"We have to amputate one of your legs. Your choice whether it be your right leg or your left leg."
Either way, we are crippled.
The only difference from past elections is that they amputated at the knee. In 2020, it's higher up. Mid thigh.
Still crippled.
Today we should all hang our heads in shame for the non-choices we have. I don't have to mention the names. Hands down, these are the two worst top tickets in Presidential Election history. We've all heard the hatred going back and forth like a ping pong table. The bottom line is that this happened on our watch, ladies and gents. But it has not transpired over night. Indeed, we have been asleep at the switch...or the computer...for some time now.
And to think that some of us had relatives who died for our right to vote. Now we've gotten so lazy that we can't even go to a polling place on the first Tuesday of November to vote and get a free doughnut. I had dozens of friends on social media gleefully...almost ridiculously...posting selfies of them putting completed ballots into a mailbox. Hmmm, how come I never see cutesy-poo photos of them putting their income tax payments into the same mailbox every April?
Social media has fanned the flames of the bi-polar state of our nation for which there is no lithium. I have friends who are staunchly right or adamantly left and, as far as I am concerned, they are allowed to their opinions as long as they don't verbally persecute folks who don't agree with them. Except that never happens on Facebook, which has become a war zone similar to Corregidor Island in World War II. Yes, Facebook is the new town square. But remember that every village has its share of idiots.
As for me, I disagree with 99.9% of the lot of you. Most of my politically posting friends have been snoozed with a good dose of virtual Sominex. I'll catch up with them when the dust settles and the fires subside. Maybe then they will stop bombarding me with, as one friend consistently does, magazine articles that "everyone must read." I snoozed said person months ago.
You see, I'm a registered Independent voter. And, as I have been for many years, I consider myself a moderate. On some issues, I am slightly left of center. On others, I am slightly right of center. Over my lifetime, I have voted Democratic and I have voted Republican. I have always done my homework and did my research and my vote usually corresponds to what I have read. And, as I am a voracious reader of Presidential history 1900 and beyond, there are only two Presidents that meet my criteria from the murky middle. Both were fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
John F. Kennedy was one. Indeed, in 2020, his policies would likely put him on the Republican ticket. His assassination pretty much set us up for the next spiraling 57 years. The second is Gerald Ford who had a good plan to unite the country, but knew that pardoning Richard Nixon was necessary for the forward motion of America, despite the fact that it would have dire consequences for his prolonged stay in the Oval Office. Yes, that unfortunately set him up for early dismissal.
Since Ford, we have been on a slow but steady flush. Bill Clinton was the exception during the midway point of his administration when he learned too that this was a moderate country at its core. But he, of course, did himself in when he couldn't figure out what the zipper on his pants was for.
The rest of them post-Ford? Mediocre to overrated to horrible. During the second term of the Reagan administration, the President was so out of it that I am convinced the nation was being run by First Lady Nancy and Merv Griffin.
Indeed, Barack Obama had the right words prior to his first election. He wanted to unite. But, in reality, his skill sets only knew how to do the opposite. His actions led us to Trump and that brings us to today's scheduled amputation.
I truly believe in the fabric of this country. I believe we have matured into a largely moderate society. I mean, this is a nation that elected a man of color to the Presidency not one, but twice. How suddenly does it become systemically racist? I'll let you look at the answer on my test paper. By and large, it doesn't.
If you compare the political mood of America, you see a pendulum that is swinging wildly at 45 degree intervals from left to right. Truly, for this nation to succeed, we need that pendulum to slow down its arc. Maybe ten degrees to the right and then ten degrees to the left. No more than that.
But, in our current state, we will not survive. Nothing is forever, folks. There's a malignant tumor in our core and we must change before it metastisizes. Sadly, that spreading process may have already started.
The Roman Empire, which was considered to be bitching at the time, lasted just over 500 years. America is at 244 and counting down. On our present course, the Romans should not be worried about being overtaken in the history stat books. What was it that the still coherent Ronald Reagan once said?
"Freedom is always just one generation from extinction."
I keep hearing that every vote counts. Uh-huh. But when you're a moderate independent and live in either New York or California...both states I have called home...it really doesn't. There are other states where my vote would be meaningless on the other side of the now-littered aisle.
Here in California, every election year comes laden with numbered and lettered propositions. They are truly a pain in the rear to go through, but I actually like the concept behind them. The voting populace truly gets a say in some policy moving forward. I actually think this is a good idea. Why not extend it to the national level?
Structural changes to the Supreme Court?
We vote on it.
Higher taxes to pay for X, Y, or Z?
We vote on it.
Healthcare coverage changes?
We vote on it.
Fracking?
We vote on it.
Then everybody counts.
Okay, so the way our Constitution sets up, we are supposed to have a representative to Congress that will carry our opinion and vote. Uh-huh. When you live in the murky middle, that no longer is the case. Congressional representatives only come with one hand. A left or a right.
My House representative is Karen Bass. You may have heard her name. She was on the short list to be the Democratic ticket for Vice President. Well, back in 2015, I attempted to correspond with her three times. That was the year where medical issues for the first time backed up on me like a clogged sewer drain. As a result, a good portion of my life savings got wiped out in a period of ten months. And it's not like I was dying.
Money left my hands largely because some of the procedures I had to undergo were no longer covered by insurance because of all the changes brought about by Obamacare, which one insurance rep told me was essentially "medical welfare." I really wanted to tell Ms. Bass about this as an average citizen. I wrote three super-duper respectful letters in an effort to have my voice heard.
All three letters went unanswered. Not even a response from the lowest flunky in the office. I would have accepted solace from the college intern.
Silence.
That's not to say that Karen Bass doesn't know where to find me. I get robo calls whenever she is raising money to be re-elected and represent nobody in the district. I heard from her just the other night with some alleged telephone town hall. I heard nothing new. A bunch of women yammering about Trump and I hung up after five minutes.
I have heard similar stories from friends. I hear Maxine Wright's office actually profiles the mail they get and responds to only those they choose to. The saying is that, if your last name ends with a vowel or a "z," you go right into the round receptacle next to the desk. If you indeed have ever had a positive interchange with a politician on a national level, I salute you. A lot of us in the middle have not. We have had laryngitis for years. No voices heard.
So, we have yet another Election Day where I hear people are voting for the lesser of two evils. In my ideal world, you should vote for who's better not who is less worse. But it is ultimately your choice and, in my world, you are allowed to do whatever you want. I wish I could say the same for some people I know on social media who preach intolerance but don't accept the opinions of others.
On our current crash course, that kind of voting method and subsequent lack of civility just speeds us closer to what the Roman Empire once experienced. The end of the good times. Nero tuning his fiddle.
Until we arrive at the day where there is a party of Moderates to come up against the current mindsets and broken pendulums of Democrats and Republicans, we don't have a chance. We can't manage to be bipartisan. How the heck will we ever attempt being tripartisan?
Enjoy your chosen leg. While you have it.
Dinner last night: Leftover Chinese food.
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