A Whirlwind

While it has been a fortnight plus a few days since my last post, it seems much longer given the events of the last few weeks. 

An assassination attempt, the GOP convention during which a bandaged Donald Trump accepted the nomination, the continued controversy concerning President Biden's health and fitness, then his decision to withdraw from the presidential race, and now the unbridled excitement over Kamala Harris' candidacy, with her endorsement by Biden, her ability to energize what was a lackluster campaign, and now the overwhelming approval by the parties' delegates.

Unprecedented, historic events within a matter of weeks. Whew!

So now what?

Obviously, the actual nomination is still to come, but more importantly, the choice of a VP running mate. As a Pennsylvanian, I favor Josh Shapiro, despite my desire to see how he would fare in the coming years as governor, but I can see why Senator Kelly or Governor Walz might be chosen. All three would provide a nice lift to the ticket, but I think Shapiro's ties to Pennsylvania, a must win state for Harris, makes him the most logical choice. 

Regardless of who is chosen, I expect an animated VP debate with JD Vance, especially if Trump decides not to debate Harris.

From there, the long slog towards November. I say long slog because I am already weary of the negative ads I have seen on TV, from both sides. As I have said many times, I would like to see a campaign featuring ads which detail the candidate's vision for the future, rather than reasons why the other candidate is crap. It's no wonder that the American electorate feels, and has felt, that the last few presidential elections have been a choice between the lesser of two evils. 

When we are bombarded with how horrible each candidate is, how horrendous life will be when they become president, it is easy to decide that voting doesn't matter since they both stink. Additionally, should your candidate lose, there is plenty of reasons to expect the worst, and then focus on the bad news, all the while ignoring or just plain not believing any information presented that contradicts what you learned during the endless campaign.

I wrote a story, which I have referenced a few times in the past, called The Next Greatest Generation.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-next-greatest-generation.html

I provide a link to it again, not just to remind my readers that if I can envision an America that truly addresses its issues, suggest some solutions, explain why certain ideas and policies might help, but to also remind them that our elected leaders, intelligent scientists and business people, and even religious leaders, could, and should, be required to detail their vision, and not just bash the other candidate which tells us nothing, since so many of the negative ads are misleading, exaggerations or downright lies. If we choose not to force political candidates to give us their ideas, we should at least have a fact check blurb following each ad so we know which are hogwash.

I know that I have said in recent past posts that I believe that our democracy is already lost. While I am not prepared to walk that back, I will say that I maintain a flicker of hope that women, and those under 30 years old, might save us in the upcoming election. 

Women, by voting first and foremost for their reproductive rights, and young people, by applying their desire for a future world, a world where they will be required to address our shared problems or face the consequences of the failed policies of those currently in charge, in addition to accessing the idealism that generally flows through the young, only to be squashed as life's realities wear us down.

I recently had someone tell me that they wished they agreed with me that people are inherently good, that politicians generally want to improve our country, that nations seek cooperation rather than confrontation, but that wasn't reality. His circle-the-wagons philosophy was earned, he said, because of his time overseas where he saw first hand how other people lived, and how they hated America. The fact that he spent some of that time embedded with the military as a private contractor, didn't seem to send alarm bells to him that he was witnessing the worse kind of interactions with foreigners.

The additional fact that some of those he met during that experience patrolled our southern border and again only reported to him the worst of those they encountered, made him ripe for the demonization of immigrants that his candidate of choice spews out everyday. 

His lack of confidence in the path America is taking was rooted in the belief that the fault lies in allowing foreigners to invade our country and that the government does not help everyday people due to corruption of our elected officials.

For him, America might fail because of outside forces that we failed to recognize, or allowed to flourish out of some kind of misguided belief that we can inspire others to be better by showing them empathy, and improving their lives whereas I believe it is precisely that selfishness and lack of care for our fellow earthlings which will doom us the failure on a global scale.

Not to mention the fact that compromise has become a bad word in politics, understanding history is woke, and focusing on the difference among us makes for better soundbites than focusing on how we are all so similar.

But it certainly is hard to argue against the belief that our government has failed us in many ways. When I point out that we get the government we deserve by voting, the blame shifts to the political parties as if they would not give us better candidates if they lost all the time. Voting is our feedback loop for those we elect, parties as well as individuals, and if we let them slide, we get mush.

So yes, it has been a whirlwind, and it most likely will not let up for the foreseeable future. In fact, may not let up for the far future as well, considering that a Trump victory may only be a bit better worse than a Trump loss, if we assume such a loss will result in actions even more horrific than what occurred on January 6th. 

Another reason I have not posted recently is that we had our annual family vacation last week, which was wonderful, despite the one evening of rancorous political debate. It was then that I was told about my naivete. In the end, I commented that continuing to debate, which we did anyway, seemed futile as we saw the world differently, despite our shared DNA and parental influences.

Which, in a way, brought me full circle to my pessimism, as, if people related by blood do not see eye to eye on even the most basic of facts, how can we expect Americans from all walks of life, let alone people from such a variety of cultures, who speak different languages and have differing values and traditions, get together to find a common good?