trump

Can Someone Explain?

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While never enamored of any political candidate since 1960, when I was 8 and thought the world of JFK, I am deeply enamored of common sense. It should be noted common sense and politics are mortal enemies, so my position makes a little bit of sloppy sense: if you have common sense, you hate-and would like to ignore–all politicians.

But there has been such a glaring lack of common sense in politics over the last 30 years, it needs to be addressed and called what it is: Stupidity.

The Republican Party has for many years, at least since Newt Gingrich, trumpeted (yes, intentional pun) itself as the Party of the People, the Party that represents all the best of America, all the really good people. You listen to the Red supporters and believe they are the only, true-blue party of America: every non-republican is evil and horrible.

So. How does that True Party fare in Presidential Elections?

Since 1988, the Republicans, the True Party of America, has won the popular vote of the United State of America, once. In all other 7 elections,The Party of America was outvoted. George HW Bush lost, Robert Dole lost, John McCain lost, Mitt Romney lost, Donald Trump lost (twice), and George W, Bush won the only one time for the Republican Party in his reelection in 2004. He lost the popular vote to Al Gore in 2000. Even worse when Trump and Bush were elected by Electoral College Mischief, they were a MINORITY GOVERNMENT making decisions for the majority who did NOT vote for Trump or Bush. (Please do NOT say Mitch McConnell’s (sic) name.

Hm.

When Donald J Trump was running against Hillary Clinton in 2016 he was very astute in calling out the fraud that was “going” to be part of the election, He knew he’d never win the popular vote and he lost by over 3 million votes. But he got the Right Votes, and became President, where he and his blond assistant claimed, repeatedly, the Trump win was a “mandate for change” voted for by The American People. WTF?? Republicans have consistently run with the idea they are in the majority and are the only true people who can run America. In some states, the Repubs have used their recent victories to change laws, elections, and voting districts to ensure their statewide power. (See NC, a state split nearly 50-50 Dem to Repub, the Red guys have maneuvered their party into a Do-Whatever-We-Want super-majority in the law-making institutions supposed to represent the people of the state.) Trump, to his credit did what any self-respecting politician would do: lie about Fraud, and try to subvert the legally elected change in government.

And then? Republicans preach and blather about fraud and conspiracies, anything to keep the eyes of the electorate off issues, and get DJT reelected. Can he finally win the popular vote on his third try? Better question: is he all the Republicans have to offer in the last 8 years? They and Trump lost the 2020 election by 7 million votes. Common sense?

The point is this: Politically, America is split nearly evenly between Dems and Repubs. (Us Independents have no say, anymore, but our numbers are growing.) Even when the Dems won the popular vote all those times, it was never a blow out. So do we need more politicians being hyper-partisan, especially Republican politicians who have no common sense justification for such hubris?

Both sides, of course, are to blame but one thing is obvious: when the Republicans get Power they work it like a dog with a bone to make sure they don’t lose it. Does that help the American People?

The nice thing about our government structure, if it survives, is the checks and balances of three branches. Let’s make sure common sense prevails, or The United States might not.

And I said MIGHT not. Not WILL not.

J#$%# F*&@ING CH#$%^

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I waited patiently after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, 2024. Maybe we could get a week off from all the babble and bullshit of our modern politics. Even just a day of peace…

It is surprising. I was a counter-culture, anti-materialistic rebel in the late 60s and 70s and heard a lot of bad words for nothing more than the length of my hair. “Patriotic” Americans were the worst of all. Without talking to me it was “take your hippie shit out of here and leave the country of you don’t like it.” Once, the words were from the back end of shotgun, and if you want to end a conversation real quick, or get rid of annoying hippies, a 12 gauge was a good bet to get the job done in 1970.

Sadly, America still sounds like that but the AR-15 is the gun of choice, these days. An arms dealer/politician from somewhere in the Midwest is already sounding the alarm about AR-15s being taken away from citizens…if Biden is re-elected. Midwest guy wants you to buy yours now, and if you already have one, buy another. It is beyond ironic after Trump gets shot by an Ar-15, a Republican politician wastes no time in defending the weapon, and up-selling it.

So in 50 years we’ve made no progress. Why? Politicians have become Followers, that’s why. Donald, JD, and other Republicans know what their base wants to hear, and the Republicans give it to them. They’ve been that way for the many years after The Army-McCarthy Hearings. (Google it, young people.) The Grand Old Party has kept its ear to the ground for over 70 years and they learned how to shape political conversation. Most recently, the GOP (and Trump) tried to deligitimize Obama with false claims and lies, and conspiracies. None of which were true and have ever been substantiated, but the GOP base thinks otherwise.

Now, to make matters worse, the Democratic Party is trying to imitate the Republicans. Its a relativelt new concept since in the past The Blue Party did all their dirty work behind the scenes. (Young people google LBJ and enjoy.) Most of your successful Democratic politicians were sweet faced in the public forums and ruthless in the back rooms. But now that type of discourse and dirty tricks is out in the open for both parties.

Which leads me my favorite saying for the last 70 years: Why, why, why would any American become a cult member of any political figure? ANY POLITICAL FIGURE! Since about JFK, our presidential elections have been a choice between good and not so good, bad and not so bad, or really bad and okay. Do you see “Excellent” or “Very good” in any of those choices? (Both Carter and H.W. Bush were good, decent, honest men, and look what happened when they tried to get re-elected.)

Everyone, remember: each and every politician goes to great lengths to get you to like them, to vote for them. I can personally guarantee, without knowing any of you, that you’re making a choice for President based on the power of one (or maybe two) issues. One Concept. One Political view. And you’re doing this in a time when a multitude of complex and complicated issues facing us are not even on the front page. Donald’s lying is. Or Biden’s approaching senility.

If we want to elect good (or better) politicians, we have to expect more from them, not award the prize to the least objectionable candidate. If you see what I’m saying, bless you. We, as country, need to get better as people, as informed people before “The Followers” will ever do what is right and best for America.

From the 60’s but possibly pertinent: never trust anyone over 30. Sadly our presidential candidates are well passed that age, and even past their “Sell By” dates. Think about it and make us all better.

Still…

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It’s becoming depressing, meeting lots of people who know more than I do about anything and everything. Being exposed to education should show us (at least it did me) there is more out there in this world. In Fact, the more we learn, the more OBVIOUS it should be there is more to learn. Note I am using the lowercase “education”, not the upper case Education, meant to refer to “institutions of higher learning”.

A warning: the word “intellectual” is about to be used. Again, it will be the small “i” intellectual, not the currently denigrated capital “I” Intellectual uneducated people are so fond of making fun of, these days.

All of us have an intellect. (Look it up if you don’t believe me.) It’s a God-given trait, like red hair or a big nose. But how many of us think about our “intellect” and how to use it? We wash and brush our red hair to keep it clean and shiny. We blow (and pick) our nose to keep the airway clear of snot and debris. But what do we do about our intellect? Do we take it for walks? To the gym? Feed it the correct food?

After a very tumultuous 1960’s I was sure the world was going to be a better place because so much of the population was exposed to, and becoming involved in, the issues of the day. Learning about those issues, through education, would save us. Hitchhiking around the country in the early 70’s I found people who were excited, enraged, ecstatic, angry, threatening, and yet all were talking, arguing, listening, and asking questions. I thought the nation’s intellect was expanding and an educated populace would save the world. Really. And, no, I was not a regular drug user. Huh. Not that I remember.

But we lost our way, Disco. Damn disco. And cocaine. And ABBA. And heavy metal rock, shares some blame, too. Sadly, lots of things combined to tragically lower the national intellect and we elected an actor as our president. Reagan did an okay job, but somewhere during that decade we lost the need to know more, to learn more, to understand. It was noticeable when George H.W.Bush did the right thing in his first term (raising taxes), and the people voted him out of office. Bet a lot of politicians learned a lesson from that: do NOT do the right thing if you want to get elected.

But back to the point: there is a clear lack of intellectual curiosity in America these days. At both the personal and national level. Personally, when we meet someone wearing a Trump hat or Biden pin we assume we know all about the person wearing either. So we don’t bother to ask questions or take the time to find out how wrong or how right we might be. Even worse, if they are not wearing either, we don’t care to find out why. I meet people and want to know who they are, what they do, where did they start life. And people are happy to tell me, but they never ask back. There is no intellectual curiosity about others. None. We see ourselves, and that’s all we need to know about the world.

I’ll stop wasting your time and summarize: be curious and ask questions. Of everyone. At least some of the answers you get might be right. And you will probably NOT be the best judge about the truth until you educate yourself, but you’ll have more data to feed your intellect. Its hungry.