Hamas War

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Maybe This Year, For the First Time, I Will Vote in U.S. Elections

credit
Even though I reached American voting age forty-six 46 years ago, when one had to be twenty-one 21, I've never voted in U.S. Elections. Maybe if 1970 had been a "presidential year" I would have applied for an Absentee Ballot, but it wasn't, and all I could think of was getting married and then on the boat to Israel. American politics and elections were not on the menu.

A bedrock programme in the UK 
comedy structure, Yes Minister embodied 
the early 1980s attitude to authority and 
politics as a gently hypocritical world 
filled with doubletalk.
And over the decades living here in Israel, no American presidential candidate had me excited and enthusiastic enough to fill out the forms and apply for an Absentee Ballot. My general cynicism and decades of following the news and politics here and there have just strengthened my feelings that all candidates lie or at best once in office have much less control over things than one would think. Again I'd like to recommend the fantastic British comedy "Yes, Minister."

So, davka, why now am I tempted to break my custom?

As in the past, there is no candidate I desperately want to help by giving my vote, but for the very first time there really is a candidate whom I do not want to see with the power of the American Presidency. This is especially after eight years of Barack Hussein Obama who has turned a rare, war only, custom/principle into the norm; Executive Privilege which overrides American democracy. I'd hate to think of what Hillary Clinton would do with so much power. 

So maybe I will vote and I'd vote for Trump. He may not be the best candidate, but he's light years better than Hillary!!

3 comments:

Sharbano said...

I, for one, actually had no plans to vote this cycle But, over the course I have decided to do so. One of my primary issues is "corruption" which is at All levels of government. I do believe a Trump administration would be the most likely to take this on. Part of that corruption is "Power", and on both sides of the isle there are those who are beneficiaries. The conservatives are just as drunk with this as the leftists. They too would be marginalized, whether they be politicians Or pundits.

Conservative polemics would suggest that "Free Markets" are the benefit to the masses. But is the pursuit of unbridled Capitalism the best for all. We have come to a crossroad whereby this Capitalism has suggested soon there will be "Trillionaires". I've never been one who is jealous of the rich but we have entered a time where wealth is becoming almost perverse. With that much wealth power is inevitable and with power comes control. Control of this type is unable to be "of the people, by the people and for the people". Control by wealth can never be "voted down or out". As I've noted elsewhere, China has now an institution of serfdom where the corporation controls every aspect of the employee's life, housing, food, clothing and if someone enters in to compete they are driven away or arrested. This is the epitome of the "Free Market".

It had been in the past a business or corporation were "part of" a community. A davar Torah can be learned here. When a landowner has to leave part of a field for the poor it suggests that his business Must be a "good corporate citizen". A business OF the community. Are the companies of today being "good citizens". There are numerous companies that use the visa programs to replace existing employees and have those same people train their replacements. The stories about Amazon and the way they have treated their employees is a disgrace. This is the Capitalism that has evolved that Conservatives champion and which will bring on those who will become the Trillionaires of tomorrow. This may well not be a welcome outcome.

Sharbano said...

What I find truly fascinating is how the Conservatives who are anti-Trump or Never-Trump are Now using the same tactics against Trump that the left has used in the past against them. I had always assumed these conservatives were ones who Did have principles that wouldn't allow such demonizing. But, lo and behold, they are no different than those on the left. Is it any wonder people are so disgusted with Both sides and maybe That is the reason for the rise of a persona as Trump. Therefore, they are Not guided by a principle but something else since policy wise there seems little difference, maybe apart from immigration for some. What May scare them to death is Trump seems to want to have a system that "works" for the "people". Many of the conservative pundits are So anti-government that any possibility of government working For the people is an anathema. They would see Reagan's comment about "government Is the problem" as the Only thing he believed. But that is a distortion. Regan DID institute tariffs, which is a grave sin for conservatives. If Capitalism IS the ultimate in society then there would be no need for Government to intervene. The failure of Capitalism in its corporate responsibilities have brought us to this point in time. There is no indication that Trump would be anti-Capitalist but I suspect he desires to bring everyone up and is against this social Darwinism that permeates Conservative thinking. This may be a bold statement but when Conservatives speak about the disadvantaged and poor in the manner in which they do there is no other term to associate with it. If they really believed in "Biblical principles" they would understand the previous Davar Torah.

Batya said...

I don't quite follow what you wrote. I see the Democrats as super awful for the USA and the world and Israel. I think that the establishment ?Republicans are awful, too. Trump is a protest antiestablishment figure.