The primary campaign is over and the conventions are to
come. But because the primary elections are so long, more than a year, I have
come to a conclusion as to whom I am voting for.
To be up front about it, I have never voted for a
Republican, though I feel that Eisenhower and Regan were good presidents. But
Nixon and the Bushes? ‘Nuf said.
I’m not especially fond of Hillary, despite the fact that as
a former New York resident, I voted for her as a senator. I think it’s her
rather cold personality. But that is a cold efficiency as well. Her experience
as a senator and secretary of state is impressive. I think that Republicans
have overdramatized an honest mistake about the e-mails and Ben Gazi is
something well beyond her control. But Hillary is like Teflon; scandals never
seem to stick to her. Remember Whitewater?
Then there is The Donald. Assuming that he wins the
nomination at the convention, he is simply a nightmare.
The businessman and reality star has appealed to what is the
worst of America. He has picked out two minority groups, Mexicans and Muslims,
as the reason for all our problems. It reminds me of Hitler and the Jews.
I don’t like Trump’s business decisions either. He has
deliberately bankrupted his casinos several times, closing one of them. He has
more than 200 lawsuits against him for not paying his bills. As I write this,
the workers at one of his casinos are on strike. He has failed with many
different businesses ranging from golf resorts, to wines and steaks. And Trump
University is considered a complete fraud.
It seems that just about every day, he says something
outrageous. Yet, despite his views, they appeal to many whites, especially the
middle class. The fact is that the middle class has significantly disappeared
for the first time in our lives. I am outraged by the way the one percent
thrive. It’s not that I wish them harm, but I want good jobs.
I think that the reason why so much of our manufacturing has
departed to other nations is simply labor costs. We invented television, now
even the Japanese have lost that base to Koreans and Chinese. On my street,
most of the cars are from Japan. Our clothes are made in Asia and South
America. I still remember hearing “Look for the union label” commercials on
radio in my childhood. We’ve gotten rid of tungsten light bulbs and got fluorescent,
and then LED bulbs from China. Furniture? Ask the people in the Carolinas about
that. And the list goes on. Most of our appliances, except washing machines,
are made in Asia. The washing machines are from Mexico, as are our car
batteries. Railroad cars, once the province of Pullman, are mostly from Canada.
And what drives me insane, Apple computers and other products are generally
Asian made. And when I need tech support, it comes from India. About 15 years
ago, I got a masters degree in educational computing. When teaching didn’t work
out, I figured I could get a job in tech support. No way. Tech support is in
India.
These are the jobs that enabled out middle class to prosper.
And The Donald’s bluster about them isn’t going to get them back. What is going
to get them back is the refusal of the American people to stop buying foreign
products. That ain’t gonna happen…ever, just ask the Walton family. You know,
the family that owns Wal-Mart. Nearly all the clothes and hard goods they sell
are imports. When did you last go to Wal-Mart, not because you liked it. But
the price was cheap. Alas, so is the merchandise.
Of course, I could vote for no one. But that doesn’t give me
the right to complain. I am tempted to vote for the candidate of a “minor”
party, whom I may agree with but has no chance to win. But that would be a
waste. I like a lot about what the Libertarians say. I don’t really care a whit
about what happens to Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan. I don’t want my tax dollars
to be spent in areas where people oppose us – or the puppet governments we
support. Has anyone learned lesson from Vietnam? Nope. Bush took us to Iraq and
Afghanistan. Obama kept us there. I want to see that money spent on schools. I
want socialized medicine because I’m fed up with paying insurance companies
who, in turn, spend billions on their political agendas.
This is the first time in my nearly 70 years of being a
member of the American population that I feel I must vote for a candidate I
don’t like. There was a time when our Presidents were people to be admired.
What happened to the Ikes, JFKs and LBJs? And even the losing candidates had
honor: Stevenson, Humphrey, Goldwater, Dole and Gore. Politics was once
something to aspire to. When I was a child, kids wanted to grow up to be
cowboys, cops, astronauts and Presidents. Now, they want to program computer
games.
Our current President has been the victim of more hate than
any President in American History. Is it because he is a Democrat, or because
of his race? All he has done was oversee an economic recovery and the death of
bin Laden. He has improved health care, despite what those who oppose him say. And
he has suffered through this abuse with grace and dignity. It used to be that
the opposing party didn’t make it their business to paralyze the country
because it didn’t like the president. When Clinton faced a Republican Congress,
the business of the people still continued despite the rancor and even the
bullshit impeachment attempt.
Republicans remind me of spoiled children these days. They
are furious that they failed to get Former President Clinton impeached (over a
blow job, no less), and so they want to destroy the woman who stood by him. But
they are so full of rage that they have created a monster for their candidate.
The only way we will be able to have a functional government
is if we have the same party control both houses of Congress and the executive
office. The last time that happened was when Obamacare was passed, based on the
Massachusetts plan formed by the eventual Republican Presidential nominee.
Despite the massive opposition funded by billions of dollars we have paid to
the insurance industry, there has been no dramatic change in health care. The
insurance companies, once non-profits such as Blue Cross, are still turning
obscene profits, mainly because Obamacare forced more people to get health
insurance. America’s greatness was when the Democrats took power in the great
depression; When the Democrats stopped illegal racism and created a “Great
Society” in the 1960s which included vital things like food stamps, Head Start
and Medicare, and these days, when Obamacare gave health care to millions more
before the tea party rose and strangled the government in a deliberate attempt to
seize power instead of working within the system.
I am currently reading a series of science fiction books
where an industrialist has created terror in order to foster his control of the
country. In the plot, mankind is
faced with two alternatives, a peaceful but totalitarian state; or a state
determined by individuals. The central power of our life force has been
damaged, and there is a potential for the universe to collapse if it is not
repaired. Totalitarian equals a saving of the life force, because there will be
no conflict, as well as no freedom. But you take your chances with
self-determination and the possibility of saving the life force?
How close is this to Trump, or for that matter Hillary? I
don’t know. So here’s whom I’m voting for – are you ready? I have an absentee
ballot and as I look at it I’m going to pray about it. Then I’m going to flip a
coin. Heads=Trump, tails=Hillary.
I am open to suggestions.
