE IT FOR US. No candidate that we elect is going to solve anything for us. Because our system is set up for us to solve the problem, by the will of the people. We are supposed to vote out folks that do not do their duty, that is why the House has elections every 2 years. They are the pursestrings of the government, that is why they have such a short term, to limit the damage they can do to the nation's well being. The Senate, supposedly a deliberative and considered body, has a longer term, and rotating portions, to provide continuity and breadth of vision, for appointments, treaties, confirmations. The President is up every 4 years. If there are issues, we get to vote in a new President.
Except it has failed. There was a Congressman from Texas on TV last night, that was a Trump supporter, who went on and on about Trump being the change we need, the change necessary, the shake it up piece that has been missing. The reporter asked him, since change was necessary, didn't that mean he was necessarily a piece of the problem that needed to be replaced. Painful expression, silence, then "I put my credentials up every 2 years, and the voters think I am doing a good job."
Look, my opinion, there is not a single member of Congress, House or Senate, that is doing a good job. No budget, no long term legislative agenda, no meaningful amendment to regulation or taxation, no progress on appointments. There is simply a partisan piss party happening. But, we vote for them, over and over and over again, then get pissed off that it doesn't work, like we should expect something different.
Even your particular great representative, that you plan to vote for again, is part of the problem, or change isn't necessary, in the kind of nuclear explosion that Trump would be, literally. The status quo, which is the horse blanket over Hillary, is not all that great an option either. So either way, the political midget that is your current elected official, is of dubious value, period.
If we are to create a process by which we have power in the people again, a lot of folks like me, need to cast "meaningless" votes for other. Because the vote tally and performance of those "fringe" candidates is the only way to break the stranglehold of incumbency the two major parties possess. A vote for other, Johnson in my case, is a vote for different, and the first step in the machinations required to consistently field and provide a choice between R and D. Because Redo and Duplicate are just not good things at this point.
That is not a good versus evil, religious morality. That is a right and wrong decision for the basis of our Constitution and the government we established in 1789. It is maybe the most important thing, those of us alive and running America today, will ever do. Just like beating the Nazis, the Commies, waging forever war on the Religious Nutbags, getting our government back to of the people, by the people and FOR THE PEOPLE, that just might be our greatest generation accomplishment. It worked for the Whigs/Republicans in 1856. They nominated John C. Fremont, a cannibal, I kid you not. He lost, thankfully, he was a major league idiot. But, the performance was significant enough to lay the ground work for two very distinguished Whigs to vie for the nomination in 1860. William Seward, the most able man to never serve as President, and Abraham Lincoln. IT GAVE US LINCOLN, and who would not be happy to see a statesman like that appear on the horizon?
Just saying.
GLYASDI
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