By Ben Tanosborn
Enough! Here we are in the midst of a national election… literally. Many Americans are already casting their vote while an over-staffed, self-serving mainstream media continue keeping us entertained in a surreal world where democracy and hypocrisy walk hand in hand, as if a perfect couple forged right in the bosom of E-Harmony.
Now that the three debates have come to pass, one of the two plausible star-candidates has asserted his star-privileged status keeping Americans in suspense by adding his own epilogue to the play. Donald Trump is telling the creator of the three-act morality play, American Democracy, he intends to write an epilogue after the denouement (vote) in the third act on November 8; an epilogue that will serve as his personal critique to a play that has been performing quadrennially, unrevised, in Main Street America during 58 seasons in a row.
After sixteen months of milking a free ride thanks to Donald Trump, many in the media have finally come to realize that they have created an incredible monster who’s running amok; sort of a replay of the 1982 fantasy/horror movie, “The Thing,” giving America’s enfant terrible, Donald Trump, a major cult-following at par with the movie.
In stupefied horror after the third debate, television political gurus, and gurus-wannabe as well, just could not believe what was coming out of Trump’s mouth at the tail end of a well-managed debate by Chris Wallace. But why were these pseudo experts in politics surprised… wasn’t that the same stance Trump took at the very start of the Republican primaries when he wouldn’t commit allegiance to the future primaries’ winner?
Truth be admonished, the overwhelming black-Latino vote will not be enough to carry the day for Hillary Clinton, and a gentle gender-push appears to be required so that this long-careered politician – not to confuse length with success in service – can close the deal with the electorate and return to the White House; this time around, deservedly, as First Deceiver and Warmonger-in-Chief. And that gentle gender-push, as irrational as it may appear to us, will be the necessary last spade of dirt that will bury narcissist Trump, possibly his brand, and a Republican leadership that stupidly, and sadly, surrendered its guardianship of conservatism to the demands of a third rate charlatan.
As little convincing, or at times even phony, as some of the presumed abused women who have surfaced to expose and condemn Trump appear, there is true legitimacy and merit in denouncing and eradicating any type of abuse. Gender abuse should only exist in history books, whether sexual or non-sexual… abuse deriving from power and always perpetrated by someone with greater physical, economic or social might; or even by an ideology (or religion) rooted in a community.
I am staring at the Official Ballot which has been mailed to me from Precinct 190, Clark County, Washington State. No, I won’t be mailing my ballot until the last minute when my vote will still be accepted to count. I am critical at the undemocratic way we handle such important process in the United States. I look at the two-page ballot asking me to make choices on initiatives, advisory votes, a proposed amendment to the state constitution, and many federal, state, and local offices. And, as I do, a rapid thought crosses my mind which encompasses the results of the prior six quadrennial elections (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012) and whether my vote had been given to the then elected president… and I appeared to be out of tune with the majority who turned out to vote.
Only once out of six times did I coincide in choice with the majority in the land (2008), and it wasn’t long before I came to regret that one time, as I saw Obama continue a flawed foreign policy which appears to be irreplaceable in our America no matter who is elected… as if all presidents-elect must be vaccinated against world peace before they take the oath of office.
As I look at the alternatives for First Citizen in 2016, I am looking at seven parties in the ballot, with only two providing an attainable chance to win the presidency. So, like or not, it will have to be Bad-Judgment Hillary Clinton or Mind-Repulsive Donald Trump.
Fortunately for those of us who live in a state fully committed to one of the two evils, blue-colored in this case, we have five other ways to vote without “by conscience” being forced to vote for the lesser evil. Lucky for us in the State of Washington!
Yes, sadly for America, hope (in politics) shrinks eternal!
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