I am so upset by what I read about politics now that I don't read most of it. I'm disgusted by our national discussion, by our politicians, by our press, and most of all by our values, that allow all these dysfunctional things to flourish. I'm tired of discussing it, and I'm even tired of writing about it. Attempts to engage in discussion get insults and emotional violence in reply. People post abusive diatribes and think such is 'discourse'. Whether in the media, Facebook, my blog or even among co-workers and friends, attempts at a rational examination of problems produces discord.
I've stewed and stewed about our national values and politics. I'm so tired of empowered victimhood through law, manipulative 'data' being passed off as truth, selective reportage producing 'reality'. When I speak with most people of differing political allegiances, I am almost always able to come to an agreement, an accommodation. Our leaders cannot. In addition to any distortions by media and politicians, politics is now played as a game to win, not one to govern, where the 'score' is kept not in what is achieved for the nation but in how much an opponent can be blocked, embarrassed and discredited. The whole miserable mess reminds me of 'On the Beach', a movie about a nuclear war. When one group of ragged survivors meets another, someone asks 'who won'. The answer is 'Oh, we beat the hell out of them'. That's what governance looks like today. And I'm mortally tired of listening to self-righteous people of any party claim the other is responsible. A plague on ALL of you. You are all disgusting.
Beneath all this dysfunction lie two different images of what America is supposed to be. Both are wrong. We are not a theocracy, but we are also not a universal acceptor nation, welcoming everyone and saying every outcome is good, and enabling all this with federal benefits and non-enforcement of law. We have lost all sense of self as a nation- no linguistic, no cultural, no value unity. The only uniting feature is some vague, adolescent definition of 'freedom', where anything is OK and there is no personal responsibility.
This is what I want to see, and hear.
-Illegal immigrants are illegal. They have no rights to US benefits of any kind- childbirth, hospitalization, housing, food stamps, drivers' licenses. I support amnesty for those who come forward AND have a job, and who then must pursue the ordinary steps to citizenship.
-English as the official language. No more translators paid for by agencies and government, and any private person accepting federal money (and if you didn't know, that is how they're paid for). No one had signs and documents in Italian, Greek, Gaelic, German, Swedish, Russian or Yiddish. We are enablers of our own linguistic destruction in the name of 'equality'. English is the language.
-Children of aliens who are born in the US should not be citizens.
-Limit export of monies made in the US to less than 5,000.00 yearly. This is what most EU countries do.
-Drop opposition to abortion. It's legal. Get over yourselves.
-Legalize all drugs. The war on drugs is a complete waste of money and time. Tax, zone, inspect, just like alcohol and cigarettes.
-Legalize all pornography and prostitution. I have no interest at all in what anyone finds desirable.
-Lower the age of consent to match numbers in the rest of the Western World- see this link for the list. It's 14 in Canada for God's sake. Stop the moralizing. Provide sex education, contraception and let people fuck.
-Keep production of child porn very illegal. Children (prepubescent) can't consent. It's abuse, rape and vile.
-Balance the federal budget. Now. Have a serious conversation about it, not empty promises to balance it in 10 years. We are spending beyond our means. We must make difficult choices on this, but they must be made.
-Raise taxes on those with a reportable income exceeding 1-2 million dollars yearly.
-I favor a plain, flat tax. No deductions or exemptions or anything else. And a lower rate. And everyone pays. No minimum exemption. You live here, you use services, you pay. Period.
-Universal federal level health care. If you have a social security number, you have coverage. Benefits to be sharply limited. No CABGs, joint replacement or transplants beyond age 65. If you want these things, buy a wrap-around policy. They're cheap and comprehensive.
-Restore funding to social security, or stop pretending we have a stable retirement system. Large amounts of federal debt are hidden in SS, and in refinancing of bonds and 'quantitative easing'. Cut the bullshit. The accounting used wouldn't pass muster at any company. The feds would investigate anyone doing the garbage they themselves do.
=Fiercely limit Welfare and all federal programs for individuals. End Head Start and all child welfare programs. It is not the State's problem if you cannot care for your children, and perhaps if you are individually responsible for your acts you will stop doing them. And don't spout pablum about 'our most vulnerable and needy'. Government exists to provide services of benefit to all, not individual services to enable people.
-Either fund the military to project American power or stop pretending we have the ability to do it. Funding it will require more taxation. Walk the walk or cut the crap.
-We are at war with any country that does not eradicate ISIS. Throw out their nationals in the US. Stop immigration from these countries. And no sob stories about refugees. All war is horrible. It is not the United States' fault you are killing each other, and too many of you want to kill Americans. Get out!
-Enact trade limits much as Europe has them. Continue free trade agreements, but no imports if your factories do not meet all US environmental and labor laws. Any foreign company that wants to build a US plant must turn over profits to a US subsidiary that is wholly US owned. This is no different than China's policy. Stop using 'free trade' as a way to put Americans out of work and using functional foreign slave labor to make cheap goods.
-Publicly fund presidential and senatorial campaigns. No individual, corporate or union donations. Period. Limit the campaign season to March-November of the election year.
-Term limits for all elected offices. one 6-year term for president, 2 6-year terms for senate, 5 2-year terms for congress.
As you can see, financially I'm a Republican. Socially I'm a Democrat. America, for me, is a place of opportunity, not untrammeled 'freedom'. There is individual, public responsibility that has been completely forgotten. We need it back. Not in the form of religious policies, but in personal honor and responsibility. 60 years ago no one would have imagined voting for a shifty liar stinking of scandal, whether proved or unproved. No one would think of voting for a blowhard tyro, or an open socialist, or a person advocating theocratic values. But those are our choices right now. Chosen, and therefore approved, by us. We need to look in the mirror and ask if we are proud of the mess we have made. Because only we can fix it.
I despise the posturing and fanaticism of both parties. I'm so tired of this whole thing. I'm 58. Short of ending Social Security and Medicare, nothing of what these clowns do is going to materially affect me. I hate the campaign, I hate the 'discourse' and I hate the nasty, ugly, meaningless things spouted all over the news and the internet.
I stopped watching TV 43 years ago. I'm going to stop reading political news, stop FB posting, and pay attention to this slime about as often as I draw blood to see how my transplant is doing. In other words, about once a month.
Politics is the new Kardashians, the new reality show. And like its predecessors, it sucks, and it doesn't deserve an audience.
Ted
I've stewed and stewed about our national values and politics. I'm so tired of empowered victimhood through law, manipulative 'data' being passed off as truth, selective reportage producing 'reality'. When I speak with most people of differing political allegiances, I am almost always able to come to an agreement, an accommodation. Our leaders cannot. In addition to any distortions by media and politicians, politics is now played as a game to win, not one to govern, where the 'score' is kept not in what is achieved for the nation but in how much an opponent can be blocked, embarrassed and discredited. The whole miserable mess reminds me of 'On the Beach', a movie about a nuclear war. When one group of ragged survivors meets another, someone asks 'who won'. The answer is 'Oh, we beat the hell out of them'. That's what governance looks like today. And I'm mortally tired of listening to self-righteous people of any party claim the other is responsible. A plague on ALL of you. You are all disgusting.
Beneath all this dysfunction lie two different images of what America is supposed to be. Both are wrong. We are not a theocracy, but we are also not a universal acceptor nation, welcoming everyone and saying every outcome is good, and enabling all this with federal benefits and non-enforcement of law. We have lost all sense of self as a nation- no linguistic, no cultural, no value unity. The only uniting feature is some vague, adolescent definition of 'freedom', where anything is OK and there is no personal responsibility.
This is what I want to see, and hear.
-Illegal immigrants are illegal. They have no rights to US benefits of any kind- childbirth, hospitalization, housing, food stamps, drivers' licenses. I support amnesty for those who come forward AND have a job, and who then must pursue the ordinary steps to citizenship.
-English as the official language. No more translators paid for by agencies and government, and any private person accepting federal money (and if you didn't know, that is how they're paid for). No one had signs and documents in Italian, Greek, Gaelic, German, Swedish, Russian or Yiddish. We are enablers of our own linguistic destruction in the name of 'equality'. English is the language.
-Children of aliens who are born in the US should not be citizens.
-Limit export of monies made in the US to less than 5,000.00 yearly. This is what most EU countries do.
-Drop opposition to abortion. It's legal. Get over yourselves.
-Legalize all drugs. The war on drugs is a complete waste of money and time. Tax, zone, inspect, just like alcohol and cigarettes.
-Legalize all pornography and prostitution. I have no interest at all in what anyone finds desirable.
-Lower the age of consent to match numbers in the rest of the Western World- see this link for the list. It's 14 in Canada for God's sake. Stop the moralizing. Provide sex education, contraception and let people fuck.
-Keep production of child porn very illegal. Children (prepubescent) can't consent. It's abuse, rape and vile.
-Balance the federal budget. Now. Have a serious conversation about it, not empty promises to balance it in 10 years. We are spending beyond our means. We must make difficult choices on this, but they must be made.
-Raise taxes on those with a reportable income exceeding 1-2 million dollars yearly.
-I favor a plain, flat tax. No deductions or exemptions or anything else. And a lower rate. And everyone pays. No minimum exemption. You live here, you use services, you pay. Period.
-Universal federal level health care. If you have a social security number, you have coverage. Benefits to be sharply limited. No CABGs, joint replacement or transplants beyond age 65. If you want these things, buy a wrap-around policy. They're cheap and comprehensive.
-Restore funding to social security, or stop pretending we have a stable retirement system. Large amounts of federal debt are hidden in SS, and in refinancing of bonds and 'quantitative easing'. Cut the bullshit. The accounting used wouldn't pass muster at any company. The feds would investigate anyone doing the garbage they themselves do.
=Fiercely limit Welfare and all federal programs for individuals. End Head Start and all child welfare programs. It is not the State's problem if you cannot care for your children, and perhaps if you are individually responsible for your acts you will stop doing them. And don't spout pablum about 'our most vulnerable and needy'. Government exists to provide services of benefit to all, not individual services to enable people.
-Either fund the military to project American power or stop pretending we have the ability to do it. Funding it will require more taxation. Walk the walk or cut the crap.
-We are at war with any country that does not eradicate ISIS. Throw out their nationals in the US. Stop immigration from these countries. And no sob stories about refugees. All war is horrible. It is not the United States' fault you are killing each other, and too many of you want to kill Americans. Get out!
-Enact trade limits much as Europe has them. Continue free trade agreements, but no imports if your factories do not meet all US environmental and labor laws. Any foreign company that wants to build a US plant must turn over profits to a US subsidiary that is wholly US owned. This is no different than China's policy. Stop using 'free trade' as a way to put Americans out of work and using functional foreign slave labor to make cheap goods.
-Publicly fund presidential and senatorial campaigns. No individual, corporate or union donations. Period. Limit the campaign season to March-November of the election year.
-Term limits for all elected offices. one 6-year term for president, 2 6-year terms for senate, 5 2-year terms for congress.
As you can see, financially I'm a Republican. Socially I'm a Democrat. America, for me, is a place of opportunity, not untrammeled 'freedom'. There is individual, public responsibility that has been completely forgotten. We need it back. Not in the form of religious policies, but in personal honor and responsibility. 60 years ago no one would have imagined voting for a shifty liar stinking of scandal, whether proved or unproved. No one would think of voting for a blowhard tyro, or an open socialist, or a person advocating theocratic values. But those are our choices right now. Chosen, and therefore approved, by us. We need to look in the mirror and ask if we are proud of the mess we have made. Because only we can fix it.
I despise the posturing and fanaticism of both parties. I'm so tired of this whole thing. I'm 58. Short of ending Social Security and Medicare, nothing of what these clowns do is going to materially affect me. I hate the campaign, I hate the 'discourse' and I hate the nasty, ugly, meaningless things spouted all over the news and the internet.
I stopped watching TV 43 years ago. I'm going to stop reading political news, stop FB posting, and pay attention to this slime about as often as I draw blood to see how my transplant is doing. In other words, about once a month.
Politics is the new Kardashians, the new reality show. And like its predecessors, it sucks, and it doesn't deserve an audience.
Ted
Right on! Preach it baby!
ReplyDeleteWell, that's a lot to chew on. I can't put it nearly as clearly or succinctly as you do, but I certainly agree with you.
ReplyDelete