The current state of political discourse in our nation is one of chaos with a refusal to be adults by meeting and discussing what is BEST for the Nation and it’s citizenry. We have dismissed the true political mission of developing legislative actions that is of BENEFIT to the American public, replacing it with singular focus on what is best for the large dollar donors, and people who provide strong supportive capability for your ideological ideas or your political party persuasion.
For clarity sake, I consider myself a yellow dog Democrat, meaning I would vote for a yellow dog before I would vote for a Republican of any stripe. Having said that, I came to this ideological stance over the years. My first political allegiance was that I was an Eisenhower Republican, but then the Republicans became something else entirely. So, I truly didn’t leave the Party, the Republican Party left me, and frankly their actions as a party have done absolutely nothing to cause me to readdress my departure. For a time I wandered in the forest of the independent voter, and finally became a Democrat during the Carter and Clinton terms. That decision was cemented completely when Barack Obama was elected. Of course followed by the nightmare of the rise of the ChristoFascist Trump Regime. Nothing cemented my personal political belief than the entry of Trump and his anti-democracy political hacks. His regime caused our nation to lose face among the world nations.
Why would I and thousands of folks just like me, make this political change? Quite frankly, I believe that we all became tired of seeing our nation become a corporatocracy bordering on Nationalism/Fascism. And as we students of history compared the 1930s Germany to what we were seeing in our nation following the rise of political bomb throwers across the Republican Party, clarified by the GOP’s “Contract with America” which was nothing that related to the majority in this nation. Over the years following the end of Eisenhower’s Administration (and frankly the end of the GOP as a true party of the people), the Republican political class threw out the planks of that GOP under Eisenhower and began to forge the Nationalistic/ChistoFascist regime like party we see before us today.
But the Democrats also dropped the ball regarding their stand and construct as a political party. Where the Republican Party has moved consistently to the far right, sadly the Democratic Party seems to be every moving toward that far left. Almost unrecognizable as the political party both the Republican and Democratic as what they once were lauded for by the American Public.
In the recent past, I worked for a company in a position that required my travel between New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. AMTRAK was my transport of choice and during those trips, I came to be introduced to a gentleman who boarded the train in Delaware. His name was Senator Joe Biden and a more grounded train mate I have ever met. We chatted in short stands during that train ride, but didn’t get into great depth of political discussion. However, I found him to appear to be a friendly, astute, and all around decent human. I was pleased to have the opportunity of meeting a true Democratic politician, in fact an actual working Senator. Of course that was several decades ago, prior to his election as Vice President with Obama and then as President in 2020. I also was privileged to have met Republican Congressional Representatives who were representing my residential districts. In personal contact, each of them appeared to be personable and interested in my opinions. Sadly in the majority of instances their posture when in the House and during TV interviews was quite different. I found that to be true also with some of my Democrat representatives, so I do believe that the political class from either party is simply attentive to the loudest and strongest voice.
So, boys and girls what does that say to us about our political class and our major political parties, Republican and Democrat? Frankly, in my humble opinion, the powers that be in these political parties have no reason to listen to the general public. Why do you suppose that might be? Well, the old curmudgeon believes it is mainly because we have gotten to the stage of apathy where we are views as simply not giving two shits what those in political power do. So they do whatever the hell they want!
Well, hell, folks, this old man believes that is it time we got off our collective asses and started making these political dipshits to pay attention to the American folks again. It is our taxes that allow them to line their pockets, live the high life, drive fancy cars, and eat nightly meals in the Old Ebbits Grill. We need to form action groups who are loud and proud, who make the kind of noise that the Party bosses are going to be forced to listen to.
Onward!
Musings of a Geriatric Curmudgeon 