Not enough popcorn

There's not enough popcorn to watch the political mess unfold.

For me the big thing that stuck out from the Republican convention was the overall tone of fear. That's a red flag in my book. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of stuff to be concerned about. The problem, at least for me, is that fear is a proven method of manipulation. Fear shuts down higher reasoning. It appears that the Republicans are heavily invested in using fear for their campaigns.

Surprisingly, the Democratic convention is turning out to be an even bigger mess. Their theme is unity, but that ain't gonna happen. A lot of Bernie supporters are only in the game because they want real change. Hillery is heavily invested in the current political and economic power structures so she's not going to really fight for change. It doesn't matter what language Bernie's folks get into the party platform. Once in power, politicians conveniently forget about that stuff.

Trump ran a successful outsider campaign. A good part of his success was not playing by the rules. Bernie also ran an outsider campaign, but the tried to do it within the party framework. Now it's come out that the party was sabotaging his efforts all along. Yes, there's a token resignation, but the damage was done. Of course, Bernie lacked Trump's billions so it's amazing he did as well as he did. That just goes to show how ready people are for real change.

How about third party candidates? The big argument against voting for a third party is that “This year the election is too important to vote for a sure loser.” That's always the argument. I say, if you really find a third party that appeals to you, go for it. Right now neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties are doing all that well. Might be a good year for a third party to get some traction.

I know it's tempting to stay home on election day. That would be a mistake. Local elected officials have a big influence on your day to day life. You can complain about the National politicians, but the local guy can double your property taxes while at the same time cutting property value in half. The loacl stuff can happen a lot quicker too.

In the interests of full disclosure, I'm a registered in the state of NH as an Independent. The way NH state law is set up, I can declare for either party in the primaries, vote, then re-register as an Independent before leaving the building. I don't' think there's ever been an election where I've voted a straight ticket as I vote for the individual, not the party.

What we really don't want to happen is to see the democratic system fail. Look at the mess in Turkey. The military coup failed and now the counter coup is slipping into a full on dictatorship. Let's let Turkey be a cautionary tale, not a road map.

Pass the popcorn.

-Sixbears