Archive: Opinions

I read a CNN article this morning that talked about the challenges the two presidential front-runners, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, will face leading up to November's election.  Yeah, I know it is silly to read CNN instead of watching it, but that's how I prefer to do it.  One paragraph near the top of the article heralds a chilling shift in American politics:

"Perhaps the most striking feature of the race is the candidates' historically high unfavorable ratings. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, 57% of registered voters said they had unfavorable views of both Clinton and Trump."

While the idea of voting for the least lousy candidate isn't new, it has reached an intolerable level in the current campaign season.  While members of one party or the other will take exception to this statement, the candidates are equally horrid for entirely different reasons.  Their personalities and ability to fire up the media have entirely overshadowed the issues, when they even bother to address issues.

In fact, issues is what enabled Bernie Sanders to maintain as much traction as he did, even though, in the end, he will not likely be on the ballot.  He talked about issues, and was compelling enough that a lot of people listened.  But issues ain't sexy.  Not sexy like name calling, insulting women, insulting ethnicities, being a high official who holds secure governmental procedures in disdain, having a husband who liked.. er... ahem... cigars.  And that trust problem.

It is perfectly understandable that people are sick and tired of politicians.  What is not understandable is voting for an entirely thoughtless non-politician who proves more divisive and inspires violence among his supporters.  Someone who has no filters when he speaks.  I have heard comedians say it's OK to insult one ethnicity or another because they insult them all equally.  That may be true for comedians, but is it really true of presidential candidates?  Or presidents?  As for being sick of politicians, you don't keep a lion in your living room, only to replace him with a shark because he is a killer of the people, not a king of beasts.  And that trust thing.

It is perfectly understandable that people want a woman president.  That is long past due.  But it is hard to swallow people who vote for a carpetbagger who cynically used New York State as a stepping stone to get her apartment in the White House back.  Someone with a history of being notoriously disrespectful of the Secret Service agents whose job it is to protect her life at the expense of their own... and that email thing.  In what universe does a personal mail server meet federal security standards, and why should any government employee get to make that decision on an individual basis?  Try something like that at your own workplace, and you are sure to be shown the exit, just in case you didn't already know where it was.  And that trust thing.

These specific issues aren't the main problem.  They are simply the building blocks of the problem, which is this: should Americans be voting for the least awful candidate to be the leader of our nation and the free world?  Shouldn't we be voting for a candidate?  Not against one?

How did we allow this to happen when there are genuinely good candidates to choose from?  Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burned in one.  Evidently the United States will burn on November 8th, anti-election Day.

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