When we love, we tend to see the best in people, glossing over their bad habits, their poor performance, vulgarity and indiscretions. We make excuses for them, no matter how terrible their behavior. If someone speaks to our heart, our spirit we find every single justification in the book to disregard their horrible in favor of even the slightest demonstration of ‘good’, virtuous, noble, ethical, moral, honorable, honest or decent in the person we ‘love’.
This seeking of the ‘good’ and overcoming the glaring terrible is true whether we are discussing personal love relationships or our manic infatuation with public figures, whether they be movie stars, reality show stars or political figures. Here of late, we have seen an increasing obsession with the body politic and the spawn of the latest run for the highest office of the land, to the point where I believe this nation is ready for mob rule and riots in the streets. There is no logic behind the ‘love’, no discussion of what any of these candidates bring to the table. No in-depth vetting of the candidates, on either side frankly. There is simply a passionate ‘love’ and embracing of a candidate to the exclusion of the truly terrible consequences of the possibility any of those left standing might be elected as President of the United States.
I find our options this season frightening, across the board. What I find even more frightening is the absolute obsessiveness of the adherents to the individual candidates. I find the violence erupting in rallies and on the streets, terrifying. I find the language of violence in social media, chilling. Yes, I find the candidacy of Donald Trump, alarming because of the polarization he encourages with his language, but honestly he is only the most blatant he isn’t the only one. I am terrified this year we will end up with a President elect not because we voted, but instead because we didn’t vote.
We are a nation willing to overlook criminal conduct and blatant ‘fixing’, so our vote doesn’t count. On the other hand, we are willing to put a vulgar, narcissist in the most powerful job in the world simply to see what happens, as an experiment; if it serves us. We have, as a nation sat back and watched as our nation failed, as our government failed us and we blamed those we sent to Washington on that failure, despite it was us that sent them there time and again. We watched professional politicians get rich on our backs, we did nothing but whine and complain never once using our Constitutional right to get off our asses and vote them out of office. This, this handful of terrifying candidates for President is what is served up to us for our failure to demand better.
Hillary, Bernie, Donald & Raphael
How could I forget the spoiler, John Kaisch
Americans are angry?
We are mad? One has to ask, is this mad as in crazy? This is what I am thinking it means.
The result of decades of failed experiments, from Reaganomics to the first Black President. We are a nation that should be angry, we have failed to thrive, failed to live up to our potential. As a nation, we like to blame others, pointing our fingers and saying, ‘look at Washington, they are the problem’. The fact is, they are the result of our failure to be conscious and stand up each and every time we are given the opportunity. We sit on our asses, we stay home, we allow a small minority to set the priorities for an entire nation and then we have the gall to complain when shit doesn’t go the way we want. We are the problem, not them, us.
Have you had enough yet? I know I surely have. The problem is it just might be too late to start taking the country back from the edge, too late for us all too truly be great again. Yet we are still pointing at the buffoons, still making jokes, still protesting at the other guys rallies rather than planning what we are going to do to send the right person to Washington, not just to the White House but to Congress, to the Senate and to the State Houses across this nation.
There are four hundred and sixty-nine (469) Congressional seats in total up for grabs in this election cycle, yes you read that correctly, four hundred and sixty-nine; four hundred and thirty-five Congress Persons are fighting for their useless lives and thirty-four waste of oxygen Senators are begging to be sent back. Well, that isn’t entirely accurate there have been a few announced retirements, in fact six (6) Senators, having served a total of between them of one hundred and thirteen years (113) will be retiring. On the House side, there are twenty-five (25) announced retirements and twelve (12) who will be seeking election to the Senate instead. What does all this mean? It means pay attention, look at who is running, who is challenging and who is being challenged. It means stop sending the same ‘do nothing’ incumbent back to Washington, time and again. It means, if they haven’t done anything since they have been there, why aren’t you up in their face demanding answers.
It means, if you are not voting what the hell are you doing?
Wake the Fuck Up America. No matter what side of the aisle you are on, wake the fuck up.
QBG_Tilted Tiara 
I do not know how you are coping with these farcical elections Val.. Hearing the bits we do across the Pond is enough.. Another wonderful piece Val.. I still stick to my original statement last year.. You should be up for election 🙂 lol.. Big Hugs
No Sue, I should not. I would never, not in one hundred thousand years do that to the people I love.
❤
I haven’t LOLed so much as when I read your line “This, this handful of terrifying candidates for President” . Blahahahahahahaaha they are indeed. I have nothing to say Val. I often roll my eyes at the fools we have to vote into power Down Under but…. dear lord, WTF!!!!
Dear Lord WTF … well yes, exactly.
I’m late to this as I’ve been out of commission for a bit. But I think you hit it when you said this: “One has to ask, is this mad as in crazy?” And the song should become the national anthem.
Exactly Elyse. Hope all is well.
I’m fine, thanks Val.
I fear that the ship has already sailed. The train has left the station. What we are witnessing now, we brought upon ourselves by allowing the divisiveness to grow and fester for the past 8 years. It’s been a long time coming, so the fact that Trump is doing well shouldn’t surprise us. It’s a natural progression. Pop culture meets politics in a big way. I’ve been saying that the last few presidential elections cycles have seemed more like a reality show than real life. Well, here it is. Life has become one TV show. Remember the film, “The Truman Show?” Well, we’re all in it now.
I had forgotten that one, thank you for the reminder. I was talking to a friend last night and his words touched a piece of my mind, resonated. I think both parties are actually coming to an end. Perhaps out of their ending will arise something new and better.
We can hope.
Yes, the Republican Party is slowly committing suicide before a national audience. Is it wrong to say I’m kind of enjoying that?
Alejandro, so am I. To paraphrase an old song, if it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.
No, not wrong at all.
Disheartening … and as we know, we’ve gotten what we deserved from not paying attention or blindly voting for a person because they have the correct label/identifier. We give Washington low approval ratings – but actually have a mantra of “but not my Representative & Senator” as their re-election rate is 85% or higher.
The other day I heard someone criticizing the media for not digging enough into the candidates. I laughed because the questions don’t matter as the candidates don’t answer them.
Is the electorate angry? No … mad in the way you are using it? Yes … thus we continue to suffer.
Exactly why I used Mad, I don’t think we can rightfully claim Angry as we do exactly as you claim…blithely and blindly pull the lever for the label, versus dig in and refuse to send back to Washington those who refuse to represent us.
Is the media at fault? Yes, in part. However frankly they are feeding us what we demand, entertainment.
The media is also using the feeding for ratings …after all, their business is about ratings and profits. …. and I had no doubt about your use of “mad”.
You identified Ted Cruz as “Raphael.” Raphael is his father…who, of course, is the creator of all of Teddy-boy’s evangelical angst. Right now, the only people I think are qualified to be president are Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Jill Stein. Stein is running on the Green Party ticket, and I’ve thrown my support behind her, even though she’s a longshot. I don’t think Warren wants to try for that thankless job, especially considering GOP recalcitrance.
The “Panama Papers” have exposed the extreme level of corruption of the world’s wealthiest citizens and the political leaders who cater to them. That just proves what we average folks down on the lower rungs of the financial food chain have known all along. I just keep wondering when people in the U.S. are finally going to get mad enough to start a revolution.
For clarification, Rafael Edward Cruz, born 22 Dec 1970 named for his father.
I always call him Rafael, I don’t care if he wants to anglicize his name in an attempt to shed his immigrant roots. In an effort to shut the door behind he and his father, I will always call him by his given name.
I like Jill Stein. I like the Green Platform. Unfortunately, I do not believe there is a place this year for a third party. I don’t believe she will even be in the debates during the general and I will not throw away my vote and thus see a Republican in the White House.
The Panama Papers simply expose what many have known for years. Thus far they are barely making a ripple in the waters.
Be careful. Because “qualified” is not synonymous with “preference”, what is “qualified”?
It’s all become a bit of a reality show, hasn’t it?
The rest of the world is either laughing their asses off or scared as HELL)))
xxx
So they should be, scared that is.
XXX ❤ OOO
It’s a disheartening time, no doubt. But I think some of the candidates do want to address the issue, but when they do, the media turns their cameras away. I don’t mean to blame one entity–there is plenty of blame to go around–but it seems if you talk policy, you’re boring. If you talk about the size of each others’ anatomy, you get endless coverage. Of course, we’re just as much to blame for watching it.
I think that is the problem Carrie, we would rather see a circus than discuss policy and what we really need as a nation. We would rather watch ‘reality tv’ and cheer ‘carpet bombing’ than talk about how to truly improve the lives of real Americans.
It is indeed disheartening.
I make jokes, but I vote, too. 🙂
I know, you and I have had this discussion before. But the reality is, many who spend their time on social media pointing their fingers and making meme’s don’t.
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
Thank you my friend.
I don’t profess to understand american politics but this does simplify things and I agree; “Every election is determined by the people that show up”
Indeed and always.
I hope you are doing well my friend. I think of you and always hope there are rays of hope now and again.
Yep. I gotta say, the Trump supporters scare the hell out of me, but the people who claimed the little bird at Bernie’s rally was a “sign from God” made me nervous too. There’s a lot of cult of personality type stuff going on this year. At this point, I think I’m sick of all of them.
And, yes, vote! Remember to vote for your local gov’t and candidates — the presidential race may be the big circus, but the local legislators truly make the difference where you live!
All of it is scary the Bejeebus out of me this year. All of it. People are so focused they forget all the Congressional races, all the local races…while the Presidential circus is important it is frankly a distraction from what is truly critical.
Agreed. And it scares me when people–on both sides–start to believe that their candidate is perfect and beyond human somehow.
So, so important to vote at the state and local level. That’s where all the sneaky things happen when all the voters are out working, stuck on the subway or on a good day, out at the ballgame.
Absolutely right Bruce, start local and work our way up.
Absolutely. One of the best decisions I ever made was getting involved on the local level in my community. If only more people realized how important that is.