Election Day Thoughts

We live in an age where communications are beyond anything our forefathers could have imagined.

In their day, even with just the East Coast States it took time to travel to the nation's capital and consider issues important to their constituents.

Of curse the constituents who got represented were usually the ones that had an in, either because they had money or were organized, which brings us to the flaw in our representational system of Government.

Who do the monkeys represent?

Many of the founding fathers, being generally landed and wealthy by the standards of the time, had very little use for the "common" man.

They were considered to be of little intellectual capacity and unlikely to be capable of making important decisions.

Real democracy was neither possible nor desirable.

It is now.

Maybe we should try it.

We can certainly use  modern technology to give people a greater say in the decisions being made.

Currently a lot of the monkeys look at polls to see what the people want, but why not just ask them?

Gullibility

There are a lot of sayings that discus the gullibility of people.

There's a sucker born every moment, a fool and his money are soon parted, etc. etc.

The reason for this is that people are partly gullible and partly greedy.

The promise of something of value for almost nothing tends to be tempting to people, enough for many to stop being skeptical.

Now in many cases its fairly harmless, as when someone asks you for a few dollars to get food, or for carfare because they lost their wallet.

In other cases the scams are much more significant costing people their savings, their homes and their health.

It doesn't matter if the victim is vulnerable or old or sick.  In fact all those things are what helps define them as a victim.

The con men will lie right to your face and look very sincere doing it.  Its something you have to learn and avoid and one of the reasons people in big cities sometimes appear unfriendly, they can't determine if your for real or pulling a con.

Now as sad as this is, we see that politicians engage in this behavior to get elected.

Over the years some of the most outrageous lies started to get exposed by the media, but now we see so much questionable media that the legitimate media can be branded as fake news.

So bringing back manufacturing, bringing back coal, fixing trade agreements, building a wall, improving your health care and reducing your taxes while increasing defense and infrastructure were believed by enough people to matter.

The gullibility index was at an all time high and unfortunately it might be a trend.

Hey, this must all be part of God's plan - just trust those preachers!

All Together Now

We are trapped in an environment where it is set up as a win or lose option.  Take the current health care debate or whatever is actually going on.

Passing a Republican bill to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act is now the goal, no matter how terrible some of what it does is. 

Now you may argue about how to control costs of Medicaid and you may want to allow younger, healthier people to have cheaper options, but those objectives are probably achievable in a bipartisan discussion without trying to only score political talking points.

Now is everything in the proposed plan  bad?  It can't be, that would be just as hard as making everything good.  It is a series of ideas, some good, some bad thrown together in a back room without much public input designed simply to pass a repeal and replace bill.

Of course it then has to pass the House and that is by no means certain.

Now this isn't just about health care.  The general idea of having elected representatives is that we have multiple points of view represented and everyone (or at least everyone with enough votes) gets to provide input.

So in tax reform what are we trying to reform?  Some argue that business is taxed at too high a rate and some argue the code is too complex.  On the other side the fairness of the system is in question, as some wealthy people pay much less than what some think they should.  However, whatever type of reform package might get cobble together it will not be bipartisan and won't address all the concerns.

This us vs them is simple and popular as we now demonize the other party and its adherents.

Well, we all live in this great country and are born, live, raise families, work and try to be happy.

The hate isn't real, its created at the top and by some of the media.  We need to demand they stop.

Street Smarts

A number of things I learned growing up in the city have served me well over the years.  Now of course I'm not going to say I've never been hustled or scammed, but I do think that in general I have avoided the great majority.

First when someone tells you to trust them, especially multiple times, there's usually a good reason not to trust them.  It is possible that the phrase can be used in a hones context, but when you are interested in what is about to happen, especially if valuable are at stake, its a big warning flag.

Second, most bullies don't really want to fight, they want you to back down.  Real fighters don't threaten you they start fighting.  Now of course sometimes they are accompanied by a crew and it would be foolish to fight them then, but confrontation is usually the best approach.  Of course it has some risk but the choice is to be bullied.

Third, people who tell you how great they are usually aren't.  If they were that great they wouldn't have to be the ones telling you.  In fact in many situations, they don't want to think they are good, they want you to underestimate them. 

Fourth, most people are mostly concerned about themselves.  Some legitimately want to help others, but strangers you meet who say they want to help you for no apparent reason are probably up to something. 

Now this may come across as cynical, but when you live in a crowded metropolitan area, the ones that are likely to seek you out are often up to no good.  Most people are fine, but they are not telling you a story or trying to get you to trust them for no reason.

Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Random Thoughts

Football season and the baseball pennant races are driving out some of the hateful political posts.  

Don't assume anyone else believes the same way you do, we are all different.

Terrorists don't represent Islam anymore than deranged shooters represent gun owners.

Everybody should take some deep breaths and appreciate being alive.

We need to make the world a better place while we are here.

Hate is distrucive and eats at us from the inside if we let it.

Every person has the same right to be here as you do.  You have he same right as they do.  Accept that.

Government is supposed to serve the common good, not special interests.

Term limits take away people's right to choose who they want, even if you don't like the winners.

Best weapon we have is to get out and vote.

Second best weapon is getting others to vote.

If most of the country supports something you don't agree with, that's called democracy.

If you only support some of the freedoms in the constitution, you don't support any.