I'm Going to Say It Once...

I’ve been trying to avoid political crap, especially on FB. It’s wearing me down just to look at it. Mostly I scroll past, with eyes unfocused... but sometimes I look. Often I cringe. Always I have opinions. I have stuff to say, but it really doesn’t matter to anyone but me, so I’ve been keeping quiet. But today, on this historic day, I decided I’m going to put up one post. Again, it won’t matter to anyone but me, but I’ll have said it all. And then I’ll be finished.

First, I’m not voting with my whole heart for anyone. I’m not sure I’m even voting half-heartedly. I've maybe got one ventricle in this election. But rest assured, I will be voting.

I’ve seen many posts about the fact that some 50% of voters in the US are “independent.” If that’s true (and that’s a big if), it means something significant, no doubt... but it certainly doesn’t mean they’re all on the same page. There are “independent” liberals, conservatives, libertarians (and everything in between) who would never vote the same way. I also keep hearing that there are other choices beyond Trump and Clinton; that we can show our displeasure with the system by voting for a third party, or by writing candidates in, etc. Yeah. Sure we can. But to what end? Again, what people don’t seem to be taking into consideration is the fact that all the voters who don’t like Trump or Clinton will never agree on any one candidate. So a vote for anyone else simply serves to take votes away from the party they would have supported had the nominee been a candidate they liked. ONE of those TWO candidates IS making to the White House. Period. It’s simple math. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional. I get it and I'm really not that smart. I simply don't understand why we're not all getting it.

I think we should work hard to change the system between election years. We need to place more focus on congressional elections. We need to make sure the people in Washington understand we don’t want many of them there. We need to do a better job at educating ourselves beyond believing pundits paid to lie, beyond taking FB memes as gospel, beyond allowing ourselves to be distracted by trivial matters while the big things go right over our heads. But right now? I think we have to work with the system we have. And, like it or not, that means voting for the established parties.

I will vote for Clinton because if I don’t - if I choose to vote for anyone else, or not vote at all - I will be throwing my vote to Trump. And that? Is INSANE. Because he is insane. He’s a reprehensible, hateful, immature bully. He has no platform or plans beyond ridiculous talking points that don’t even make sense most of the time, and some of his half-baked ideas are flat-out dangerous; he is an isolationist during a time when we need solid global connections; he can’t speak articulately on any issue and refuses to answer questions in any sort of straightforward manner (probably because he can’t); he has a documented history of shady business dealings and he still won’t release his tax returns (and I find it very interesting that his supporters don't seem to care about this at all, especially when tax rates have traditionally been far higher during Republican administrations); his speeches at his rallies have been disgusting, hate-filled rants targeted at a third-grade-level populace who is eating up his bigotry and anger. And that's not spin; that's not a blip or two taken out of context. They are his words, out of his mouth, and he's proud of them! Why anyone would want that man in the White House is beyond me. How anyone can say they would be proud to vote for him, especially if they have seen his rally speeches or his Twitter account, makes me question their sanity, their intelligence, and their compassion for the human race. And if they claim to be Christians and plan to vote for him? Well, the words I have for those people won't be found in the Bible, that's for sure (not in the New Testament, anyway). He is horrible. Horrible. Horrible.  He makes me long for Romney and Bush and McCain and I thought those guys were insane. He is an embarrassment and a shameful stain on this nation’s political process. And god knows, that’s really saying something.

So that leaves Clinton. As I say, she has my vote, but it’s a reluctant vote. It’s a ‘lesser of two evils’ vote. I’m not OK with that. But I’m far more OK with her as President than him. No one – and I mean no one on this green earth – will ever convince me she is worse than Trump, on any level. You can say she is dishonest; you can say she is unethical; you can say she has “blood on her hands.” But the fact remains, she has been investigated more than any other candidate/politician, by partisan and non-partisan groups, costing taxpayers untold amounts of money, and she has yet to be found culpable in any significant manner, in any situation. The Republicans themselves have exonerated her on numerous occasions. That makes them either (incredibly) stupid or corrupt (maybe a bit of both?), or it makes her (incredibly) smart or not guilty (probably a bit of both) – and which would you prefer in office? What really chaps my butt, though, is that absolutely everything the Republicans despise her for has been done and overlooked by their own people throughout various Republican administrations. Somehow everything is worse when she does it (or is purported to have done it). It’s been the same with President Obama, though, from the beginning of his administration, so why should we expect any less from them?

 I dread this election. I dread the months leading up to it. I dread the next four years, no matter who is in office. I dread and I worry. I worry that Trump could win. Period. I worry that Clinton could win and the obstructionist Republican congress we have currently would continue to act against the best interests of the entire country, including their own constituents. Or worse, they could maintain control under Trump and do so much damage to this country (and the world!) that we'll never recover. I worry that Democrats might gain control and not do near enough to move us forward into a healthier place. I worry that whichever candidate wins, they will continue to bow to the corporations that run our government and forget that they are there to serve us - the people.

Gah!

I still believe that we are better than this; that we are capable of so much more than this. I believe change - positive change - is coming, even if it's not going to be in the next four years. If this campaign has done nothing, it has shown each party that many, many Americans are tired of the way they've been doing things. But for now, I have to hope that enough people will simply put their grown-up pants on and do what is necessary to prove that America truly can be great; to put Trump back where he belongs - on "reality" television (ha!) and Twitter, mouthing off to anyone who insults his over-inflated, narcissistic ego; to keep us from completely and utterly self-destructing. 

And those are my two cents. Which matter to no one but me. And that's all I have to say.