On the 2020 Presidential Election

In 2011, then Vice President Joe Biden helped negotiate a Payroll Tax Cut.  The cut was in response to a slowed economic recovery from the 2008 crash.  At the time Biden believed the proposal would put more money in the hands of working Americans and said the arguments that the tax cut would harm Social Security & Medicare, were “Just plain wrong.”  During this same time in 2011, Chuck Schumer tweeted that delaying the payroll tax cut legislation was “putting politics before recovery.”   Nancy Pelosi also put out a press release after the legislation passed, stating it was a “victory for all Americans.” 

Fast forward to 2020.  Trump signs an executive order to defer payroll tax payments through the end of the year. There have been 22 MILLION job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US.   Through August 2020 only 42% of those jobs have returned.   The stated goal of the Trump payroll tax deferral was to have more money get in the hands of working Americans.  Is it possible that a pandemic caused economic crash could completely reverse your opinion about the exact same tax cut during an election year?  Sure looks that way.  Biden now calls the payroll tax cut a “reckless war on Social Security.”  Schumer now feels the need to frighten American Seniors by saying the cuts “could mean the end of Social Security as we know it by 2023.”  Pelosi has joined in by warning that the tax cut executive order was “shattering the sacred promise of Social Security.”

( Note: Social Security has been screwed for decades now.  A payroll tax cut isn’t it’s doom: poor design, sunk cost fallacy, increased life expectancy, crappy estimating, and a lower birth rate are. )

This is why we hate politicians.

BUT, It’s our fault it’s like this.  We’ve tolerated the hypocrisy for so long, that we are numb to it.  We continue to strengthen the ridiculous media landscape that encourages the sewage stream that is American Politics by allowing our egos to identify with the extremism of both the Left and the Right. The environment to endure a Presidential bid is such that you NEED to be a sociopath to be able to withstand it; which is why our Countrymen and women that could do the job, don’t. Asking your family to weather a campaign is not worth it.

There are no good choices in this Presidential election, just like 2016.  We should know better. But instead, we’ve picked our candidates like a rebellious teenage girl picks a boyfriend: we know they’re not right for us and that they’ll leave us scarred, but we do it anyway.  There are roughly 190,000,000 people in this country aged 35-80; yet these 2 are our choices.  We are going to give the most powerful position in the entire World to one of these men who have more than proven that they are incapable of doing even an “acceptable” job.

The Left:

For all of their “Progressive” and Anti hierarchy claims, it’s telling when the Democrats continue to nominate Presidential candidates where it’s their “turn”.  2016 was Hillary Clinton’s turn.  So much so, that the Democratic party at a National level, subverted the campaign of a surging Bernie Sanders.  That went well.  Even though it was her turn, people preferred Trump’s off-the-cuff lies to Clinton’s scripted ones.  Now it is Biden’s turn.  An old white-guy that is the definition of ‘establishment’ having been in Washington DC since the early 1970’s.  It’s the same liberal caste system that shows up at rallies for the disenfranchised but would never allow those same people at their country club. Nevermind Biden’s flavor-of-the-month morality now in lock-step with the modern Leftist agenda is in stark contrast to his legislative record. While some may argue that Biden and the Democrats have progressed over the years, it seems more like opportunistic seizing of media attention of the ever-changing Leftist bitch points.  They forget his handling of the Anita Hill judiciary committee, his support of the Iraq War, NAFTA, his 96′ vote for the Defense of Marriage Act, his accusations of sexual misconduct, supporting the bailouts of big banks, and his “tough on crime” positions that have disproportionately incarcerated minorities.

 None of this seems to matter now.  Biden picks Kamala Harris as his running mate and POOF! All is forgiven! Even if she were the best person for the job, that’s not why she was explicitly chosen. Biden was not shy about proclaiming that he was making a choice based on the most superficial items: race and gender.  That is not “Progressive” at all.  It’s the definition of racist and sexist.  The VP is not small potatoes. We have to deal with the reality that Biden is 77 yrs old.  The average man in America lives 76.5 years.   So, his pick of a VP is of real significance and should have considerations that are beyond chromosomes and melanin. Sure, think me ageist, but every life insurance actuarial table and tombstone will conclude that Mr. Biden’s truth is the same as the great Pink Floyd lyric from ‘Time’: Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.

If you’ve met a Democrat voter that picked Biden as their horse from the beginning, you might want to take a picture of them for posterity.  They don’t exist.  There are plenty of Biden supporters now that he is the Democratic nominee, but ONLY as opposition to Trump.  But go ahead, Leftists, continue justifying your choice of candidate no matter how opposed he and his record may be to your “values.”  Cognitive dissonance is tough to kick when your memory won’t go further back than the last 24 hr news cycle.

Now, to complete the race to zero friends. What used to be the Right:

You like Trump. You’re going to vote for him.  Why?  How?  Where is your line?  What will it take for you to pretend to live your conservative values?  How many people around him need to go to jail?  How many kids need to be in cages? How many James Mattis’ and Rex Tillerson’s will it take to realize that no amount of good or noble work from the inside will change the gaping hole that is Trump’s moral compass?  How many Cohens, Manforts, Bannons, Flynns, and Papadopolouses, do you need to change your mind?  The government contracts and jobs to family members and donors? The anything but conservative budget deficits?  If you’ve made the argument that your stocks and 401k look good under his rule, just wait.  We have a powder keg ready to blow with market valuations that don’t make sense, fewer banks to spread risk with larger balance sheets than 2008, and healthcare promises made to an unhealthy nation unwilling to quit the booze and sugar. It won’t and can’t last.  A Trump vote because of an account statement with numbers in green, is like rooting for Enron after knowing they cooked their books.  It’s wrong. 

You’re good with Trump supporting and admiring authoritarian dictators?  North Korea? A Russian overlord who isn’t shy about poisoning opposition and returning the Soviets to their ‘rightful’ place in the World through violence?  Again, I’ll ask: Where’s your line? Him stoking the fire of extremism from both the left and the right?  Trump has made it a point to kneecap the Post Office so they couldn’t handle mail-in voting.  Voting – the lynchpin of democracy, being suppressed by a sitting President.  It’s pathetic.  We’re OK with this? No. Of course we aren’t.  But you voted for him the first time, and being a Republican is part of your identity, so you’re going to vote for him again, even though you would never leave him alone in a room with your daughter… ridiculous.   So many Republicans in congress have had to say such stupid things to try and make sense of his actions over the last 4 years to give him support.  Selling your soul for power has never required such a hard gulp. 

(Note: Be aware that I cannot list each and every one of Biden’s or Trump’s shortcomings.  There’s not enough space or time)

It would be easy to see the rebukes and judgment here and believe that I have no hope.  That’s not the truth. It’s easy to shit on both sides right now.  It has been for a couple of decades.  We have refused to rewrite the rules and recreate the environment that has brought us these miserable choices.  We can accept what has been given to us and there is wisdom in not denying reality.  BUT It’s difficult to know how damn easy it would be to have a different option.  Any option.  It would not take much.  Perfection isn’t a requirement, but competence is. Perhaps it’s the experience of being a Father or managing other human beings that has me looking at this Great Nation with stern eyes and saying, “You can do much better, and you know it.” We have great men in women in this country. Hell, I can think of 5 people I know that would be reading this, that would be far more competent Commander in Chief’s than the Red or Blue pills that are our current choices.

 One day, we will get it.  We have problems that require solutions that may lean left or lean right.  We have so many problems that to think that a single political ideology could solve them all is just untrue.  The US needs a real independent.  A hard-human being that is willing to push the best solution and cannot be bought.  I believe that person exists.   There is a Cincinnatus or a young person that has the moral grit to withstand the wasteland while pushing our Democracy forward; breathing life into it for years to come.  Maybe you are raising that person right now.  As China and Russia must lick their chops while reading the latest headlines coming out of very divided America, there are those in our country that have had enough of the joke; that are willing to change BEFORE the traumatic event that will force it.  We have had our warnings.  Time to act.

“…a republic, if you can keep it.” – Benjamin Franklin