This is not how we thought things would end.
Day #2 Post election. America has spoken up. There’s a new president. And right now, I will tell you, both the Democratic party and Republican party have failed this nation. If you supported Trump, please read this. If you supported Hillary, please read this. If you just voted for your party, please read this. 3rd party, please read on. This is for everyone. Unglue yourself from the news and unhinge your mind for a few minutes.
In short, I’ll tell you something about myself. My parents were exiled Cuban refugees. I grew up in a church. My parents are pastors. For many years I was conservative, leaning right on many issues. Today, I lean left, sometimes way left. Some may see this as odd behavior, some may see me as an aberration of a person, and that’s fine. Jesus was a radical in his day. He hung out with thieves, liars, criminals, the poor, the sick. So, I don’t stick to a set of laws that would benefit my own beliefs. Do I believe in God? Yes. Very much so. I also do believe that it’s our duty to not push our beliefs. It’s not our place to tell you who’s wrong, who’s right. I respect your beliefs, your choices and your views. I don’t believe the ignorance-is-bliss mentality that many Christians follow or that God is fully-in-charge-and-nothing-else-matters mindset. We have the ability to think, create, solve complex equations, build massive things, build tiny things that can fix great big things. Is God in control, I’d say yeah, but we still have to decide. We still need to choose. We still have to do our part. Does he pencil in the candidate? I don’t think so. So please spare me the God chose Trump argument. Less than half (47.5%) of registered voters voted for him. We have this great system, where we can vote. How lucky are we as a nation to have free elections? Some countries would die for this.
America has chosen their new president. The most disenfranchised group of people voted in favor of trump. Why? Easy. The GOP establishment failed them, that’s why. It wasn’t because of policy. The GOP establishment has failed at many things, but has severely bruised this country by opposing the Obama’s ability to pass legislature for the common good. GOP has blocked even the election of a supreme court justice, even a conservative one. The GOP has obstructed the current president on almost everything. The GOP leadership is being paid CEO level salaries and exactly what have they done for us all? This is the party of Lincoln. Let’s be honest here. Ted Cruz was the key star here, but his narrative was too safe for the disenfranchised. This is why Trump rose to fame. He spoke to those people. But wait, the GOP bent and leaned to Trump. Made him the star. And it was the best thing they did. Why? Because they saw he was more electable. He was more populist. That’s the key word here. Populist. He was the right person for the angry voters.
The Democratic party is an abysmal failure. The party of the people has been bought by corporate interests, corporate media, big money. The party of the people seems to exist in a comfortable bubble of denial and apathy. The party of the people is no longer a progressive force of ideas and measures that can bring us together, whilst making USA more globally appealing and competitive. On a presidential level, they corralled around a candidate with extremely unfavorable and unpopular baggage, even a pending indictment. They groomed and prepped the press on what to report and what to ask. Meanwhile, a successful career senator was gaining momentum, Bernie Sanders with no big money donors, but instead small donations. A powerful progressive movement was happening where millennials were dropping everything to follow Bernie. Meanwhile, the DNC was putting all their eggs in one basket. Hillary. Was Bernie too far out for them? Yes. They preferred to play it safe with Hillary. Hillary Clinton, a far more undesirable candidate than Walter Mondale. She was now the chosen one for the DNC. Fact of the matter here, an establishment politician cannot compete with populism. When Bernie’s caved to the DNC, made concessions with Hillary, his entire fan base became the disenfranchised. The DNC failed, miserably to convince Sanders supporters and donors to now pay attention to her. And this was their undoing. This gamble, shows how arrogant and establishment-centric the DNC is. They exist in this bubble where they believe their views are for the greater good, and most intelligent citizens would agree with them. What a tremendous failure. Playing it safe with Hillary got Donald Trump elected. Although she got the popular vote, the electoral college decided it. The argument of choosing the lesser of two evils didn’t even work here.
The corporate media (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc.) Trump did very little advertising. He didn’t need to advertise, the press was on him 24/7. The DNC colluding with CNN, backfired terribly. Again, these entities exist in a bubble. They failed to see the real picture. The bias was obvious. It was not entirely their fault, it is true that Trump did attack them quite often. The media failed to report real issues going on, I can think of a few… the Dakota Access Pipeline is one glaring issue that they have failed to report on. Are you curious about congressional hearings? Watch C-SPAN. Curious about world news? Maybe try Reuters, BBC even Al Jazeera. CNN, MSNBC even FOX are corporate owned and tend to wash and polish their content. 90% of your news is owned by 6 companies. Comcast, News Corp, Walt Disney Corp, Viacom, Time Warner, CBS Corp. Think they are fair and balanced? News sources are supposed to abide by a code of ethics which at a minimum should be accurate, fair, complete, honest, independent, impartial, transparent, accountable, respectful, excellent. So that basically excludes the alt-right news groups.
3rd party candidates. Too little, too late. It hurts, I know. This is a great country. Sander’s movement fell to the wayside when he conceded to Hillary and the DNC. Even after all the damage was done, he still backed the chosen nominee. This fueled the 3rd parties. Green Party, Libertarian. But they really should’ve had a head start early on. Wow. But a third party could be great, but starting late in the day. Short answer, money. Contributions. It takes money to run campaigns. Did you vote 3rd party this year? I am not blaming you. But your vote still did very little to sway the results. Especially here in Texas. But Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, 3rd party votes ruined Hillary’s chances. Again, I still blame the DNC for this. Bernie Sanders as the democratic nominee would’ve had a better fighting chance at beating Trump.
What now? The Democratic party needs a serious enema. Time to gut it and give it back to the people. Get big money and corporate greed, corporate interests out of the party, get the corporatists out, this includes the Republicans. The GOP needs to open its mind. Open up to ideas that will move it forward. Stop playing it safe! Green Party, Libertarians, progressives, it’s your turn to step up and take back this country. Move it forward. Can we see something happen in 3 years? Possibly, but we have to take the first steps. We can’t ignorantly think God will do it all… we have to do that. It’s up to us.
-IA