So is this the end of the year or preparing for the new year. Neither really, because this is just a hodge podge of thoughts from what I was thinking earlier today.
The year ahead is going to be interesting with the mid term elections and you won’t hear either party give you any meaningful ideas on how to improve the country. There will be a plethora of talk from the Democrats, but solid manageable public policy, probably not. From the Republicans, just a bunch of the Democrats don’t know what they are doing, so vote for us, but no real policy, yet this isn’t the gist of this post.
The past year has been crazy and next year won’t solve this past year, but hey we survived or at least those who are reading this post. Way too many people died due to stupidity.
So I will say I was right forty years ago, I was right thirty years ago, I was right twenty years ago, I was right ten years ago and I am right now. I just need to figure out how to get people to listen. Hmmmmm
It was over forty years ago when I first realized the coming failures of both political parties. I started telling people in college I was no longer going to vote for Democrats or Republicans. We had a somewhat extended social circle so I received quite a bunch of grief and absolutely no one believed I would carry it forward. It was difficult at first, yet I prevailed. I had one weak moment in 1988 and voted in one of the primaries, but by the general election I was so fed up I was so ready to vote for anyone and I actually did vote for some quacks as long as they were not representing either party. I have not looked back since. In a moment of curiosity I did vote in another primary, but that was to exercise some demons and I ended up having some fun. The person I voted for in the primary had about 1% support and by the general election I knew where I stood. The interesting part about the second primary vote was the person who was suppose to lead our precinct in the precinct meeting to report the totals and calculate the delegates did not show up so there was quite a bit of learning on the fly as people stepped up to read the rules, call the meeting to order etc. So I was very happy I attended and stayed till the bitter end. One reason I stayed was by happenstance I helped calculate the delegate totals for the people that actually cared/supported a particular candidate.
Other than those two primaries and some very specific local elections where I know the candidate I have been steadfast in my avoidance of the two parties, yet this isn’t what I wanted this post to reflect.
It is all basic. Many years ago a very famous politician said all politics is local, which I agree. One main issue is though economics are not local. And this is one of the problems the two parties exacerbate. There are a myriad of circumstances that drive this from complete lack of caring from party leadership to the growth of lobbyists to the media driving their own agenda to much more. And the concentration of wealth and power decades ago is one of the circumstances leading our country into decline. The end result of this consolidation are general decline in education which is one reason we have right wing nuts, the wealth gap, the decline in wages versus the wealth gap and inflation, the most expensive health care in the world and not always the best, a caste system in this country that no one wants to admit exists, the struggles of small businesses to succeed and the pandemic heightened this problem, and of course the fraud that took the pandemic funds for small businesses away from them so they could survive, and much much more.
Remember when people would use the phrase “honest labor”, when was the last time you heard someone say that. Most ways to get rich nowadays are to find a quick hit like bitcoin or committing some type of scam or fraud. The wealthy will stay wealthy and they ain’t sharing so the idea of actually enjoying the fruits of your labor is from a bygone era. There are a few exceptions and you probably see it in your city or neighborhood, but if you think for a moment you will realize how much they are the exception to the rule and nowhere near the norm.
There have been so many articles I have read recently that I wanted to comment on such as the decline of people in middle age compared to their peers from a half generation previous to them, to the obvious that people do not want to work for shit wages in bad conditions with no benefits anymore(duh), to many others that point out the problems facing us, yet where are the solutions?
And then there is the personal hysteria I get when reading articles from national writers or publications that are saying what I have been saying for forty years. Sure they worked hard to get their prominence etc, but they are not breaking ground with their comments, I have been moaning and groaning this stuff for decades, again, how do I get people to listen?
So what is this all about, my guess right now is I want to force myself to get back to why I started this blog ten years ago and over the years have managed to stay faithful to at least a bit. And that is to espouse new ideas or at least ideas to actually tackle the problems facing us. The problems etc have changed somewhat over the last two years, but the basic fundamentals that will keep this country, the infamous light on the hill, hasn’t changed.
Education, strong working and middle class, reduce the influence of lobbyists or basically do not let the winners of capitalism be in charge of public policy, start with the basic idea that all of us are created equal so we should be treated as such, just to get started. The idea is to find public policy that puts certain ideals into practice.
I am a very conservative person, and please there is a difference between right wing nuts and real conservatives, however if you read this blog regularly you know that when I do present public policy ideas, I usually take a moderate to moderately conservative approach. Some people think that I am not that conservative because I make this adjustment in how I address issues or propose solutions. The reason being is that most moderate policy if implemented with intent and action benefits the larger public and hence benefits democracy, the whole of the country and gives us a better chance to continue to grow. If you decide to take a strong turn conservatively or liberally you reduce flexibility in public policy and the tack usually starts to only benefit those who buy into that side of the equation. We, as humans, tend to support our side even if our intent is good.
Back when I made that infamous commitment to being an independent a very close friend of mine and I applied to do a conservative column for our college newspaper. Unfortunately we were not accepted. We were given some interesting reasons, but we could have made some adjustments. And I am not one of those conservatives that says the liberals were keeping us from speaking out. We were only trying to do this for fun so we did not push hard, yet this is when I began developing the thought process of the difference between ideological purity and practical policy to eventually move the needle forward. The real goal is to frame the conversation and propose the policy that adheres to your philosophy and still be productive. The exact opposite of the modern Republican party. Anyway the goal of our proposed column was to discuss the ideological push of the Reagan years versus the larger needs of the country and go from there. My friend and I had some rather animated discussions on what is conservatism and we really wanted to push that out also. We enjoyed life and enjoyed our discussions. He was one of the few people who supported the fact I went independent, yet he was’t always confident I could pull off a lifetime commitment. No one could back then and today I stand vindicated from that college circle, yet what have I accomplished. I made the commitment to hopefully get others to realize that the two parties are not written in stone and we need new leadership. Well I got married had kids, etc so priorities change and efforts are made elsewhere than changing the world. At least today I have this blog and going forward I will try to go back to the original purpose of offering different solutions for today’s world.
I will continue writing about random topics, local sports and what peeves me off at the moment also.
So as you reflect on this past year or the up coming year, remember there are answers out there, maybe even in your own head that we need to hear because what we have seen for the last forty years has been a slow crawl to what Putin wants; the destruction of our country. We still have much to offer when you look around, person to person people still do well so we need to re harness the energy of our interpersonal relationships and bring those traits forward and figure out what works best for all of us.
I still could go down twenty thousand more rabbit holes today, but this is long and the Mavs were hissing me off, but with the temporary players they are fun to watch and maddening at the same time. They just lost too many close games to good teams so does this make them good when Luka comes back or does the ball stick to Luka’s hands too much again. We will see sometime soon. Anyway they play tonight so we will see how it goes Luka or no Luka. So I am finishing up with the fact the Cowboys still confuse me and will they be over confident Sunday or are they that good? And again lets see what happens with the Mavs.
Cheers
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