Friday, July 8, 2016

My vote goes to. . .

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.