Eclairé a Pensé

Written Jan. 30, 2019…

I have never bought into the ridiculous argument that anyone who wants to run for President, must do so within the Democratic or Republican parties. People should be allowed to run as whatever they want. If you think otherwise, then don’t tell me how much you care about democracy, because you clearly want less democracy, not more. And when you say, that person will be “taking votes away” from either party, it just seems incredibly arrogant to think that those two main parties are somehow deserving of those votes. Remember: I don’t owe anyone or any party my vote. It’s up to them to win me over, not for me to blindly give them my vote. The Democrats, especially, believe that it is their God-given right to your vote. And people like Rob Reiner don’t believe that the Democrats should have to do anything to earn that vote. You should just give it to them unquestioningly, because, if not, then it’s all “your fault” if the other side wins. No, that’s not how it works, Rob. That is just classic gaslighting and bullying tactics. There is perhaps maybe one Democrat, if that, that I would even remotely consider voting for. The rest of them could drop off the earth for all I care. I have zero use for them.

So all this screaming and yelling about billionaire CEO Howard Schultz potentially “stealing” votes away from Democrats is utter nonsense. First off, I doubt he will get many votes because he’s just another greedy billionaire novice who arrogantly thinks he can just jump over all the other political offices that he’s never run for and go straight to the biggest job in the world. Secondly, he doesn’t owe anyone a damn thing, as far as how he wants to run, and neither does anyone who votes for him. If you don’t want people to vote for him, then come up with a better platform than his. Simple as that. The same goes if you want to stop the Green Party from “taking away” votes from your party – which I guarantee you would never get anyhow, if the Greens weren’t around.

I think Schultz should run however the hell he wants to run. If he takes away votes from the Democrats, then that is on them – not him. You have obviously not won over those people whose votes he has “stolen.” Just because I think he is as woefully unqualified for the Oval Office as Trump, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have the right to run if he chooses. However, I think he’s bullshitting people if he wants anyone to think he is some rebel “free thinker” by not running as a Dem, when, in reality, he is a centrist Democrat through and through. The only reason he’s running as an independent is because he knows he doesn’t stand a chance of becoming the Democratic nominee, so he figures he can just skip over all that, and buy his way to the next round. He can pretend that he’s not the same as the Democrats or the Republicans, when he is, in fact, exactly the same. He’s just another out-of-touch billionaire with no charisma and nothing to offer. But if he can jump over the primaries and shoot straight to the general election, then he figures you’ll have no choice but to take him seriously. He’s a centrist Democrat and always has been. He has nothing unique to offer from what other centrist Dems will offer, and so to not run as a Dem is a simply a cowardly, cynical move. But like I said, he has the right to run however he chooses. And we have the right to give him our vote – or not.

Written Jan. 12, 2019…

I would never tell people who to vote or not vote for. Nor would I tell them whether they should vote at all. That’s up to them.

But I do believe that voting has become mostly a waste of time and energy. When I hear people say that we need to vote out all the bad politicians, all I can do is laugh. We vote year in and year out and nothing ever gets better. In fact, it just keeps getting worse and worse. You can’t simply vote out corruption. The establishment has rigged the entire system in order to make sure that you can’t just simply get rid of them. Our system is so thoroughly corrupt to the core that you can’t fix a completely broken system. People keep living under the illusion that we still live in a democracy, where we hold legitimate elections. The 2016 Democratic primary proved that voting doesn’t matter. The DNC staged a coup for Hillary through their constant rigging and cheating. The establishment still pretends that she won legitimately. So does the person whose supporters were cheated. And many of those supporters also think that next time will somehow be different, even though nothing has changed.

Do I believe the same thing will happen again in 2020? There’s not the slightest doubt in my mind. Unless we start seriously calling out election fraud, it will just keep happening in election after election. And our taking part in this charade just gives legitimacy to a system that is completely illegitimate. And it solves nothing. I guarantee the next president of the United States will be another pro-establishment neoliberal disaster.

We also have to take into account that millions of American voters (whether they are conservatives, centrists, progressives, or libertarians) constantly keep voting for the lesser of 2 evils, and then cannot for the life of them figure out why things just keep spiraling further and further downwards. They are perfectly content with accepting crumbs that politicians throw at us, and don’t seem to demand more. They will vote for politicians that take money from special interests, and then wonder why those politicians are not working on their behalf.

We also need to get away from this “cult of personality” obsession we have with politicians. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Trump or Bernie or Hillary or Obama. Once people fall under their spell, they start suffering from cognitive dissonance. These politicians can do no wrong in their eyes, no matter how many things you point out to them that prove they are not really who they claim to be. Just like when people choose a party to vote for, they just vote blindly for that party forevermore. It doesn’t matter if the party no longer stands for anything they claim to stand for themselves, they just keep voting for them without question. It gets to be about nothing more than “we gotta beat the other team.”

I think politics has become a complete joke in this country, and so has voting. Am I saying I’ll never vote again? No, but I seriously have to question the sanity of it, and whether I want to keep engaging in this endless charade.