Tag: Clinton

Thoughts on the Election

Joe AuBuchon

Elections — the day after

Today is November 9th, 2016 — one day after local and national elections here in the United States, and I would like to offer a few observations.

The Earth continued to rotate and the sun rose on our beautiful home world. The apocalypse did not happen.

Donald Trump is the President-Elect and will be sworn in as the POTUS on January 20th, 2017.

We may be in for interesting times, but life will continue.

Newspaper, radio, television and other commentators and pundits will play “Monday morning quarterback” ad nauseam for the foreseeable future — and it will change nothing.

There will be recriminations, gloating and regrets — and they will also change nothing.Election Cats

Perhaps people will again become polite to each other despite their differing political beliefs or prejudices or fantasies. (My belief — your prejudicial and idiotic fantasies, of course, but I won’t hold them against you.)

Once again the candidate who got the most popular votes lost the election to the candidate who got the most electoral votes. Yet, I have heard no outcries to change the system so that our votes are actually equal and not distorted by giving each state, no matter its population, two additional electoral votes — one for each senator. Or, perhaps, doing away with the Electoral College via an amendment to the Constitution and going with a straight popular vote.

California keeps raising taxes — two dollars per pack of cigarettes and new taxes on marijuana that will combine to bring in more than two billion additional dollars yearly.

We now have another legal intoxicant in California and no legal definition on the blood levels necessary to charge a person with a crime when their smoking results in a motor vehicle accident and possible injuries or death to someone else.

California adult film performers do not have to use condoms while filming — now how did that get to be a state-wide proposition?

Proposition 61 failed to pass, thus allowing drug companies to keep raising prices for drugs. (Although if it had passed, there would still have been nothing to keep them from raising their prices. An expensive tempest in a teapot.)

California elected a female Democrat to the U.S. Senate to replace another female Democrat. Of course, if she had lost, California would still have elected a female Democrat to that position thanks to our top-two primary system.

It is going to be interesting to see how this Republican President and this Republican-dominated Congress/Senate will “work” together. Remember, we have a system of checks and balances in this country. And, no, these are not supposed to be checks with dollar signs in front of them.

If you voted, for either candidate, you have a right to complain about what happens now. If you didn’t vote, you still have a legal right to complain, but I don’t think you have a moral one. So, please, be quiet — grin and bear it until the next election. Then register and vote. If you’re not a citizen, become one if you wish to participate in our political process.

If you weren’t satisfied with either candidate and didn’t take part in the political process to select the candidates, next time participate. Get involved at the local level in the political party of your choice. Clinton and Trump were the results of too many of us leaving the selection to others for too many years. If you’re an independent and not a Republican or a Democrat, you have no say in who gets nominated — that say belongs to those who are actually registered as members of that political party. Think carefully about your choice when you register, and think carefully about whether or not you wish to get involved in the party or are content to merely vote on the choices of others.

A final thought

Election Day often falls during the same week as Veterans Day.

How about we make Veterans Day a true national holiday and combine it with Election Day. Think about it, a national holiday on which we can all vote. I think it would be a great way to honor those who have served and sacrificed to provide us with the right to vote and have preserved it for over two hundred years. (Oh, yeah and let’s keep it on a Tuesday so we don’t just make it another three-day-weekend and ignore its true purpose.)

Perception = Reality (?)

Joe AuBuchon

Perception can be defined as the way we experience the world. Our actions are based on that perception. We like to believe that the world we experience is the real world — reality. Therefore: perception is reality.

A problem, maybe the problem, is that each of us experiences the world a bit differently. Therefore: different experiences equal different realities.

Perception
Does perception equal reality, or do we only think it does?

I react to the world I see, and you react to the world you see. Our perceptions and, therefore, our realities are different. Because our realities are different, our actions and reactions are different.

Oftentimes our perceptions, realities and, therefore, our actions closely align. We are driving and see a red light at the next intersection; we slow our automobiles and stop. Of course, if we are not paying attention and do not see the red light, it does not exist in our reality, and we do not stop which may result in an “accident” and injuries or death for ourselves and others.

Our current Presidential election campaign can be seen as a case in point.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump represent different perceived political, economic and social realities. Neither candidate appears, to me at least, to inspire much trust or hope for the future. Indeed, the theme of the election seems, again to me at least, to be dislike and the fear that the other candidate, if elected, will bring about the apocalypse.

Both candidates are white, Caucasian. Both candidates are wealthy. Both candidates are college educated. Both candidates are married and have children. Yet, their world-views and supporters are quite different.

Both seek the votes of, but only one of them draws significant support, from non-Caucasians and Latino minorities. (At least, according to the polls published by our print and electronic media.)

Both seek the support of the poor, as well as the wealthy.

As neither smarts nor knowledge and education are requirements for voting, both candidates seek the votes of those with high school and college educations as well the votes of those who have not completed elementary school. The same is true of employment status, marital status, whether or not one has children (and of what age), religious beliefs, etc.

The total number of Americans eligible to vote in the November 2016 Presidential Election exceeds 225 million. Many will not be registered to vote and many of those registered to vote will not do so. Yet, some 100+ million of us will vote and those votes will reflect 100+ million realities.

The world I live in as a college educated and retired teacher is a different world, or reality, than that lived in by an unemployed, non-high school graduate living in a trailer park in the rural South; or a Black, single mother with three kids under ten and working two jobs in the formerly industrial North; or a billionaire investment banker with his, or her, own jet; or a nearly ad infinitum of other possible realities.

Yet, on November 8th, 2016 we will all vote, or not, to elect one of these two candidates (or a third-party candidate) who, we hope, will try to knit these hundred million different realities into a viable vision of our future and that of our children.

Your vote counts the same as mine. Your vote counts the same as that of every member of the group of people you fear, or admire, the most.

Your vote counts the same as that of Hillary Clinton or that of Donald Trump.

Isn’t reality scary?

Or is that just my perception of it?