A Sad Election Day

I voted by mail two weeks ago.   My polling place here in LA is actually in somebody's garage.   I got tired of standing there amongst Christmas ornament boxes and oil cans to cast my ballot.

Here, in Los Angeles, there are 150 or so propositions on the ballot.  My rule of thumb is to see what the Los Angeles Times recommends and I do the exact opposite.  I also voted for all the candidates vying for dog catcher, council clerk, and the like.   There is a state senator race in California.   Barack Obama recommended one of the candidates.   Again, I did the opposite.   

As for the big Kahuna job, I can't believe I am writing this.   It actually pains me to type the words.

I didn't pull that lever.  Or, in my case, ink that little box.   Cast my vote for one of the two idiots vying for the top job?  Hello, no.

Ouch all over again.

So, no, half of you in the country, I'm not with her.

And, no, you other half of the country, I'm not with him either.

Seriously, this once great nation must be the laughing stock of the world with these two idiots vying for the most important job of the land.  I thought about writing in Vin Scully.   I decided not to sully his name alongside these two frauds.   Indeed, I would love to hear the post-election day stats about those people like me who voted for everything else but abstained from voting for President.   I think that number will be sizable and the largest in history.

Okay, as a preface, I know people on both sides of this discussion.   If you voted for your choice, God bless you.   I honor your opinion.

I sincerely hope you respect mine.

I am proud to live in a country where you can vote for leadership.   And I have taken it to heart every time I get the opportunity to do so.   I try to vote always intelligently and, as a person not registered with either party, I hold no real allegiance.   I always try to pull the lever for the best person of the job.   And I take great care in learning all the pros and cons.

I also read up a lot, as I have done most of my life, on all our Presidents since 1900.   I know their good points and their bad points.   All had something to offer.  All had their issues.   Some were better than others.   Some were worse than others.   And, if you do take the time to read up on this subject, you will rapidly come to the conclusion that the quality of President, just like the quality of life in this country, has gone steadily downhill since Friday, November 22, 1963.  That's when we lost the last true moderate and bi-partisan Chief Executive.  John F. Kennedy was a fiscal conservative and a social liberal.   Left leaners who like to tout his name would be shocked to learn just how conservative he was.  While he was a Democrat, his policies were such that our lives would be in a much different place had he only keep a hood on that limousine.  

In my voting history, I have been all over the map looking for the best choice.  I have voted for some of the winners.   I have changed my mind in some cases for a second term.   I have voted for some of the losers and wished I had changed my mind earlier.   Essentially, every four years, my little lever pull has been up for grabs.   Hopefully to be won by the candidate, man or woman, white or black or brown, gay or straight who made the utmost sense to yours truly.

Ultimately, I am always disappointed.

You know, I think it was that babbling Ronald Reagan who, in his first campaign, asked the question of the electorate.

"Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"

The answer allegedly got him elected.  Because...well...Jimmy Carter.

And, in my own humble existence, I think about this question.

Since 2001, my life has changed for the negative.   First in small dribs and drabs.  Since 2012, significantly.   

I am not a member of the 1%. nor do I fall in the category of dirt poverty.  I am somewhere in the murky middle.   A lot less happier than before.   Sure, I get to toil in my chosen livelihood and craft.   Always dreaming for more, even though it is harder to come by.  And, after last year where I got hit with some health issues, the dreams started to look like nightmares.   Financially, I began to be drained in efforts to get better.   Physically, I did so.   Monetarily, nope.   All of it due to health coverage in this country which is an abomination.   And, yes, I am talking about Affordable Healthcare, which is effectively killing the very people who are paying for it in their taxes.  PS, the so-called Obama Health Care is only available to people who are completely destitute.  If I did qualify for it, I would likely kill myself because that would signal that my life is totally in the crapper.

So, no, I am not with her and an extension of the policies that wrecked me for a long while.   And, frankly, can some one explain to me why Hillary Clinton is qualified to be our President?  Because she is a woman?   Because she was once married to a President and might have slept with him once?  (Chelsea had to get here some how)  Please don't me tell about her successes in the past.   Look what has happened in the Middle East the last eight years.   I am sorry.  I am looking for a worthy candidate, not a feel-good marketing plan to ease past guilt of either racial or gender inequality.   This country did that eight years and I have the red ink in my portfolio to show for it.  Trust me, when history looks back at the current President, hindsight will display a lot of mediocrity.   Indeed, his greatest accomplishment will be simply getting elected in the first place.

And then there's the other side of the aisle.

No, I am not with him and his game show personae.   I often keep wondering when some one will pop out of the shadows after a Donald Trump speech and say "Smile, you're on Candid Camera."  Oddly enough, I kind of understand why he exists to the level he does.  His appeal is to all those little folks in the middle of the country who didn't get the bail outs from Wall Street and the feds.   They don't qualify for food stamps or welfare or affordable healthcare.   They suffer and clip out McDonald's coupons from the newspaper. They are angry and Trump has essentially let them breast feed on his every word.

But close the border?  Build a wall?  Shoot to kill?   This is the talk of insanity and is the type of crazy lunatic who would be the new villain every season on "24."  He has no more qualification for this job than she does.   And, frankly, he also has about as much experience and reason to be President as George W. Bush or Barack Obama had.   PS, that would be none.

I hear from dear friends who have told me they will leave the country if one or the other is elected President and I think about how silly a notion this is.   As if one or the other will make a difference in this nation.   Our choice come today is that of selecting either arsenic or strychnine for our after dinner aperitif. Let's face it.   Every one of us is going to have a leg amputated.   For some, it might be the right leg.   For others, it will be the left leg.   Regardless of the side, we will all be crippled.

While I rarely talk politics with friends, I have mentioned my nagging dilemma to some of them.   I get the same answer.

"Well, just hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils."

Er, no, I will not.   I am better than that.   We should all strive to be better than that.

I am told that I should not throw away my vote because people died for me to have the privilege.  Perhaps, but they did not die for this.   The choice to elect two incredible frauds to be the most important leader in the world.

One friend told me I was un-American for not voting for one particular candidate.   I now look at that person with the description of friend in air quotes.   How dare you say that?   But, that's what we have become in this country, which is now bi-polar and manic depressive.    Trust me.   Neither one of these candidates is the pill we need to cure our condition.

I'm not with her.   I'm not with him.   I hope and I pray that there is some one with me.  

Indeed, I have a sense that the winner will be Hillary.   And, as I have told many friends over the past three months, I hope everybody has done their research on prospective Vice President Tim Kaine as he will be our President by the end of 2017.   I predict Clinton will be gone by then.   Leaving the White House either in handcuffs or on a gurney.  Most likely, I think she will be ultimately incapacitated by an illness being hidden from the electorate.

You heard it here.

Dinner last night:  Leftover sausage and peppers.