As a writer and communicator, it is an unusual circumstance that
finds me at a loss for words.
Worse, I am at a loss for ideas.
If it comes down to Trump vs. Clinton, the “lesser of two evils” concept
will not apply. Between these two ego
driven minions of power hunger and divisiveness there is only evil; and evil not
subject to degree.
The country has been under the oppression of a Clinton
democratic machine dictatorship since 1992.
Between 2000 and 2016 that machine in the form of the Clinton foundation
has run the Democratic Party biding its time for a third and fourth term. In these years since 1992, we have seen the
greatest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to a handful of way
too rich greedy corporate hogs than ever before in the history of the
nation. We have seen an exacerbation of
the hideous war on drugs (really on the poor and especially non-white
poor.) Due to this disgraceful war on drugs, we
now have more incarcerated people than any other nation in the world.
We have seen numerous trade deals whose sole intended purpose was to enrich corporations with the “unintended” consequence of the theft of millions of good paying manufacturing jobs from Americans. All this sacrifice of the middle class lies on the altar of the billionaire handful.
Big Pharma is ripping off Americans as in no
other country in the world. Medicare is
prevented by law from negotiating costs, and these criminal corporations do not
even have to disclose how they arrive at their pricing. Name one other industry with that amount of privilege.
Bill Clinton opened wide the FDA door to
pharmaceutical industry abuse in 1997.
Since then these profit driven criminals blanket the TV with direct to
customer advertising misleading the public in their marketing zeal
and endangering us all with drugs often more unsafe than the very street drugs
against which the country has been at war for 35 long wasteful years.
Our roads, bridges, schools, drinking water delivery systems, waste management, environmental protections, railroads,
airports and all other manner of infrastructure are in such dangerous disrepair
that we must be deeply ashamed of ourselves. The sole cause of this is greedy neglect.
The cost of a college degree is so expensive that the young face the
choice of being deprived of the education or burdening themselves with debt
often equal to that of a home mortgage.
Wages, relative to inflation, are lower than any time in the
last 40 years and people are forced to work longer hours and multiple jobs for
a bare existence. Quality affordable day
care is practically non-existent. As a
result of this obscene transfer of wealth our culture has suffered a mortal
blow. The chief casualty of these Clinton
“new democrat” years has been the end of hope and opportunity in America.
While the Affordable care Act of Obama has taken a small
step in the right direction, big Pharma and private medical insurance companies
are raking it in as never before. Worst
of all, it is still abusively impossibly expensive for an unfortunate person of any age and
mostly the elderly to become sick. Only
in America.
Clinton claims to care about the climate and the
planet. Yet she traveled the globe as
secretary of state promoting the most dangerous of fossil fuel
exploitation: fracking. She slops at the trough of the fossil fuel
industry. The most egregious proof of
her hypocrisy about climate change: the
endorsement of Clinton by the Koch brothers.
Foreign policy is a disaster. As secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has
championed the Clinton/ Bush/Cheney doctrine of Middle East regime change. This
disgraceful misguided policy has cost thousands of brave American service men
and women’s lives. Hundreds of thousands
of civilians have been killed not to mention displaced, maimed, dislocated,
made homeless and families destroyed. I
argue that our uninvited meddlesome intervention has stoked the fires of
radical Islam hatred of western values and created power vacuums which have enabled the establishment of the ISIS
caliphate and its satellite beachheads. That
in turn has directly caused the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War. Ask the Europeans.
Moreover, America has wasted trillions of dollars which
could have been used to repair our infrastructure, resurrect our manufacturing base, and provide
relief to the poorest longest suffering Americans: the young, the old, and those stuck in
permanent war zone neighborhoods.
There will be those who ask how can the Clintons be blamed
for all this? Here is their crime: they
have stood idly by in the service of their banking Wall Street corporate
billionaire buddies and done absolutely nothing to help the helpless. (Hillary Clinton
earns more money giving speeches to the financial vultures than many earn in a
lifetime and then has the nerve to refuse to reveal the transcripts. Why occlude if there is nothing to hide?) If government does not step in to attempt to
right this gross malfeasance, who has the will and the resources to do so?
All this being said, the Clintons have the audacity to
champion the status quo and slow incremental change. Where has that gotten us since 1992?
I accuse the Clintons of callous gross negligence of the people in most
dire need in favor of great benefits to the most advantaged.
Now, I consider the alternative.
As an independent who has generally sided with democrats, I readily
admit the murky unfathomable mean and hateful depth of the republican assault
is not something I am able to understand or explain.
Out of nowhere comes Trump. The behavior of this disgraceful, foul, racist, unconstitutional, violent, erratic and divisive would be demagogue is so well known that it does not need
repeating here. Even Republicans are
horrified and appalled.
So, I will dig very deeply and try to find some positives,
if any. First and foremost, as a self
financed billionaire, he is not owned by the same corporate interests served
enthusiastically by the Clintons. Furthermore Trump opposed and opposes the Clinton corporate
trade deals which have gutted the workforce of America and led to massive
unemployment and underemployment. Now to foreign policy. Trump
is a cheap businessman. He sees money as
a means to power. (The Clintons see
power as their ultimate ego gratification.) I find it difficult to believe Trump would
squander trillions of dollars on foreign misadventures. In this regard, he is not the war monger that
the Clinton neo conservative consortium (some of the same players in the Bush/ Cheney
conspiracy) clearly is. There can be no
doubt about it, the last thing this nation needs is more endless Middle East
warfare, regime change, and entanglement. The one
biggest positive that I can dredge up about Trump is simply that he is not the Clinton
machine. Enough is enough! If the overreaching power of this oozing
invasive fungus is not stopped now, then when?
So, to coin a phrase, I am stuck between the devil and the
deep blue sea. Another way to put it is
trapped between the tiger and the fungus.
The tiger is big, aggressive, boisterous, orange and extremely
dangerous. The fungus is sneaky. It exists as an attachment to the host. The fungus tendrils have been gripping us for
too many years. The fungus is
clandestine and subtle, so much so that many are not even consciously aware of
it though it influences every aspect of our lives.
All this rambling soul searching leaves me fragmented,
dissatisfied, and frankly confused. Which
is worse: the tiger or the fungus? The tiger wants to feast on your bones. The fungus already has. The tiger consumes its victim rapidly. The fungus allows the victim to live, just barely, in order to perpetually feast.
I try to conclude my writings with some offering of a positive notion. Today, that is not in the cards.
