Dear American Voter:
In a month you will have the opportunity to vote in the presidential election. I am sure that you are heartily tired of things at this point (as we all are at the end of every political season). At this point most of you have probably already made up your mind.
Let me channel your thoughts a bit. You are, on the whole, dis-satisfied with the entire process. You feel that the candidates you have the option of voting for are not the best we could have done, but for goodness sake, they are better than the opposing party. Every new revelation of flaws or errors or even illegalities raises your anger even more.
Occasionally, you continue to wonder if this really is the best that we could have done. How, you might be saying to yourself, did we reach the point that these candidates are all we have?
I have the answer for you. It is you. It is me. It is all of us.
Candidates are only ultimately a reflection of ourselves, of our hopes and dreams and beliefs in how things should be run. We get them to the point that they are the one, and then are almost forced into a position of having to support them - after all, we put our stamp of approval on them. But the reality - the sad, sad reality - is that we have done the very same things.
Think a candidate's crass and rude comments about women are a problem? How many do I know, on both sides of the political aisle, that have used the same words or language and thought nothing of it?
Think society does a horrible job at ignoring the pleas of women who have been raped? How then do you argue for someone who at best was willingly unknowing and at worst an accomplice to such behavior?
Think that truth matters, that accountability and doing what you say is important? Then how do you support such behavior in candidates that you would not approve of in your children or in anyone else?
This is a larger problem, one that our society has yet to fully grasp: we decry violence in the streets, yet entertain ourselves with it; we argue for support of certain policies and directions and then turn aside when people -actual people, supposedly our fellow citizens - are put out of work or bankrupted by them. We delight in the sexual infidelities feed to us in screen and music, yet cry foul when ourselves or someone we know is affected by this or when the crass and rude language that we enjoy as entertainment is brought forth as political fodder.
We have attempted to separate our personal lives and our public lives to the detriment of both. We have somehow ourselves believe the we can compartmentalize what we are inside and how we are and act outside. And we believe that there are no consequences to our actions internally, that somehow all these issues we face as a society are sui generis with no relationship to ourselves
As you might have come to understand, I am little frustrated.
Who are you voting for in a month? If you understood that directly or indirectly you are enabling this sort of bad behavior to continue, would you still vote for them?
I wish I had a better way. I wish we had actual candidates that we could actually vote for instead of vote against.
But I think even more, I wish that we would understand how we came to make this all be.
Your Obedient Servant,
Toirdhealbheach Beucail
i don't dither in american politics ever.
ReplyDeletebut this is probably the best summation i have read. kudos to your depth of understanding TB. you truly understand the depth of the situation and i admire that.
i am sending you much love. your friend,
kymber
As well you should not Kyber - it is enough to drive me crazy, let alone someone that has no concern about it.
DeleteI have to admit to you that one of thing I am finding increasingly discouraging is people whom I would consider Christian or religious taking one side of the argument, to wit that the one candidate is terrible yet somehow ignoring the other one as if one truly flawed candidate somehow makes the lesser evil more acceptable - as if somehow the "lesser evil" is not going to act in a way counter to their own stated moral code and beliefs.
Thanks for the love. I may not make it out of this election with any sanity left.
Much Love, TB
YA know what I don't understand. When did doing something legal like talking about a woman in a sexual manner become an issue to hold against a candidate while illegal acts like rape and conspiracy are not given a second thought? I'll tell ya when because it's all about money and power not about ethics. The femocrats are nothing more than political looters and so actual morals and values mean nothing to them.
ReplyDeletePreppy, as much as it pains me to say it, it is because we have come to accept a false moral standard. Frankly, I blame the church - not for the election, but for allowing the selection of sins we find abominable and those we find acceptable being not based on an unchanging moral standard but rather on our perceptions of the harm it does.
DeleteWe have lost all sense of a moral compass. It does not bode well for the future.
Thank you as I agree with you 100%. I have asked those who are complaining "Who made the books 50 Shades of Grey a best seller..men"? Trump wasn't my choice, he has never stated that he is someone other than himself. His life seems like an open book not hidden or washed from the internet so you cant find even pictures or information about his life (except what someone decided you should see). Hillary Clinton will be a clone of what we have now. She promises all this free stuff but has no real way to pay. She never tells the truth about the economy and how we are on the edge of the cliff. I guess I'm a voting for my values for America not any persons. People need to realize that he will have some influence (or executive orders) but the Congress will have some say if it benefits them. My fear is that the dopes in Washington will pull the plug on the economy so to blame us for it failing(we are to stupid to know what is best). It will take years to turn around this country and that is if everyone is rowing in the same direction.
ReplyDeleteVictoria, there is actually a meme going around about this very thing right now. Sadly, I think the cause/effect will escape most people.
DeleteI do not know if we can even all row in the same direction at this point. Think about it: whoever wins with elections will probably win with 45-55% of the population not voting for them. Will they try to make policy for "all" Americans, or will they try to implement their own personal agenda?
I am not hopeful for the future of the United States.
Sadly, I am not hopeful, either. But I pray. It's all I can do.
ReplyDeleteBe safe and God bless.
Linda, the only thing I think I would add is that the other thing we can do is be the change that we want to see in the world (That's Gandhi, not TB). Ultimately we change the culture, not politics. Mayhap each of us is a single candle, but a millions candles will eventually light up the night.
Delete