Politics

February 19, I was watching Family Feud, a favorite escape.

For those unacquainted, family feud teams compete to guess how 100 persons answer questions on topics familiar to most everyone of us.  One of the questions host Steve Harvey asked this night: “What is one species you wouldn’t mind to see extinct?”  One of the popular answers, though not the top was “Human/Politicians“, ranked among other favorites, like “mosquitoes”.  People we love to hate…

As luck would have it, shortly after this show was the Democratic debate in Las Vegas.  I lasted only 15 minutes into the debate.  This night seemed to be ‘diss your opponents’ night.  Life is too short.

The incessant ‘debates’ in our contemporary political world seem not on substance.  They’re an exercise to accumulate viewer points at somebody else’s (a competitors) expense, featuring  Gladiators – politicians – whose weapons are words.

Personally, the debates reflect more on the audience – ourselves – than on the combatants.  Just another marketing opportunity for many, not just the politicians.

“WE, THE PEOPLE”, ARE POLITICS, nobody else.  If we don’t like what we see in the candidates, we don’t like ourselves.  Every candidate needs to get voted in, and they need to attract our votes.  In effect, we get – and we got – and will get – exactly what we deserve to represent us.

Personally, I have paid little attention to the debates, and so far I’ve made no contributions to individual candidates.   I’ve been clear that when the dust settles, and the Democrats have decided who to endorse, I will support their endorsed candidates at all levels.

There is now huge difference between the two major U.S. political parties.  The distinction between the parties is far greater than it has been in my lifetime, in my opinion.

We are a nation of 330 million people.  There is no one who can satisfy all our demands, or even most of them.  Personally, I am looking at someone moderate in demeanor and outlook – it matches the reality of my own career, where my daily job involved, imperfection, including my own.  I represented people in a union of diverse members.  Nothing was ever as it was portrayed at the beginning.  All were good people on all sides.  All were flawed including, as I mention, myself.  Nothing was, to use a lawyer’s favorite word: “clear”.

Politicians are no better or worse than any of us, individually and collectively.  They do have an impossible job, and it surprises me that people even choose to run for office.

Since early on, a favorite for me has been Amy Klobuchar, my local U.S. Senator for the past 14 years who has demonstrated, by the strength of her electoral victories that she represents well diverse constituencies.

Does this mean that she is who I will vote for?  No.  I’ve made my declaration above.

At minimum, I think our individual responsibility, at minimum, is to at the very least know who our many representatives are, from local to national, and then to vote well informed.

Nov. 11, 2020, we’ll know what we did to, or for, ourselves and our future.

Earlier post on this topic, here.