I am appalled by the statistics, by the numbers of registered Democrats who didn't bother to get out and vote, but also the notable absence of that much-touted 99% who have made so much noise. I was all for you guys, but what about putting your votes where your memes and placards are? You are NOT going to get the Perfect Progressive. Most people who run for office, even the Bernie Sanders and the Elizabeth Warrens, have the pragmatic, practical side that will allow them to reach across the aisle in order to do the job.
The POTUS taught constitutional law. He also knows that things worked best if compromises could be reached across the aisle. He didn't count on the overt and ugly hate. Or maybe he did. He was handicapped by the hate of the right wing of the House of Representatives and you know it, If he didn't do what you wanted him to do, then you were expecting too much and you need to learn how our government works. You sure didn't help him any in the mid-terms. He is an imperfect man but he's the best we have, right now and he is good enough to win my total support.
I'm an old-school liberal. I believe in the lyrics to "Imagine" and I want to buy the world a cup of tea and keep it company. But I am also past the age of starry-eyed idealism. The realities are that we need to be careful fighting this well-funded beast that is trying to take us back to the 1800's. We have to do our damn homework!
I think that we, as a nation, have proven that there is not a frickin' thing exceptional about us. We are no better than any other nation in this world and not as good as some. Nationalism is killing us, as is ignorance and the worship of the almighty dollar, the efforts of the fundamentalist theocrats to grind our educational system to a halt, and the apathy of the rank and file. America is either going to explode, fracture or just keep on careening into third-world desperation. Proud of yourselves, yet?
I was told I had no right to criticize the person who doesn't vote. Well sue me! Yes I do when I see that apathy taking away the basics of life from people who need and deserve them. I am sick of the idea of liberty when there is none. We are not the "Land of the Free." We are the home of the climate deniers and the religious fanatics. We give idiots like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin an open platform. There is no true journalism by any form of media, anymore. We crowd into churches and hand our life's savings over to charlatans like Joel Osteen. We let Pat Robertson meander on and on when he should have been shut down years ago. We allow speeches from Klansmen and Duck Dynasty Doomers and protest if an atheist is asked to speak at a college. We are so damn right-wing heavy we have become an international JOKE!
I remember a time when integrity meant something in this country. Now, I realize that was naivete'. This nasty underbelly of Puritanical, Patriarchal, Jim Crow cruelty has been with us all along, just waiting for us to weaken enough to make their power play. The ones fighting these plutocrats are like "The 300" of Sparta...brave, but not enough. I can only hope we take the lesson and come back stronger. I still have hope. Silly, but it's what gets me through. If just the African Americans, Hispanics and women, who are the game these nimrods are trying to slaughter, got out there and voted, the Ridiculous Right would come down like a tree to an ax.
Stop looking for the perfect candidate and start looking at who is more in line with what is needed than the others and who is electable. Stop expecting Utopia because there is no such thing. Start trying to rebuild a working, fair and productive system. ALL people are imperfect, so just stop worrying about that perfect candidate and stop with the idea that one party is as bad as the other. The Dems are not perfect but they beat the other side all hollow and they have people that are ELECTABLE. We just need to personally research these people and find out who has been bought and who is still his/her own person. Then, by our vote, we weed out the corporate whores.
We have had some hard lessons passed to us in the last decade or so. New Town, Ferguson, the militarization of our police forces, the gutting of the food stamp programs, Cliven Bundy's brazen crimes, shoot-outs and toddlers killing themselves or others with real guns....that's just a little sample. WHAT have we learned and WHEN will we ever learn? I shudder when I think of the kind of world that is left to my children, my grandchildren and their children.
There might be a few people who read this. I don't reach the audience I used to reach when I was all about adoption. But, like I said, there are bigger fish to fry right now. And adoption isn't the only trauma on the chart. We need to give America a chance to be what she can be. We need to give OURSELVES a chance.
No matter what anyone believes, he can't do it by himself.
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