KJ Starace, 22 Oct. 2016 (771)

No way is this really happening: less than a month and we have to vote. I’m still stunned these aren’t the final contestants on a bad TV show. There should be a sign in my yard saying: we deserve better.

I’m an independent but that’s not why I’m unsatisfied. Wherever you look, you see almost cartoon-ish reasons not to vote for either and anger from all sides. This is the most lamentable choice in my American history. And now with the latest emails and knowing how base Trumps’ mind really is, they become bitter pills to swallow.

I just don’t trust Hilary and I’ve tried. I want a female President but she’s so typical, so establishment, entrenched and I’ve just had it with same old crap, flip flopping, trading of influence…between the Clintons and the Bushes it feels like a 2-party monarchy.

She’s a woman and they’re clinically proven to be better than men (not to mention buffoons) at: healing, compromise, long term strategy, lowering swords/egos, getting to fairer results, nurturing, can put the whole ahead of themselves, reflect on the positives…..Maybe this is sexist, but it’s what I feel and believe we need.

I understand Trump. Livelihoods are vaporizing; he’s PT Barnum so it all works. Median male incomes have been falling consistently since the 1970’s. There are whole economies and developments some can’t touch, breezing right past them; they are stuck, depressed, and not going to take it anymore. Never mind the real reasons behind job loss (namely, technology), they look into the future and see themselves struggling to survive because of China, immigrants, liberals who like clean energy – someone has to pay. Anger comes from resentment and paralysis.

Trump, willing to blow up the system, is their nuke. His people must realize that no one actually knows how to blow up ‘a system’ no less our own so they’re using him and he’s happy to go along.

Unlike the influential that don’t feel it, or the media that doesn’t see it, ‘the system’ is leaving many out. The policies of the last 8 years, 20 years, 50 years, haven’t worked well enough. In fact, not since 1928 has economic inequity been this alarmingly high (But tech stocks are doing great!).

As Hilary looks and sounds and fabricates and evades the law like only the establishment can, Trump is a missile being recklessly fired. This is what we’re getting this election year, folks.

As all sides gather against Trump, on the other side of the people who back him, it’s like some kind of class war mounting. Media does its magic increasing the lore while issues become obsolete, replaced by distrust, not by greater examination.

What’s interesting about people these days is they don’t seem to really care anymore as if they have nothing to lose. And out comes our raw side, the nuanced world of intolerance, survival and hate in America (which we should recall is still a diversity experiment the likes of which the world has never seen), becoming venomous as overall resources are limiting, when power is being redistributed to those not typically empowered.

We’re animals when livelihoods are at stake, making this election such a hot one.

All that said, I still find myself feeling patriotic, maybe even oddly more so, as the country appears more screwed up. We’re really not afraid to let it rip, don’t take much sitting down, and we’re at a precipitous of dynamic change across societies. Aren’t we so entitled to be here in America where the issues are all preventable and treatable through greater social cohesion?

You can see that at the end of all this (somewhere) lies an even-closer country, a more elegant democracy, more efficient economy and fairer society. We’ll evolve through such changes over generations, not election cycles.

Think about it, though: a Socialist won 22 states and PT Barnum brought in more votes for the Republican Party since Reagan.

Today’s politics show more than ever that there’s room in the system for more voices, more solutions, more candidates, more Parties – factions and platforms to balance the left and the right to amend a flailing status quo.

What’s perhaps most amazing about politics is that we still have these antiquated, entrenched parties utterly dominating our political system.

The left and the right will need to give way to everything in between because nothing is cut and dry anymore.

Perhaps this is a true beginning of time in our democracy; where ideas grow up not to become appendages of monolithic corporate parties but ideals able to stand on their own.

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