September 25, 2020
I would like my blog readers to know that I have long considered myself a true ‘Independent’ when it comes to my identification as to political party affiliation. I can remember being a FDR Democrat when my Father was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican during WWII (I kept my mouth shut at home, mostly because I was only 10 or 12 years old and my father was really strong minded, much bigger than I, and certainly entitled to his own opinion.), then becoming a true Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican, a Kennedy-Johnson Democrat, detesting Nixon, and not thinking highly of Ford, Carter, or Reagan’s presidential skills. That’s when I began to consider myself a true independent. I quickly tired of George Bush trying to prove to himself and the American electorate that he really wasn’t a ‘wimp’. I had a very strong dislike of Bill Clinton and considered him a totally dishonorable person but I did approve of some of his political actions. The ‘W’ Bush was a total wimp and allowed Cheney and Rumsfeld to run and ruin his presidency. I voted twice for Obama but constantly raged against his arrogance in acting ‘Presidential’ while ignoring the needs of the ‘darker half’ of his racial heritage. I do give him credit for the ‘Affordable Care Act’ but considered he settled for ‘half-a-loaf’ when he should have (my opinion) fought for the ‘whole loaf’ and totally revised our dysfunctional health care system. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either Donald J. Trump (who I considered to be nothing more than a cheap, low-class, liar, crook and con-man) or Hillary R. Clinton (who I considered to be a cheap, low-class, liar, crook and thief, as evidenced during her term as Secretary of State)—so, I voted for the ‘Green’ candidate, rather than not vote at all.
Simply put, I believe our two party system and the influence of both party’s national committees is a major impediment to our democracy. I wish I was ‘politically astute’ enough to suggest a better alternative but I am sure there are others in the political arena who will take up that issue—sooner or later. I just hope it will be sooner rather than later!
After almost four years of the Donald J. Trump Presidency, I consider my extremely low assessment of his character and management skills was very much on the high-side of the reality. I really didn’t know, in late 2016, how ‘bad’ or how totally ‘evil’ a person he was, or how totally inept a ‘President’ he would be. I am not a professional psychologist, so I had no way of knowing he was medically classified as a serious, and dangerous, mentally defective, narcissistic-sociopath. Another problem was the fact that I have never been able to really understand why any sane person would actually have voted for him. In my last two blogs, #87 & #88, I tried to list all of the reasons I, or any of my blog readers, could think of as to why anyone entitled to vote would vote for him. I set my value-judgement system aside and came up with eight reasons and a Canadian friend provided the ninth. After spending the last weekend in a quandary, trying to decide what to write about in this week’s blog, and reading the Sunday New York Times newspaper from front to back for possible inspiration, I was just as confused and still searching for a subject for this week’s blog. Then, on Monday morning, my youngest sister, whose name is Jane, sent a message to my ‘Significant Other’ whose name is also Jane, which she had found on the net, which said: “We won’t change the minds of Trump supporters with facts, logic, or appeals of decency—if they could be influenced by these (-sic-) things, they wouldn’t be Trump supporters.” I must admit that, unfortunately, is the ‘reality’ that I have been searching for. And, just FYI, my two older (older than my sister Jane but younger than I) sisters are Trump supporters—one because her husband is a gun nut, and the other because her eldest son is gun crazy. One sister is afraid of her husband and the other is just a frightened widow/mother who loves her son. So, there above, in bold print, and in spite of a lot of obviously incorrect word usage and bad punctuation, is the simple reality about Donald J. Trump’s ‘supporters’. Some are, most likely, really nice people but they are ‘issue’ voters and willing to overlook Donald’s incredibly significant character flaws.
The sudden but not-unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg adds another layer of complexity to the already unbelievable list of 2020 election issues. Precedent aside, it seems to me that Trump risks losing the support of a substantial number of ‘middle–of-the-road’ women voters if he rushes the nomination and confirmation vote of his candidate for the Supreme Court position before the ‘swearing-in’ date of the next President on January 20, 2021. However, this issue is cut from the same cloth as the ‘presidential’ contest: Oligarchy and male, white supremacy vs Democracy and equal rights for all citizens. I doubt that Donald Trump’s core supporters will be anything other than thrilled to have a Trump-like conservative take RBG’s place on the Supreme Court, whether or not the ‘Donald’ is re-elected in the 2020 election. What, to me, is amazing is that Donald Trump continues to ignore any action or stance in favor of what would be considered good for our country or that could possibly help him be re-elected. He is only interested in what he sees as good for ‘Himself’. A narcissistic-sociopath he truly is.
The writer of the short statement, sent by my sister Jane, describing Trump’s supporters had one more, very short, sentence. It is; But (sic) we can outnumber them, we can show up and vote. Word usage and punctuation aside, that’s what we must do if we, the electorate, want our democracy to survive. Period. That’s the ‘reality’.
It’s very hot again this afternoon and Hubris is about as excited about going for our ride as he is about political commentary. No ‘Hi Ho Hubris’ this evening. So, unit next week, it’s Adios Amigos—-and stay safe!
Lou
Copyright, September 25, 2020, Louis J. Christen