Thread title says it all.
I'm not looking for heated debate. I'm rather disgusted by all the political rants and memes on Facebook and Twitter. But I do have strong feelings about the political situation in America.
I detest Trump. Always have. Always will. In my opinion, evangelical Christian leaders are wrong to support him. His behaviour is completely unacceptable by the standards Jesus set. They supposedly cling to Trump because "he is for Israel". Trump is for Trump and no one else.
I voted for Obama in 2008 but was so disappointed with him as a President I did not vote for him in 2012. I hated the mandate in Obamacare. I hated the fact that he compromised with Republicans on important healthcare issues. But most of all I hated his foreign policy, which contributed to the disastrous events in the Middle East.
Since I began voting many years ago I have mostly voted for Republicans for President but not always. I voted for John Anderson in 1980 even though I didn't agree with all his policies. He was a Republican who ran as an indepedent.
I voted for George H.W. Bush in 1988 but switched to Ross Perot in 1992. I didn't agree with all his views but I felt he had a better grip on economic matters than George H.W. Bush and had more integrity than Bill Clinton.
Never been a Clinton fan.
I voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. I hated the Iraq War but I didn't have any confidence in Al Gore (2000) or John Kerry (2004). Kerry especially alienated me with his body language, which was very practiced.
John McCain lost me when promised he would send American armies anywhere on Earth he felt they were needed. I just felt that was the wrong direction. Can't say I was impressed with his choice of running mate, either. Then again, I didn't like the fact that Obama ran with Joe Biden. But I was glad he didn't choose Hillary Clinton.
I'm sure I'm beginning to look chauvinistic but I didn't oppose Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton because they are women. I opposed them because I didn't like them as candidates. Neither represented what I wanted as leaders.
In 2016 I had to vote for a candidate because I didn't want to not vote as a protest against the really sucky candidates the Democrats and Republicans gave us. I was a Never-Hillary-or-Trump voter.
So I wrote Evan McMullin's name on the ballot. Not a wasted vote. I voted for someone I felt had integrity and whose declared values represented what I wanted to vote for. I still follow him on Twitter. He is a staunch conservative but a serious critic of Donald Trump.
So here we are in 2020. I'm not going to vote for Trump or any Republican who supports him. I don't care where they stand on the issues that matter to me. They have had many chances to stand up to Trump and defend our constitution and they put party before country. I hope they pay the price for their misplaced loyalties at the ballot box in November.
On the other hand, I'm not happy with any of the Democratic party contenders, either. I liked Bernie Sanders in 2016 but I lost interest in him. Chiefly because he is a bit too liberal for my tastes.
Bernie Sanders is not a communist and he doesn't threaten this country's future in any way with his socialist views. The United States has been a socialist country since the day it was founded and that isn't about to change.
Furthermore, I do believe we should have universal health care. By all estimates (even the most conservative ones) Bernie Sanders' universal health care would cost this country considerably less (about $3.2 trillion per year) than we pay (through corporate and private insurance premiums, co-pays, and out-of-pocket expenses) for health care now (about $3.7 trillion per year presently, but projected to grow by 10-15% per year).
People are gagging over the fact that Bernie says we'd pay higher taxes to cover the health care.
WHAT HE SHOULD BE SAYING but doesn't articulate clearly is that THESE TAXES WOULD BE LESS THAN MOST PEOPLE NOW CURRENTLY PAY FOR HEALTH CARE.
In other words, Bernie's plan will save most Americans some money. They'll pay less, not more. But conservatives are doing a better job of conveying the false impression that Americans would pay more, not less, under Medicare for All.
Michael Bloomberg struck me as a moderate candidate when he first announced his intention to run for President. Unfortunately his Democratic rivals have dug up so much dirt on him I doubt he would be the kind of president I would want to support. I would vote for him just to get Trump out of office but I'm not sure what kind of trade that will be.
I don't support Elizabeth Warren because she - like Bernie - is wishy washy about the health care costs. Bernie does a better job of articulating his views but he just put his foot in his mouth again by downplaying the horrendous evil of the Castro regime in favor of arguing for socialist programs.
Bernie needs to stick to the European model of democratic socialism and just bake Fidel Castro at every opportunity. Unfortunately Bernie's personal history suggests he would never do that.
I've been told that Amy Klobuchar's views are more in line with my own. You can see her Website here:
https://amyklobuchar.com/issues/
And I think Amy has about a snowball's chance of winning the democratic nomination. I'm not sure she would stand up to Trump's withering attacks, either. So far no one has been able to do that and it has nothing to do with their gender. I don't think either Bloomberg or Sanders will do well against Trump if they don't change their debate strategies.
I really don't know much about Amy Klobuchar but I think - based on what little I've learned - she would indeed represent my personal values better than anyone else in the field.
On the Republican side I kind of like Bill Weld. He doesn't stand a snowball's chance of displacing Trump on the Republican ticket. I would probably vote for Weld over Sanders or Bloomberg even though Weld doesn't support universal health care.
The socialist plans Sanders and Warren are promoting won't happen without a cooperative Congress. That means we'd have to vote the Republicans into the minority in both houses. They deserve to become the minority party. They need to cleanse themselves as their fascist pro-Trump members and bring in some conservatives who actually put the country first.
Congress has failed to keep Trump in check because of the Republicans' luke-warm endorsement of the constitution and the rule of law. They have proven themselves to be supreme political hypocrites.
Not that the democrats are perfect. I predicted that Nancy Pelosi would lead the House into disaster if she were made Speaker again. And she gave in to the radicals who wanted to impeach Trump and let them send a weak, flaccid argument to a pro-Trump Senate. Meanwhile, the House keeps passing bills that everyone knows the Senate won't vote on, let alone that Trump would sign into law.
So we need to get the Republicans out of Congress. I'd hate to see Nancy Pelosi serve as Speaker again but I could endure that if she had a Senate counterpart (even - dare I say it - Chuck Schumer) who worked with her to override Trump's vetoes.
I'm pretty sure - as things stand right now - that Trump will be re-elected. The Democratic Party insists on shooting itself in the foot at every opportunity. They are making opportunities to destroy themselves at the polls.
Regrettably that almost certainly means Trump will keep control of the Senate.
Something needs to change to get Americans to stop electing fascists into office. I don't know what it is. I have no idea of why anyone would want to support Trump but - near as I can figure - about half my friends support him. I mean people I've known for years, decades, support him.
America is only as great as its ability to live up to its constitution. Every generation has been tested and found wanting in some way. We don't want to return a racist, intolerant America. We need to move on to an America that embraces people and helps them achieve all they can.
And we need universal health care because the current system is causing hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to go bankrupt. Private insurance was never a good solution for taking care of millions of families. It became popular in World War II because corporations were prevented from raising salaries by the U.S. government. To compete for a dwindling supply of qualified executives and engineers, corporations began offering incredible benefits packages - the kind everyone has become used to today.
Unfortunately, between 20 million and 24 million Americans lose their privately funded health insurance every year. The system is the worst in the western, industrialized world. That is why I want universal health care for all (that and the fact it will cost us less in the long run).
It's not ironic to me at all that the same people who want to keep the destructive privatized health care system in place are afraid to acknowledge that human activity contributes to and accelerates global warming.
That is yet another reason to vote the Republicans out of office. I have no doubt the Democrats will screw up some things but they don't have a monopoly on stupid decisions. I'm tired of the conservative agenda. It has created a broken, dysfunctional government that doesn't comply with our laws or respect our constitution.
It's time for a change, in my opinion.
I just wish we had better choices on the ballot in November.