Saturday, November 5, 2016

Untracked ground

I woke around the usual 5am today, turned on MTPR, half-listened and slept, as usual, until almost 7.  At 8, I took this picture, looking south from the front porch.


It's just the usual, sunrise over the Rockies. With the end of DST this weekend, this will be earlier, it'll be dark by 4pm. 

What's going to happen in the week, weeks, months and beyond my friends?

We are divided in a way we don't have experience with. If we had accurate records and such back to the time we rebelled from the British, we might have a clue, perhaps not accurate. But there were almost the same number who wanted to stay a British colony than wanted independence. 

As a nation, we've seldom been as divided, politically and socially, as we are now. 

I'll do an assumption here: We are all 'good people'. We are reasonable, rational, and willing to adhere to the idea of 'live and let live'. It's what we've survived by, yes? No, I don't care for your taste in pets, spouses, Supreme Court judges, but we can still live in the same neighborhood, yes?

That idea seems gone. We now have people we, we've known for years, we cannot talk to  because of politics, because they support trump or hillary. It's not preference that we march to, it's hate. 

We have abandoned the idea of democracy. 

Look at the 'surrogates', the popular term, for people speaking for the two candidates. Do they ever, ever, suggest that they can compromise, maybe give a little, maybe come to terms? No. It's our way, or the highway.  Any notion that the other candidate may have some legitimacy, if for no other reason than seemingly millions agree, carries no weight.  

As most of you know, I'm a liberal, capital "L". But like all of you, we all are fucked, no matter who is elected. The other side will not flinch from saying it was a cheated election, and the new president is not legit. If Hillary, Donald, whomever it is, we're fucked. We dislike each other so, so very much. So much...... 

We won't come together. The times of compromise are passed. Nice knowin' ya'. You won't go along with every  bit of my proposal for last term abortion? Get off the bus. 

You won't go along with every bit of my bill that will let everyone in Amerika that want's a handgun to have on?, get off my bus.

Turns out it's a small bus, and has no room for any  conflicted people. 

So I'm gonna say vote. For the one I think can perhaps hold the country together, if not progress. Already have, in fact. 

I don't envy whoever wins. I think our belief that Obama could perhaps bring us together racially, across the divide, was misguided.  All it did is loosen the reins on the horses of those who who wanted to say that a nigger can't be president, it's impossible. And he was tolerant, even handed with those that held up the signs "Nigger!" outside his speeches, the other things no other president has had to endure. All that did was let the apparent millions of us that feel that way even freer to spout our venom. 

What Ms. Clinton will have to endure, should she win, boggles the mind. For a hint, look at the signs held up at Trump rallies.  The word 'bitch' his prominent. As is the one starting with 'c'. Why she would be willing to be the tip of the spear for women, I have no idea. 

Anyway, this'll be my last post until after the election.  Good luck.

Mike




20 comments:

  1. To say the next few days shall prove interesting is akin to saying the sun rises in the east...

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  2. I am glad it is almost over and I'm fairly confident that the bad one will beat the worse one.

    But even after that, we're going to use politics as a reaosn to be horrible to each other and to say that people with whom we do not agree are bad people.

    I do hope your next post on politics has reason to be optimistic and upbeat!

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    1. Nasreen
      You seem articulate and intelligent. Could you tell me, on behalf of the many, many descriptions in the press and social media, and Hillary Clinton being 'bad'?
      I read this so much, so often. "She Lies" about what?
      "She's untrustworthy" why, when?
      "She lies"....this one I find particularly laughable, coming from people who are voting for Trump, who lies in almost every public statement he makes, who when called on it shrugs and says his followers don't care....is that true?
      Jesus effing Christ.....we have two such obvious choices, good and evil, I've never seen.
      It ain't 'bad' and 'worse'...It's democracy or autocracy. Take your pick.

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    2. I don't know how articulate or intelligent I am these days.

      For me, the problem with Hillary Clinton is that she and former President Clinton, upon leaving the White House, behaved a lot like people do upon leaving the White House. They cashed in on it. That's usually okay - but the Clintons did that while still wanting to get back into public service.

      They're not transparent at all. They invite scandal in a way that President Obama did not - we'll likely see more scandals and congressional hearings in the next four years than we did in the last 8, because that's how the Clintons roll.

      That being said, she's running against someone who is entirely unfit to hold elective office.

      So she's not my favorite, but there was no choice but to vote for her. I'll worry about the rest when we get past Mr. Trump.

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    3. Nice answer. And quite correct. Hope we're both luck tomorrow.

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  3. Thanks Mike. We've permitted ourselves to lose a sense of commonweal and our sense of dignity, purpose and vision. The political divide you describe has a source in our "me first" psychology.

    Far too many Americans know far too little of our history. Far too many Americans lack critical reasoning skills. Far too many Americans react to and by emotion instead of logic.

    At the end of the constitutional convention a woman asked Benjamin Franklin what we had. He said, "A Republic, if you can keep it." As you note, we are challenging that truth. Our political system is now a business and an industry. Our governance is now commercialized. It is all about the money. We've done this to ourselves. We have permitted it.

    I too fear the rancor ahead. It is a noble experiment we have, but we must get serious about it and prove we can keep it. It won't be easy. The idiots and fools must be called out for what they are. We must put selfish interests-corporate and personal-aside and begin to think of a common good. If not the American dream will become a nightmare.

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    1. Who was that, de tocquieville, that coined the phrase 'noble experiment' to describe the new democracy back then? I wonder if he would be either surprised or have any solutions.

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  4. We'll need more than luck. Let's hope the nation doesn't implode. It concerns me that Trump will get any votes at all, but there really are a lot of "deplorables" out there.

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    1. More than we ever would have thought. And thanks to the GOP, the loonies out there, racists all, feel free to vent their anger over reality.

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  5. The word "compromise" became a dirty word under the last Bush administration and when Obama was elected the Republican leadership held a meeting agreeing that they would not work with him in any way before he even began to propose his ideas. This year the same Congress has already said that if Clinton is elected they will make every effort to impeach her. So you are not going to get sympathy from me about how we can and should work together. I know it, but if the other side absolutely refuses than they are to blame.

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    1. Not asking for sympathy, perhaps you misread. And blame won't help a lot of people who are going to be royally screwed should the trump become prez.

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  6. I am in despair, I won't lie. Despair. I'm trying to distract myself, but I feel it roiling inside me. I am so fearful of what's ahead.

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    1. Y'know what? Don't sweat it. You and the newish hubby have a lot to be happy about. And your kids sound like both of them might be what this country needs as a cure. May the winter be mild for you. Or....if the two of you want a few days in Montana Winter, let me know, got a spare room.

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  7. I'm really frightened about this election. And so, so weary of all the nastiness and hate in American politics.

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  8. Replies
    1. Said the spectator to the shackled man on his way to the steps of the gallows.....

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  9. Mike, I love your last comment. It just shows that your sense of humor is not totally disabled by this horrible campaign. I am sad that so many people have such disdain for my candidate but sadder still that she has brought much of it on herself. I read tonight that she would call the other one if she is elected president and ask him for his cooperation in the days and years ahead. I always thought it was the loser who made the call but I don't know if we can expect that of him. As you can see, I am more than somewhat disappointed in my country and its citizens. But I'll be watching and cheering tomorrow night and hoping against hope that the future will be bright.

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    1. Bruce
      Hope it's bright too. As the old Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper song went: "the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."

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