Why whoever is elected President should be your President / Followed by a poem by Robert Frost

This is a diverse country. Our outlooks and philosophies are mostly defined by our family roots, our environments and our personal experiences. Different shouldn't be equated with wrong, at least not by definition. It’s only a varying definition caused by dissimilar experiences.

Where, how and to whom you were born. How you were treated. What you managed to learn.

This equals diversity. That entails differences. Some of those differences can be dramatic. We are comfortable with what we are familiar. We fear what we don’t know or understand. We envy the comfortable when we’re not comfortable ourselves. When comfortable we fear someone taking it from us. Nobody likes to be afraid. Fear often germinates into distrust and dislike. Who likes being different when you’re singled out? Fear then leads to strong dislike or hatred. It can get emotional. You can learn how to hate from your own people. You can be taught to hate by those who seem to hate you. Ignorance of others often breeds hatred born of distrust.

Knowledge, on the other hand can illuminate. Experience and education teaches you to equivocate your position. Equivocation precedes understanding. Understanding precedes empathy. If you can’t walk a mile in the other man/woman’s moccasins, you must try to imagine it. Try to understand it. Why? Why not just close your mind and believe your opinion is the only opinion and that you are intrinsically right and those that disagree are plain wrong? That those of another kind or community must hate us and so we must hate them?

The answer is quite simple. Knowledge is power. Empathy is liberating. To begin to understand, know and ultimately trust people who are different from you, makes you bigger, stronger, smarter and more powerful. To hate others on sight and to close your mind makes you smaller, weaker, dumber and forever limited.

So why can’t we just learn to get along? One reason is it doesn’t profit all policy makers, news generators, opinion wonks, career politicians (not all but some) and media mavens if we all get along. Playing one side against the other can be profitable. Conflict is exciting. Peace is boring. Besides, everyone loves a circus.

We see and read every day about how bad the world is. We are taught fear by our exposure to “news.” Candidates for both sides are shown at their worst, not their best.

The recent election cycle revealed that our country is split down the middle by rural and urban, highly educated and hard working, those that want to accelerate change and those who want to honor tradition.

It’s my contention that the country course corrects every eight years or so. We steer left, then we steer right. It keeps the vehicle in the middle of the road, which seems to not please anybody but tends to give everybody a few years to feel comfortable.

Can we go with that flow? Steer left, then right and wobble in and out of the middle? Nobody keeps power forever? We turn the reigns over to one side for a while and the other takes them back every so often? I say, “why not?”

Newspapers must sell to survive. When you see the election results you might think that the New York Times and the Washington Post swayed the electorate to vote very heavily for Hillary. But the paper survives by feeding back to the locals what they already believe. Otherwise nobody would buy it. Fox news caters to conservatives. That’s why they turn it on. The networks appeal to heavily populated regions. That density appeals to advertisers.

Politicians must draw distinctions, not heal fractions. The first job of a career politician is to be elected. The second, and thereafter, cyclical job is to be re-elected. If not, they are not career politicians, by definition. I would tell you that the Clinton’s machine’s first priority upon election would be to reward their supporters, consolidate their power base, begin the process of collecting donations from those who weren’t sure she would win and preparing for 2020. We'll soon see if Trump wants to be a career politician or really do something to renew our country's industrial base. That's one good reason to give him some latitude. Has he said stupid things? Yes. Did I vote for him? No. Will I be skeptical? Yes. Do I hope he moderates and is successful at creating a better US economy. You bet. Is that universal? Not close.

My take on the “I’m right and you’re wrong and I’m not going to listen to you, ever.” school of thought is now germinating with “we know who you are and what you’re going to do.” The WORST thing (for the opposition) that can happen is for Trump to moderate his rhetoric, work toward actually doing something positive for the country and being a mildly successful national administrator.

This isn’t unique with this election. The first time Barry O. got elected, it was the same “He’s not my President.” He’s not even a natural born citizen. Yeah, Trump said that too. So why give him the benefit of the doubt when he didn’t give it to the last administration? The short answer is, it helps everybody.

I don’t expect equivocation from the Hollywood Elite, the New York Times, The Washington Post, etc. etc., to hope that our country will succeed no matter who is in charge. There is a vested interest in seeing those you disagree with fail.

I voted for Hillary Clinton and would again. I am also going to work my tail off to make this country as successful as it can be. I will remain positive about what we can accomplish together the next four years. I don’t hope Trump goes radical and harms people even though that would profit Democrats. He is in a unique position to question and work toward making our country more economically successful. I read progressives say that the Democratic party will now reconstitute to begin to listen to workers who lost jobs and careers because of policies that have been promulgated by the Clinton administration which benefits the world economy but left our people forever under-employed. So be it. Good. There’s another election in four years. Get off the streets whining and begin to work toward better understanding why Trump got elected.

So what’s my point? Easy. Empathize with and learn not to fear the other side. Work toward making this country work. Stop hating those that disagree with you and with whom you disagree. Move the right to the left and the left to the right. Moderate your beliefs a bit. Breathe. Listen. Meditate. Calm your fears. The profit from that will accrue to the holder and to our country.

Here’s a poem by Robert Frost, from whom I learned the power of equivocation:

On the Heart's Beginning to Cloud the Mind

Something I saw or thought I saw
In the desert at midnight in Utah,
Looking out of my lower berth
At moonlit sky and moonlit earth.
The sky had here and there a star;
The earth had a single light afar,
A flickering, human pathetic light,
That was maintained against the night,
It seemed to me, by the people there,
With a Godforsaken brute despair.
It would flutter and fall in half an hour
Like the last petal off a flower.
But my heart was beginning to cloud my mind.
I knew a tale of a better kind.
That far light flickers because of trees.
The people can burn it as long as they please;
And when their interests in it end,
They can leave it to someone else to tend.
Come back that way a summer hence,
I should find it no more no less intense.
I pass, but scarcely pass no doubt,
When one will say, "Let's put it out."
The other without demur agrees.
They can keep it burning as long as they please;
They can put it out whenever they please.
One looks out last from the darkened room
At the shiny desert with spots of gloom
That might be people and are but cedar,
Have no purpose, have no leader,
Have never made the first move to assemble,
And so are nothing to make her tremble.
She can think of places that are not thus
Without indulging a "Not for us!"
Life is not so sinister-grave.
Matter of fact has made them brave.
He is husband, she is wife.
She fears him not, they fear not life.
They know where another light has been,
And more than one, to theirs akin,
But earlier out for bed tonight,
So lost on me in my surface flight.

This I saw when waking late,
Going by at a railroad rate,
Looking through wreaths of engine smoke
Far into the lives of other folk.

--Robert Frost

Hail Caesar & Full speed ahead

Hail Caesar and full speed ahead

I am a contrarian. Maybe by design. I entered school early and was smaller and more immature throughout school. I also got sick as a kid and missed a lot of school. Never being the football hero and marching with the band will make you cynical. Anyway I saw the news a couple nights ago and they showed Obama’s final correspondent’s dinner and a couple jokes he told and at the end he dropped the mike, put two fingers to his lips and said “Obama out.” Didn’t get it. Then I read he was kinda’ lampooning Kobe Bryant’s last game where he did the same thing but with Mamba out. Get it? Mamba out, Obama out? In that context it was cool. Without the context it was strange. I’m going to miss Barry. He’s a cool guy. Smart. Educated. Cool under fire. He’s done a representative job. I didn’t vote for him because I guess I’m older and white and identify with people like John McCain. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate President Obama and I do. Are we better off after eight years? Some are. Government sponsors health care for a lot more Americans. That’s good for those Americans. Everybody else? We’ll see. I made an allusion that I didn’t vote for Obama because I’m white but that’s not really the case. I know Obama’s a hybrid. Raised by his mother and grandparents. Wrote the Harvard law review. The black guy in him makes him special. I kinda like that. But being white gives me privilege, right? I can’t empathize with minorities because I’m flawed by race. The white/black thing is weird though. I pulled for the Lakers throughout the 60s when the Celtics were dominant because I got tired of Red Auerbach’s white guys and cigar lighting. The black guys on the Lakers were the underdogs and I liked that. Black guys seem more relaxed, have better physical skills, play the blues better, and so on. All generalizations are false, of course but we all do it, you can’t help it. You generalize. I don’t think I dislike anybody based on race. If it’s true, I’m a clueless individual but I don’t think so because hey, I am a contrarian. Who is more the underdog than people who are working to overcome being a racial minority? I also have a bit of a problem with black people hating white people because of race, isn’t "racist." It’s justified. But I give Obama credit. He’s pretty logical. Besides, he’s a hybrid.

So where’s this going? Obama’s moving on to the speaking circuit, writing his memoirs and biography, building his Presidential library in Chicago and playing about the same amount of golf, eh? That leaves the office open for either Hillary or Donald. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Trump is a bit of a bigot, a narcissist (most politicians are), an over-privileged braggart, a misogynist, a truth stretcher (most politicians are), with no track record as a statesman. He is not and would not be my first choice for President. He is probably more than a little dangerous. But he is one of two who has qualified to be a major candidate for President and he has been woefully underestimated so far.

The other candidate:

Ms. Clinton. Hillary reminds me of a reptile. She probably sheds skin. Her tongue is lizard like and can say amazingly smooth, calculated and rehearsed things. She is mistake free. Just ask her. Like a chameleon she can change color when adaptation benefits her. She seems asexual, reproducing through parthenogenesis, but then a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. Like a reptile she is cold. Stays married to a serial cheater but then he is now her eunuch, why not use him? A rather cold and calculated plan but it fits. Has a plan for everything and can change it to suit the latest poll. Is indebted to big banks, big pharma, unions, lawyers and anybody with a big check book. She knows how the game is played. She and Bill have been playing it for forty years. Power. Money. Revenge. Say anything, do anything to grasp the big goal. She dropped the feminist Hillary Rodham stuff to appeal to a broader audience but can change it back if it has a benefit. It’s not about principle, its about advantage. She set up her own personal server as Secretary of State for her convenience and control. Advantage Hillary. It was almost immediately compromised. No, no it wasn’t. Right? Just ask her. She doesn’t make mistakes. She is used to political power and privilege and her struggles to be locally relevant during her campaign are hilarious. What will she bring to office? A political agenda that will similar to Obama’s. How exciting. Eight more years of apologizing and making things more “correct.”

So how has the political status quo worked for the average American the past eight years? The country’s middle class is worse off. The rich and powerful are more rich and more powerful. We manufacture and export next to nothing any more. Steel? No. We import nearly everything. We are a service economy. An intellectual property country. Blue collar workers are out of work. Kids get degrees and work at Starbucks. We are nation on the decline. Most believe it is inevitable. Go with the flow. Free trade our way to oblivion and enjoy how productive our entertainment industry is. Can’t blame Democrats for this. This is bi-partisan. Besides, we deserve it. What we get for all our past transgressions.

Everybody agrees it’s a global economy now. We have to adapt. Lower our expectations. Export jobs, export manufacturing, This generation and the next will have to adapt to the new reality. They can have jobs, but they will struggle to pay their bills for decades. Debt will grow to be unsustainable but hey, that’s okay and I’m not talking about federal debt, I’m talking about individual debt the middle class is taking on. That’s what leadership agrees. Both the left and the right don’t want to get in the way of global progress. We take on debt. We protect the rest of the world. We export jobs, manufacturing, industry and leave behind french fry pushers.

Again, where I am going?

Perhaps with bad analogy but it comes from deep inside. Andrew Jackson, who they are taking off the 20, turned the white house over to common people for a while. Teddy Roosevelt, who posed with bears and sent gunboats around the world and Ronald Reagan, who was too dumb to know what he couldn’t accomplish. And yeah, that other serial cheater and other misogynist, JFK when he dealt with Khrushchev and threatened nuclear midnight over missiles to Cuba. These guys had vision and they were doers. Not planners. Not politicians. Egg breakers. Omelet makers. Once in a while we need a leader who can’t see the reasons why we can’t. Doesn’t understand all the nuances, isn’t interest in the “other side of the coin.” When Reagan stood at the Berlin wall and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” He should have known it was provocative and threatening and we don’t control what other countries do. We don’t have the power to dictate global policy. We are but one country with a sordid past of slavery, civil war, illegal expansion into the west, native American disgrace, unfair labor practices, unequal pay, monopolies, homeless people, drug addiction and the shame of Vietnam. Right Hillary? Let’s focus on our shame and do better politically. Meanwhile the average American needs to lower their expectations and realize what we’re doing is only right for Mexico, China, Central America, Japan and so on. Obama’s done a good job of making us look better to Europe. Less cowboy. More chess player. Excellent. Keep it up.

Except it isn’t selling well locally. People want to see their leaders pushing the edge of the envelope for them, not Mexico, not China, not Japan. They want to hear somebody say, “Let’s manufacture here.” Let’s grow our economy and lower our debt. Renegotiate debt percentages. Let’s stop apologizing and start being proud again. Simplistic? Maybe. Timely. We’ll soon see. I don’t like Trump. He’s an ass. And let’s be honest. Arkansas is a red state. How I vote will essentially be meaningless. There will be a handful of blue states that went for Obama that will need to flip if Trump, the asshole, can have four years to reverse some of the conservative/liberal/progressive political posturing and ideology which has gotten us where we are. Trump is an asshole but he is not a conservative or progressive ideologue, he is a bullheaded businessman who wants to do something about regressive taxation, unsustainable debt, insurance industry collusion, big pharma advantage to the detriment of the middle class, and loss of jobs, manufacturing and our essential industrial base. Our country is moving in the wrong direction and our “leaders” are frankly, clueless about it. They work hardest at one thing. Getting re-elected. It’s what they work on from the minute they’re elected to the next time the polls open. Raising money for ads and political war chests. The people who give them money want favoritism and patronage. Trump’s already rich. He already has a plane to ride around in. Living in the White House won’t be much of an upgrade. He doesn’t need to cow-tow to anybody. Both parties both fear and hate him. The press hate him. There will be more character assassination in the next six months than ever before. But like Jackson, Roosevelt and Reagan, the average Joe considers Trump something more than just a politician. Because well, he obviously isn’t a politician. He doesn’t act like a politician. He doesn’t speak like a politician. He says what he thinks. That’s so rare it’s scary. They think he is an iconoclast because he is. An egg breaker. The turd in the punch bowl. If nothing else, it’s at least not “more of the same.”

Will I vote for him? Hard to say. Like I said, won’t matter one way or another. Arkansas is red and will stay red no matter what I do. But let’s make it theoretical.  Hillary is the safe bet. Short term, of course. Because long term, enough of her type of pol who work for their party and their contributors and work hard at more and more legislation that benefits their constituency to the detriment to our overall economy and the decline of our country is assured. The Romans liked their bread and circuses. Trump has the big shoes and the big top. Clown-like but hey, it’s going to be interesting… Hail Caesar and full speed ahead. I for one can’t wait for the next circus performance, it’s even better than the bread.