Politics, Politics

Over my short time voting I’ve been all over the map politically. I’ve gone third party (Libertarian), Republican, Democrat  (current party) and I’ve even considered voting Green Party. Too bad the GOP has completely gone off the rails by nominating Donald Trump, as in the past I’ve leaned right at times. Lately I’ve turned to more progressive causes, going with Bernie Sanders in a desperate attempt to find a decent candidate. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, he lost and choose to endorse someone based on research and recent Internet quizzes I’ve come to support: Hillary Clinton. 

Look she is not the best choice, and I can’t blame people for voting third party. I wonder why people vote Trump but it’s not much of a mystery: it’s based around fear. However those of us who don’t buy into his bullshit have to go with the lesser of two evils. It’s not great yet I’ll take it over the person who thinks building a wall or killing terrorists families is a good idea. Still we have the problem of Hillary being a hawk on foreign issues, albeit someone who maybe can be persuaded to not embark on too many crazy wars. Anyways the sad fact is that both parties are too close to each on foreign policy issues anyways. 

No its domestic that makes the decision easy. While I want to continue mocking Hillary’s pivoting on certain keys issues such as gay marriage, the truth is that even myself and President Obama took a while to decide to back rights for the LGBQ community. We all can’t be Joe Biden. At this point I favor gun control of some kind or another, am pro-choice, and pro-enviromment. Regardless of what you think of Hillary she either supports these issues or at least pays them lip service. And we all know that she backs the ACA and the idea of universal health care, which is a good thing. Look I may have insurance with my job but there are people who are not so lucky. 

So let’s get to the emails. She lied plenty, yet there was no indictment and therefore the matter is closed in my mind. I’m more worried about her support for the Iraq War and the disastrous Libya conflict. The last one was at least an international effort, while the Iraq War got the support and vote of way too many in Congress. As for Benghazi I’m sick to death of hearing about that, too. Guess what: more people died during the presidency of George W. Bush. Yet you don’t hear about that from Republicans. 

Oh yeah anyone who gets this much hate from many hypocritical and witch hunting Republicans can’t be all bad. I know what I am getting with Clinton Presidency Part II: Hillary Takes Over. I have no idea what Trump will do as president. He’s a loose cannon who cannot be trusted to do the right thing. I would love to vote third party again, or write in Bernie in anger, yet that is irresponsible in my opinion. I live in a swing state and don’t have the luxury of others. I also don’t want minorities who will suffer under a Trump presidency to be let down because I didn’t do everything possible to prevent “Cheeto Jesus” from taking power. We can’t survive another George W. Bush style presidency. I don’t want to live through that again, and oh yeah Jon Stewart retired so we won’t have him around this time. I’m with her. 

A Most Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

No I’m not talking about Washington D.C., although that place certainly qualifies. I’m referring to the comments section of any and all Internet news and opinion articles. If you are wondering about Donald Trump followers, terrible people and those who lack the ability to spell or use proper grammar, well look no further then a place that is now part of the Internet. I can’t recall when this became a feature, although I imagine this is as old as message boards.

What’s even worse is the opinions people post. On any given day you can read racist, sexist, homophobic and degrading posts that make one feel the need to take a shower. It’s sad that discourse has rapidly degraded to a level that you have to wonder if these people’s mothers would be ashamed to find out their children do not have any filters. Maybe they were raised that way, a prospect that sounds depressing and unfortunately not too surprising.

Also the use of insults  (something even I’ve been guilty of) is commonplace on both sides of the political aisle. Many try to assert that it is Republicans largely to blame and yet many Democrats are also guilty of poor behavior. Is there a solution beyond simply avoiding the comments section?

Well encouraging people to behave and hoping for moderators to ban the misbehaving users is maybe the best we can hope for. Acting civily is a good idea, too. Or just skip the comments altogether. I’ll admit they are like a car crash: I can’t look away even though I should.