The morning after...

On this day after the Presidential election I have spent the morning reading an endless number of ranting, raving, complaining, vicious, crying, boasting and gloating facebook posts from friends venting after the election.

Admittedly, I am in a state of shock with feelings of anger, disappointment, and dismay bordering on despair.  So many things are going through my head that I have resisted the temptation to let it all hang out and write an immediate post dumping all my feelings into a passionate diatribe.  I have decided not to do that.  Rather, I will let it all sink in and when I think I have calmed myself down enough, I will attempt to pull all my thoughts and feelings together and then write a blog about it.

I would like to comment on one thing, however:  One of the threads running through the posts I’ve read this morning is the threat to, or an admission of, “unfriending” because of disagreements over political positions or beliefs.  There are many bad things about social media—you know them all, bullying, hate, threats, lies and on and on.  But, on the plus side, social media has offered a means of instant communication between people that never existed before.  It provides a way for the immediate exchange of ideas whether you agree with those ideas or not.

Obviously, those of you have read my facebook posts and blogs know I have been clear and outspoken about my political leanings and opinions during the campaign.  There have been many heated exchanges between me and friends ranging from mildly nasty to somewhat mean to downright vicious. I have never unfriended anyone regardless of how unpleasant an exchange may have been and I never will.  Cutting off a dialogue, no matter how heated or unpleasant, does not resolve anything.

Hopefully that idea will prevail after Trump takes office.  During the Obama years, the Republicans and Democrats had very little dialogue.  The danger now is that with the Republicans wielding total control of the Presidency and Congress, there will be no dialogue at all.

VOTE!

My generation was taught that voting was not only a right of citizenship but also an obligation to participate in our democracy.  If you don’t vote, you are not only renouncing one of your most important rights, you are also shirking your responsibility to participate in our governmental system.

Many people have stated they will demonstrate their contempt for both candidates, and the distrust and hatred towards the system one of them has instilled in the public mind by not voting or by writing in someone who has no chance of winning.  That’s a cop out.  There are only two viable candidates.  Whether you like it or not, one of them will be elected and determine the policies and direction for our country for you, your children and grandchildren for years to come.

Unfortunately, this election has been a disgrace of name calling, character assignation, lies, and innuendos, marred by racism, bigotry and vulgarity.  It certainly is not worthy of the America I grew up in.  But it’s what we’ve got right now and you can’t change that.  So if you go around after the election bragging that you did not vote for anyone or you wrote in “Mickey Mouse,” don’t expect any admiration from me or anyone else who still believes, no matter how many flaws there may be in our Democracy, it is still the best form of government and the one I want to live with.

Anyone who has read my blogs and postings knows i will not vote for a man who has systematically torn town and disdained our country and it's institutions and values. So I will express my opinion with my ballot. The ballot is also the way for you to express yours.
 
Tomorrow I will exercise my right, my responsibility and my obligation and I hope all of you do as well.

MAKE AMERICAN SANE AGAIN--GET RID OF REPUBLICANS!

With just a few days left before the election, Alf and I are urging all 83 of our supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton.  But more than that, we are urging every American to vote for her and Democrats in ALL Senate, House and local elections.  The only way we will make America sane again is to get rid of Republicans.

The Republican Party has systematically been destroying our country ever since Ronald Regan declared, “Government is not the solution, it’s the problem.”  Republican policy for decades has been to demolish trust in our democratic traditions, laws, values and institutions which has led to today’s congressional dysfunction and the rise of the demagogue Donald Trump as the G.O.P. standard bearer.

When Regan turned the country against its government, he established the devious Republican strategy that if they could make Americans hate and distrust the government, then they, the Republicans, could wield absolute power and control everything in the country.   That has now culminated in hatred, division, xenophobia, bigotry and the rise of Donald Trump. 

You may recall, the Republicans declared the day after Obama’s inauguration they were determined to make him a one-term President, and they have done everything they could since then to obstruct anything he has proposed.  They flatly declared they would not participate in governing the country mainly to show their base they would not cooperate with a black President.  They succeeded.  They shut down the government, they voted to repeal Obamacare 60 times without ever proposing any constructive alternatives, they launched endless investigations and hearings on Hilary Clinton’s emails, wasting enormous amounts of time and money on what is, in reality, a pathological obsession for purely political, not realistic, reasons.  Can anyone cite anything positive the Republicans have done in Congress over the last seven and a half years?

Republican policies led us into endless war in the Middle East, a devastating recession and a non-functioning government.   They are promising more of the same.  Prominent Republicans have already declared they will not approve any Supreme Court Justice if Hillary Clinton is elected.  In other words, they have made it clear they will follow the same obstructionist policies with a new Democratic President as they did with the old.

The tragedy here is that the Republicans have now destroyed a basic principle of the Constitution that I was taught in school—the Supreme Court is above politics and strictly interprets the law.  But Republicans have made it clear, they will not accept a Supreme Court Justice unless he or she will uphold the Evangelical Christian right on matters of abortion and gay rights.  So forget the Constitutional principle about separation of church and state as far as Republicans are concerned.  (Not to mention Citizen’s United which is another Republican anti-democracy accomplishment.)

So, my fellow Americans, Alf and I urge you to get out and vote and to vote a straight Democratic ticket.  If not, you will allow the Republicans to screw up America more than they already have.

COMEY REVEALED AS REPUBLICAN PARTY STOOGE

Just 11 days before the Presidential Election, FBI Director James Comey released a vague letter to Congress stating that some unidentified emails might, just maybe, could possibly perhaps have something to do with the exhaustive investigation of Hillary Clinton that he declared closed a few months ago.

Donald Trump immediately reacted by saying, “James Comey is the best FBI Director in the history of the United States.  To be perfectly honest, when he refused to prosecute Hillary I thought he was the worst FBI Director in the history of the United States but now I think he is the best.”

It turns out that the emails in question have to do with Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal.  According to some people, at the time of the scandal, Weiner’s estranged wife Huma Abedin, who is a close Clinton aide, requested the State Department classify her husband’s penis as “Top Secret” to stop people from looking at it and spreading it around the Internet. 

A lot of people are saying that Comey has been in secret contact with the Russians who promised him that if he helps them defeat Clinton, they will share their hacking skills with the FBI since the Russians are so much better at it. 

Informed sources close to the Director said he intentionally announced reopening the case against Hillary to hurt her election chances so that when she gets elected and fires him he will be assured of an extremely high paying job as a lobbyist for Republican causes.