More of the same is bad... MMMKay?

Junior Gym rat reporting in from my house, in my oh so comfy chair... Yeah, as you might have figured out from my last post I am intending on getting myself back in shape physically, and mentally. So, Facebook, Twitter, I am going to take some time away, we should really see other people, but hey, its cool if we hang out a bit when we run into each other. In the meantime, I will be around, or try to post someone at least once a week until I am right, then I should be back full time.

So, I am going to talk about something political, like I haven't been doing that a lot recently. Its this odd notion that people have taken, specifically Clinton supporters. It is something that they seem to have missed, or seem to be unable to grasp about this election. Now, I won't say that it is because they are purposely being ignorant, or that they are incapable of understanding where some people are coming from. I think the truth of it is, I don't think they want to take a long look in the mirror, they don't want to see the ugly truth in their lives, and the lives of others because it is painful.

Recently I have observed a trend when it comes to their online arguments and debates, in the flow of their topics in debate groups. People are tired of more of the same politics. I have had more than one Clinton supporter say that while more of the same is bad, that they would rather have more of the same, than Trump going completely insane with power and nuking the whole world. Yeah, I am slightly over exaggerating that, but they all say Trump is bad, and hey, I agree. Trump is very bad, just look at what he says, how he conducts himself and “I'll tell you”, Trump doesn't look very good, and should he manage to win the election dark times are ahead for more of us.

That said, they would take more of the same, rather than risk Trump, who is totally incompetent at best, a complete idiot at worst. That is not an exaggeration, that is the trend I see, more of the same versus total destruction. Now, I am slightly upset right now, watching the police shoot a six year old kid will do that to you, more so when you learn that the kid basically bled out from gunshot wounds, and could have possibly been saved.

You Clinton supporters are pushing us for more of the same, more images like that... More people barely surviving on crappy wages, more people sleeping in the streets, more war, more death, more destruction, more fracking, more Earthquakes, more destruction of our environment, more deregulation, more of everything that has led to the rise of someone who sounds like Trump. We have people being gunned down in the streets, by the men and women who are supposed to be there to protect us from the bad guys. I would pull the numbers, but they are pretty damned depressing to look at, it would be even more depressing if they were to hang a sign that read “x hours since last police shooting/beating.” Thank god nobody is that morbid.

When you push for more of the same, you are pushing for a slow painful death by a thousand cuts. You are pushing for the slow rot that consumes everyone and everything, that twists the knife in deeper, slowly driving someone insane. You are pushing for the slow, mindbogglingly insane decline of the standard of living for you and your children, their children, and their children. Because lets face it, Trump is bad, no argument about him being bad.

But, you are pushing for stagnation, no change. You are willing to give a pass to someone who doesn't support you, but someone who supports the way things are currently. Let me tell you, things are not so good right now, our planet is dying, our nation is dying, people are dying, our way of life is dying, the American Dream is dead for many of us. Yet you cannot understand why people are upset, why they are saying no more, we can't take this anymore.

You say we are being ignorant, that we are being childish, that we are throwing a temper tantrum, yet some never really stopped to ask why. What has gone so terribly wrong with our lives, our nation, ourselves that we would be willing to run the risk of Trump. You want to know why? Well, I will speak for myself, others can speak for themselves, and will if given the chance. So, John, why are you willing to risk Trump, rather than just go out and vote for Clinton?

First, I spent years living in a tent at a campground. I was little more than slave labor, and I don't mean I was a “wage slave”. I mean I literally worked 40 hours a week at that campground for $400 a month, basically enough to cover my lot rent, power, internet, and the basic free cable the local company provided to businesses in the community. Along the way, I pawned and sold everything I owned of value to eat, keep propane to heat and cook with, and to ensure that my elderly parents had their medications, because there is nothing worse than having to sit and watch them suffer with you. Thats right, I say I, but it really was “we.” I watched my Dad go through hell, a personal hell of failure, he went to his grave feeling that he had failed my Mom, and he had failed me, after I put myself through college to ensure I could help him, as he helped me growing up.

Second, I watch as my peers and myself struggle along with debt from college. Yeah, we did it to ourselves, based on pretty little lies sold to us all. $50,000 a year isn't a lot of money, but its enough in the right area, you can live pretty well. It certainly beat what I was making as a supervisor at $20,000 a year. So hey, these college people, those who work at the college, man, they can lay it on thick, they rope you in, get you in debt, and leave you hanging, barely making enough to pay on the loans you secured to get the education that you thought would get you a good enough job to pay the bills, and actually enjoy life.

Three, our current standard has many of our elderly eating canned dog and cat food so they can pay their own bills, and get their medications.

Four, more surveillance, keeping tabs on what you do online, what you say, who you say it to, hell, this blog post might even get ran through the NSA to find the code, I jest slightly. I noticed that many of those who look through this blog are from Russia, so that probably sends up read flags up in DC, or wherever the NSA is based from.

Five, I am tired. I am tired of struggling to survive. I am tired of hearing the stories of other people. Not because I don't care, I do care, their stories cut me in ways even my own cannot. I want something better, not only for myself, but for others. I want to see a country where we care about our fellow human, where we don't hear stories of police brutality, not because they are censored, but because they don't happen. I want to see a country where someone isn't homeless because...

Six, for the limited good the PPACA has done, it is doing more damage now. I cannot count the documents I have seen showing where premium costs are increasing, co-pays are increasing, and coverage is worse. Where our government tells us that the more we give the rich, the more will eventually fall to me and mine. Guess what, 35 years into the grand trickle down experiment, and guess what, the glass at the top gets bigger, while less spills over for us.

Finally, I want peace. Nothing so grand or as noble as world peace, but I wouldn't knock it if we did it. I want peace of mind, for myself, my friends, family, for those I know, and those I do not know. I want to live in a world where I can pull my 40 hours a week, and do well for myself and my family, and Susie down the street can do the same.

But you say, “You won't get that with Trump.” Again, you are right, I won't get anything I want with Trump. However, I won't get anything I want with another neo-liberal war hawk fiscal conservative either. I will get a bunch of stuff I don't want with either of them in office. You see, for all the fuss everyone, including Bernie Sanders, is making over stopping Trump from winning the position of PotUS, the position is pretty impotent. Yeah, I said it, the president of the US, the Commander in Chief, the most “powerful leader in the world”, is impotent. He or she cannot do much of anything except enforce the laws of the land. All they can do is nominate Federal Judges, not appoint them, only congress can appoint them. So, the challenge isn't to stop Trump from winning the White House, to stop him from becoming PotUS... The challenge is to win the House (if not in 2016, then 2020) and taking the Senate back from the conservatives and neo-liberals this election. But we probably won't do that.

Now, that said, I am mostly secure in the knowledge and belief that Clinton will win. I seriously doubt that Johnson and Stein will gather enough votes to ensure that Clinton will not gather the required 270 Electoral College votes. Unless something drastic happens and someone outside of Trump or Clinton manages to win a state, we have a replay of 2000 with the SCotUS making a ruling, or for some other reason the House becomes involved. I am also pretty sure that we are going to continue to see a conservative lurch in the Democratic Party until such time as the left asserts itself in the party, or gets a third party off the ground and running serious campaigns at every level, sorry Green Party fans, they are not the ones you are seeking. Otherwise, I am sticking to my guns on this, damned if you do, damned if you don't. I cannot continue to vote for neo-liberals or conservative Democrats, who will continue business as usual. I cannot continue to promote people who are responsible for the insanity of Trump. Oh, and before I go, there is one more thing, if you think Trump is horrible, which I won't argue with you on that because I agree, just wait. In 2020, we are going to see someone who is dumber in terms of political knowledge, more insane, more radicalized, and probably more racist, sexist and homophobic than Trump could ever hope to be. That won't be on me or the people who are standing up to Clinton, that will be on everyone who voted her into office. And when Kaine runs for president in 2020 or 2024 (depending on Clinton's health), its going to be that much worse, that won't be on people like me either, because we tried to warn you all.