Tag Archives: hillary

Are We Half Crazy? : What's broken in American Elections

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what-happenedWell here we are after the election, and no matter who won you were going to end up with half the country with a huge pit in their stomach wondering what went wrong why did the other side win.  And the other half breathing a sigh of relief.  But no matter what side you we’re on the world is not coming to and end.  Of that I am relatively sure…

But having these elections where we have such a polarizing feeling portraying total destruction by either side is a real problem.  We really need an election where we feel like multiple candidates could do the job are running for. There are a few real problems in our elections:

One is a natural tendency people to want to gather tougher and support “their team” no matter what.  Basically we don’t have political parties that represent policy opinions, we have “teams” that we rally around. Unfortunately given our American tenacity in pursuing winning at all costs we eat ourselves alive.  Rather than looking at how to make the country and American’s thrive we get caught up in brining the other team down.  And losing sight of the fact that “other team”, well it is made up of another set of Americans.

Making this tendency worse is how money gets used in politics.  Money itself isn’t the issue, but that the vast majority gets spent in ad campaigns.  Ad campaigns by their nature are trying to find the most effective way to get one candidate / team to win.  Trying to present what the issues are, weigh multiple points of view and pick the best option is simply too long, tedious and uncertain for a political campaign,  It is far more effective to tie your candidate / team to a brand and make it a right / wrong choice.  So basically money in politics today is trying to make us all stupid…

Finally money in politics today has gone dark. The biggest problem I see with the Citizens United Ruling is not how much money is allows to flow into politics its that is misses the very important difference between free speech and money.  When I speak out on a subject you know it is me speaking, even if I use a megaphone.  But now people can “talk” via money and leave no trace.

We simply need to find a way to counteract this and work toward real information, discussion and debate on what is best for our country.

 

A Madman has Spoken…

Wasting Your Vote! : An American guide to democratic apathy

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wasting-votesWell its that joyous voting season today.  A time where we get to make our opinions heard but at the same time somehow feel powerless. Its a time when many Americans seem determined to throw away their privilege to vote.

Well in case you are looking for effective ways to toss your option out the window here are three suggestions…

  1. Simply don’t vote, probably the most popular due to use ease.  In fact this is often the goal of candidates.  They know if they can get some parts of the populace not to vote they have a better chance of winning.  Basically this method guarantees the opinion of those who do vote get more weight.  So if you really want to protect the interest of older white people this should be your preferred method!
  1. Vote, but don’t get informed.  By the way ads and rallies don’t count, as they are designed to simply sway you by the most effective means possible.  And giving you real information is way too time consuming to be effective. Voting without really knowing where the candidates stand and what they would really do in office is giving your opinion over to random chance, the biggest star or the biggest spender.
  1. Finally a savvy way waste your vote is to only vote for someone you think can win even when you really prefer another candidate.  So after getting yourself informed and actually voting you’re choosing NOT to let your actual opinion known.  It is hard because as an American I know I want to WIN…  But that is not what voting is for.  Voting is a chance to let your voice be heard.  If any candidate gets more than a few percentage points they get noticed and over time the policies and characteristics that get votes become adopted.  A reminder it may have taken 108 years but the cubs did win again, so maybe give an Independent, Libertarian on Green a chance…

If your objective is not to waste your vote then do your best to be informed.  Try to find real policy information. There are a growing number of sites out the to help such as: https://votesmart.org, http://maplight.org, or http://votersedge.org. Once informed then simply show up and cast your vote for whoever you truly think is best person to do the job for your community, state or country.

A Madman has Voted…

Blow Harder!!!

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Dem-Rep
I sit here in a bar eating a light dinner, imagining a convention season will be interesting, illuminating maybe even a bit humorous. But somehow it always manages to just be a time when the naiveté of my patriotism gets massacred.

I believe strongly in a system where the different points of view held by Americans that all love our country can focus on real problems. I know well enough that posturing and politics and blow hards all work to get our attention. And the conventions are the blow hardest moments for all the blow hards in our political process.

I long for a convention that focuses on identifying the challenges before us and weighing who the differing points of view really compare. One where a platform that inspires all of us. But this takes talking about the myriad of approaches and really understanding many of then have merits. But instead we get a bunch of people talking as if there are only two points of view and that somehow their “opponent” is crazy, corrupt, incompetent, self-absorbed, or just simple buffoonery. At both major conventions it my longing simply won’t matter.

The fact of the matter is we are all Americans, we all share this country its burdens and its benefits. We are a strong country but only if we always work to make our politicians work to focus on what they can do rather than who they can take down. But in the end the conventions are what they are and will try to make America weaker…

A Madman Has Spoken…