Many political, religious and philosophical entities rely on violence, hatred, bullying, and harassment to convince and/or require agreement and/or subjugation.
It is clear evidence of the weakness of their position.
Only weak individuals and believers require this behavior to promote their arguments.
The Political Two-Step
Mitch McConnell’s recent post impeachment statement regarding Trump vs. his vote is a classic political two-step. First to promote his “true beliefs”, then second, to explain his opposite actions.
Moderates in both political Parties use this two-step action as an attempt to maintain power and position while straddling political and philosophical positions.
I have written previously supporting the creating of multiple political parties in the U.S. McConnell’s actions and statements are an additional striking action in support of multiple parties. Moderate Republicans need to retreat from the Republican Party and create a Party and platform they can honestly support without resorting to untruths and untenable positions. The same holds true for the moderates in the Democrat Party.
For all politicians, you can not have it both ways, not for long. Because the dishonest nature of those positions ultimately undermines how others perceive you and how you live with yourself.
The Impeachment Vaccine for the Republic
To any Republican Senators who may see this message. I have watched the impeachment trial of Mr. Trump. The entire trial.
I am a life-long Republican/Libertarian. Above all, I am an American.
Political parties and activities are important part of governing our Republic. However, Party power should never supersede the support and protection of the Republic. There has always been and will always be political and philosophical differences of opinion. There will always be winners and losers. That is the nature of politics. And you know this.
Aside from political party philosophy and power in Congress, Mr. Trumps consistent behavior is unacceptable and impeachable.
You need to vote to convict Mr. Trump and bar him from any future office.
This is not a Republican or Democratic issue.
This is a Republic issue.
The Media and Discrimination
To address the issue of systemic racism and discrimination of all kinds, we need to start with the media.
Media stories and news continuously describe and identify the person(s) of focus based on religion, cultural background, race, or sexual preference.
The more we promote, describe, and embellish news and stories on some discriminatory basis, the more we sub-consciously promote those differences for malevolent intent.
Why is a person’s race, religion or sexuality important to the purpose at hand?
In reporting on a criminal act, what difference does it make if the alleged is black, white, Jewish, or gay?
It is time to stop promoting all this divisiveness.
Common Sense
This website is based on the premise that using common sense, enables a person to perceive the difference between facts and truth and falsehoods.
However, “a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of right…” Apparently “time makes more converts than reason”. 1
No society can police everything all the time, least of all a democratic society. A healthy society rests on a consensus about what is a deviation and what is normal… Society renews itself as common sense evolves. This requires trustworthy, transparent, respectful institutions of social discourse, especially when we disagree… Social media is not a public square but a private one governed by machine operations and their economic imperatives, incapable of, and uninterested in, distinguishing truth from lies or renewal from destruction. 2
“The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas… The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.” 3
My concern is whether my belief in common sense is already outdated and too late, and do we have enough time to save common sense and our democracy.
Government Waste vs. Investment
Though I am a Libertarian, I believe we are at a flexing point in our country where we need to invest in basic foundations, that solidify the freedoms we believe in. A sample of these investments are:
Obviously, these all require spending from funds not available, except through additional debt. So additional sources of funding are required. A sample of these are:
It is not governments job to solve all problems and fund all projects. By trying to do too much, we lesson the benefits to all.
It is not our country’s job to be the policeman of the world. We continuously spend vast sums in blood and treasure in short-sited, inappropriate, and incorrect activities.
We require a small and more focused government at all levels.
We have long known that we make decisions based on emotion versus facts.
It is difficult to convince someone that the “facts” of the situation should rule our decisions and actions under “normal” circumstances. With the worldwide onslaught of emotionally biased statements, we are challenged as to what to believe.
As was stated recently by the Chinese Media “…It is necessary to strengthen screening and identify what is true false information …”1
We have all become too accustomed to believing what we want, to support our own conclusions, regardless of the basis of that conclusion.
In the past, our country and political system became concerned about the alarming increase in presidential power relative to the Congress. Over time this concern has taken a back seat to the ongoing and increasing war of obstruction and destruction between the Republican and Democratic Parties.
As a result of the continuing lack of constructive attention to and resolution of our nations challenges, recent presidents have taken increasing and unbalanced power from the Congress.
This congressional power vacuum has allowed the Presidential power to amplify the degree of political polarization.
Executive actions taken by recent Presidents:
The concern here is the degree of political extremism in Congress combined with wide volatility in the executive actions; created and vacated by each President as the political party changes.
Combine the above with the rise of social media and extreme emotional nonfactual broadcasting of extreme views and beliefs, you have the perfect storm.
In the eye of the perfect storm is the Imperial President.
Mr. Trump is a clear and danger to our democracy not just because of January 6th. He is dangerous because he has consistently sought to undermine our government by:
This President needs to be impeached!
We need to hold him and the Republican Party responsible and send a clear message that this will not be allowed by any future President.
As unfortunate as the attempted insurrection on January 6th is, we should be aware that this has been coming for a long time. The two primary political parties conduct, promote, require, and reward tribal warfare against the other party for the simple and primary purpose of obtaining and maintaining power. “Governing” then becomes the positioning and re-positioning, each election, based on the power politics of the extremes. Maintenance and financing of power becomes the norm, and little attention is paid to the needs of the country.
The corrective measure requires breaking the deadlock. As bad as recent events are, maybe this is what is required for the citizens to finally take control and create additional political parties.
An example could be:
Current Republican Party Becomes the:
Current Democratic Party Becomes the:
We currently already have the Libertarian and Green parties. This would provide 6 parties and at least the start toward allowing voters other options as they believe and vote. This would break the log jam of the two current major parties we are and have been stuck in.
The new political parties could be:
I recommend using a “ranked voting”¹ system for ballots [all paper, hand delivered or mail in] to allow for complete openness and full disclosure in all elections.
[1] “Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop”, Lee Drutman, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-091385-4