Politics 2016 – The Rest

Music of the Day: Just something both relaxing and upbeat. Can you tell I pick the music after writing the post? I needed something happy to listen to after this!

 

So… here’s the thing. I don’t like talking in-depth about politics, barring very rare, one-on-one discussions with people I trust, like close friends or my mother. Outside of that, I either avoid the conversation or skim lightly over common ground I may share with whoever I’m with at the time. Moreover, I grew up in a relatively conservative household, and statistically people tend to become slightly more politically (or at least fiscally) conservative with age for a variety of reasons. I mention this for reasons of background for the rest of this post.

Finally, I’m a fairly cynical person who has seen enough of the bad parts of humanity that I don’t consider myself much of an idealist when it comes to those in power in any part of the world or period of history. For years my teenage self would say things like “Dan Quayle for president!” and the like, because mostly the government felt like a force of nature more than something you could really influence – you were along for the ride and, at best, you could hope to get some entertainment value out of it, and the occasional point to gripe about among friends. It didn’t seem to matter which party took office, the status quo changed less than either side claimed. The more I learned about the American political system, the less I liked what I heard – the electoral college system being a prime example of its ridiculousness. Lobbying efforts, which could accurately be called political bribery in most cases, only added to the disillusionment.

That’s why it’s weird that, for the first time, I actually genuinely care about this election. I could write a post for each candidate (at least the top handful that are relevant) at least as long as the one I did for Trump. Much longer, for Hillary and Bernie, I’d bet, and I like both of them more than I like Trump. To be fair though, that’s a bar set so low scientists believe it carbon-dates to the Mesozoic era. I kid, I kid! In fact, carbon dating is not very effective in dating most metallic objects.

But I really don’t want to write a bunch of posts about politics. It makes me uncomfortable, even if it’s important to contemplate and research. Plus, it might irritate people I consider friends, and I prefer to do that in person. So instead, I’m going to mash all of those potential posts into a couple bulleted lists here, to get it out of my system, and then write about non-political things for a while because it’s more fun. Apologies in advance if I upset or offend one of the roughly five people whose opinions matter significantly to me! Also apologies for how long this turned out – amusingly, I originally hoped to do a quick post and be done. Silly, silly me. I don’t even have the energy to proofread it now, after finishing.

Without further ado, here are some pluses and minuses for some other candidates:

Hillary:

Better than Trump. I’m sure she’d do an ‘OK’ job at most of the Presidential responsibilities. I just don’t trust her very much, nor do I think she’s particularly likely to change the status quo much. For some, that’s a good thing – probably why she has the majority of the over-65 vote, for example. For others, that’s a solid mark against her. She’s not my favorite, but I can see why others would choose to vote for her. The first point below is also a very important one to many people.

+Lots of experience in politics. Decades in various roles, including Secretary of State. Almost certainly, Hillary is the most experienced politician running for the position on either side of the party line, in fact.

| She is a woman. On the one hand, yes, I’d love to see a woman become president. Certainly in a fair world it would have happened long ago, by simple odds (roughly 50-50, give or take). On the other hand, I don’t want her to become president -just because- she’s a woman; I want her to be more than a symbol. Former (and first female) Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s recent “special place in hell for women who don’t help other women” comment annoyed me and many others (including many women in the Democrat camp, according to comments and interviews I’ve seen about the web), BUT I feel I should say a few things in defense of a woman who is generally well-respected for good reason:

• She did apologize for the comment today, saying both that it was the wrong time and context for such a comment and that she did not mean to imply that someone should vote for someone solely based on their gender. She showed her diplomatic tact in dealing with this and I applaud her for it.
• It’s hard to imagine for my generation, for whom the idea of a female president isn’t particularly outlandish or hard to imagine, what it must be like for someone like Albright. She has lived through times where women had much, much more limited rights and roles… to see the potential reality for a woman to become the president. That’s powerful emotional stuff, and something a long-time feminist like Albright must feel very passionately about. Given that, I can understand and forgive an impolitic comment on the subject.

-Lots of experience in politics. Will very definitely continue to work within the system that hasn’t done super well by the majority of America lately.

-Really unpleasant campaign and debate tactics, plus blatantly calling in a number of political favors from various groups. I know it’s common political practice. If you haven’t picked it up from the tone of my writing, I am not fond of many common political practices.

-Very apparent lack of authenticity – everything about her feels/looks/sounds manufactured by a committee for mass appeal, and unfortunately for her, she’s been really bad at convincing the younger generation she ‘gets’ them. One of many examples: “Her” (campaign team’s) sad attempts at tweeting “How does your student loan make you feel? Tell us in 3 emoji’s or less.” Really? Speaking as one of the target demographic, this stuff comes across as really condescending pandering. Both Obama and now Sanders have resonated with the younger crowd much better than Hillary, and it’s causing her much grief lately.

The youth thing is especially notable because, this election, Millennials (defined here as those born 1982-2000) finally outnumber Baby Boomers. Now, not all of them can vote yet, or will vote even if they can, but it’s a pretty significant landmark – what this demographic wants may or may not occur this election, but they’ll only become more influential in the next election, and the one after that… and that brings us to Hillary’s opponent.

Sanders:

Okay, first, look at this guy. Just look at him. Does he look like someone likely to draw almost 90% of the under-25 voters in the early caucus events? Or… basically any young people at all? He looks like an angry old man who might live under a bridge and yell at passing clouds, except for the suit. But he has done something no one really expected to happen – he’s given Hillary an actual challenger, and he’s done it by capturing the young voter crowd to an extensive degree.

+He’s extremely genuine – where Hillary seems calculated down to her smile, Bernie comes across as very sincere, very much himself, and I’ve seen little to contradict that – who he is in public appears to be the real Bernie Sanders. Rare in politics, and in general.

+He’s an idealist. He wants change, lots of it, and isn’t deterred by naysayers saying “It’s not possible” or “It’s unfeasible”. As Obama’s “Yes we can” faded into “Maybe we can?”, it’s nice to see a new (old) person with the light in their eyes that says “I still think things can change.”

| He’s a ‘Democratic Socialist’. Okay, look, ‘Socialist’ is apparently a scary word to a lot of people, and many more seem to confuse it with ‘Communist’. Many facets of our society are already socialist in nature, and not just the controversial ones like Medicare, unemployment insurance, or social security (all of which which more than 80% of the country oppose cuts to, across both parties). How about… the existence (not the actual value) of a minimum wage? The mail system? Police and fire departments, roads, libraries, garbage collection and landfills, wars, the pentagon, national defense and the military itself, public schools, prisons/jails, public parks and beaches, national monuments, public snow removal from major streets, public street lighting, the sewer system, most zoos, the Food and Drug Administration, the Peace Corps…? The list goes on for several dozen more significant items, at least. All of these are, in part or whole, socialist by definition. You may not care about some of those, but I’d bet you wouldn’t want to lose most of them no matter who you are, anonymous internet person reading this. The question is not whether the US is a socialist country – we crossed that line long ago – it is only a question of degree.

|He’s old. He’s technically the oldest candidate running, yes, but Hillary’s within 6 years and Trump is within 5 of Sanders. Given the clean bill of health reported by his doctor, I don’t see this as a major issue. Maybe if he runs again in four years? Stress sure hasn’t been kind to Obama during his term.

-He’s overly focused on certain things. Yes, money in politics is bad, wall street should be reigned in, and a lot of changes need to be made to higher education economics. However, during the next four years, the US will still need to deal with the rest of the world. How will Bernie deal with Putin? With the Middle East? This is not his strong suit and he has little to no experience in it. A very significant concern.

-The most valid complaint about the aforementioned socialist thing – where will the money come from for Bernie’s changes? Okay, his health plan thing will probably be cheaper than current insurance costs for families making less than 200k a year (the exact numbers vary by source), but some of his other proposed changes will certainly be tougher to mitigate.

-He is going to face a lot of opposition. There are those that question whether he could accomplish anything with conservatives and even some liberals stopping whatever changes he might try to enact. This will challenge anyone who becomes president, as things are right now, but Bernie is obviously more extreme than the rest.

Ultimately, it comes down to this: I don’t think Bernie will succeed – the system is heavily tilted against him even becoming the Dem. nominee (superdelegates are such a silly thing), and if he somehow did become president despite that, he’d face opposition from factions within his own party, let alone the Republicans. But I -want- him to succeed, and if not him, then someone like him next election. I would rather have someone who will -try- to change things for the better even if it has a small chance of success than someone who has already accepted the inevitability of (or even benefited from) the systems we have today. I’d also be content paying more in taxes if it meant having a functioning medical system I could count on in an emergency instead of legally-enforced long-term gambling against insurance companies that are incentivized to do as little for me as possible. One can dream.

I would just say to ask yourself – do you feel like the way things have been going for the last 20 years, between various presidents and the congress and all, have served you and yours well? Most of the people I talk to on a regular basis have said no. Satisfaction with our government as a whole is reaching new lows. Maybe shaking things up with a riskier and more extreme set of changes isn’t a bad idea. All I know is that, despite significant flaws noted above, Sanders would have the potential to make this the first election where I wanted to vote FOR someone instead of feeling like I was trying to pick the least-bad option available.

Republicans:

To be entirely up-front, I need to do more research on the non-Trump Republican candidates. I don’t feel qualified to comment on them for the most part, but here are a few quick bits:

• I don’t really like Ted Cruz – fiscally he’s not awful, but socially he plans to push for a number of things that reflect poorly on him in my eyes, and he’s only marginally less over-the-top on Mexican immigration than Trump – wall included, according to a 2012 comment. He’s also against Net Neutrality, which has been a hot topic for the last couple years and one I personally care about as well. One good thing is he doesn’t care for Common Core in education, which I don’t feel is particularly effective either.
• Kasich appears to be better than Cruz, to me, though I still disagree with him on several points. As the Republican candidates go, though, he’s definitely among the most moderate and seems to have demonstrated a willingness to compromise ‘across the aisle’, which is a significant point in his favor.
• Carson has said some crazy stuff. Just… yeah.

I feel bad for focusing so much on the ‘big three’ in these two posts, but right now they’re what’s all over the news. I’ll focus in more when the Republican field narrows to a couple definite options. Right now it’s still fairly up in the air.

Final Takeaway:

I don’t envy whoever ultimately wins. I do wish them well and hope that they find a good way to steer a divided and unsatisfied nation into better things, both internally and internationally. If you disagree with anything I’ve said here – good! Having opinions and researching them further is something everyone should do, and I recognize that this isn’t a right-vs-wrong thing (except Trump…). It shouldn’t even be a right-vs-left thing. People have different experiences and different desires from their government and their nation that would lead to them voting for different people. Don’t call someone on the other side an idiot without even trying to understand where they, as a fellow human, might be coming from to be as they are. Name-calling and reducing the ‘other’ to an easily-dismissed group of morons demeans us as a whole and only contributes to the toxic divisiveness that currently runs rampant in American politics. I don’t think that’s done any of us much good, do you?

P.S. Next time I’ll write about video games or music or something, promise! That’s enough serious stuff for a while and enough politics for a much longer while. If you’ve read this far, you deserve a break. Enjoy this picture of a kitten dressed as a fancy pirate.

~ by jumiaurum on February 13, 2016.