I was cleaning out files on my computer, and I found
this. It is a blog I started (and never finished) shortly after the
presidential election (November 2016). I tried to flesh it out a bit, but it’s
just several snippets on the topic of politics. So...enjoy?
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I fear that we who think of ourselves as liberal,
progressive, even moderate will close our eyes to the real takeaway from this
election. After our shock and anger and sadness fade, after we assuage our pain
with platitudes of love and family and community, we’ll simply move on without
examining this whole election. All these calls for love and respect – I worry
they will in reality equal doing nothing. They are simply another version of
the “thoughts and prayers” that conservative offer whenever some mass shooting
occurs: ultimately meaningless.
. . . . . . . .
We ignore things. We worry and complain about them when
they come up – the problem of the Electoral College, for example – and then we
forget about it, until 4 or 8 or 12 years later when it comes up again. We know
it’s a problem, a fixable problem, but we don’t fix. We don’t even make and attempt
to fix. When Hillary Clinton’s supporters had to keep trying to convince people
that even though they may not like her, they should still vote for her, is that
not a big red flag? When the Democratic party possibly fudges the primary votes
in favor of a candidate, is that not a big red flag? Apparently not, because
mostly we ignore all that, too. Instead, we prefer to blame anybody who
supported or, god forbid, actually voted for a third-party candidate.
. . . . . . . .
Donald Trump was right, in a sense, when he said the
electoral system is rigged – just in a more complex way than he meant. Our
government, on most levels, is monopolized by an entrenched two-party system.
An us-versus-them/all-or-nothing/winning-at-the-expense-of-right-and-reason
system. And these parties have no obligation to be “fair” because they make
their own rules. But the big thing that keeps them in power is they have the
infrastructure to get their candidates on the ballot, the money to advertise,
and they’ve convinced the population that other parties aren’t serious options.
The inclusion of any third-party candidates in mainstream political discussion,
much less in an actual debate, is rare. All of our “institutions” in this
country tell the same story about candidates outside of the Democrat and
Republican parties: that they’re unrealistic, no chance of winning, at best (or
worst) steals votes from the serious legit candidates.
. . . . . . . .
I suspect that many voters weren’t paying attention to
every speech given by the candidates, nor to all the specifics of any party’s
platform. A lot of people just voted AGAINST Hillary Clinton, because of what
she represents to them, which is:
- an entrenched political elite out of touch with the
average person
- a political class who speaks in “talking points” and
bases decisions on focus groups
- a politician who tells you what you want instead of
asking you
. . . . . . . .
Significant government reform – real changes in what gets
done and what doesn’t – may be simply be impossible without first getting the
influence of money out of government. Campaign finance reform – that’s a good
starting place. Publicly-funded election campaigns mean that candidates aren’t
beholden to their major donors whenever those donors’ pet issues come up. And,
I suspect, directly related to campaign finance is the way lobbyists work.
Companies and organizations with money to throw around in support of their
agendas hire people to wine and dine and chat up our representatives, to the
point that they’re no longer OUR representatives. I think our justice system is
in on it, too, when they rule that corporations are “people” and that money is “speech.”
I want to say it’s insane, but it’s much worse than that – it’s devious; it’s
evil; it’s repugnant.
