Make America Great Again. This is the slogan of Donald Trumps campaign that I have to keep hearing again and again as the 2016 election looms over our heads.
The 2016 election cycle is shaping up to be just like 2012 and 2008 with fewer options and far worse choices across the board.
In 2008 I was working on the Ron Paul Campaign. I got behind Dr. Paul because he was the only candidate that stood out to me who in the very least was telling the truth and had 8-term congressional voting record to back it up. His ideas resonated with me. Talk of limited government, conservative economics and internet neutrality seemed were important matters to me and a lot of other Americans.
Unfortunately, in both those elections, Dr. Paul lost. In fact he didn’t even come close. People would ask me why I was working on a losing campaign, and told me I was throwing my vote away. I simply replied that I was going to get behind and vote for the person I believed was best for the presidency and that I didn’t care about what the news was saying or any of the bullshit you hear from people who only talk politics every 4 years when it’s on the T.V. everyday.
I remember all of the blatant tactics the media used to skew the polls for Dr. Paul, and the last minute changes by the RNC to keep him off the debate stages. I remember Dr. Paul barley won the Ames straw, then won the CPAC straw poll and then when he poled higher in the preliminary debates, FOX News decided just skirt the issue. Below is just one of many videos that outline just a couple of the events that took place.
After watching the Republicans tear themselves apart in the months following and ultimately losing the presidency to Obama for another 4 years, I was convinced that there was no place left in American Politics for anyone that was going to attempt to defy the establishment.
Now without getting all conspiracy theorist on you, I think when we look back at the case of Dr. Paul, most people would agree that the media snuffed him and that his attempts to bring subjects to the light like blowback, foreign intervention, auditing of the FED and the out of control budget deficit were not met with kind regard by the RNC, media and virtually the “establishment” as we know it.
What I learned during this time was that if the establishment (AKA media, RNC, Democrats super PACs etc.) could simply get the message across to the American Public that Ron Paul couldn’t win, then it would come true and it most certainly did.
The most common thing I would hear back in 08 and 12 when speaking and or advocating about Ron Paul was the logic behind the idea that Paul didn’t have a chance to win, therefore I would be throwing my vote away, and hence I am voting for someone else.
Well Clinton and Trump are among the most disliked Candidates to ever run for President according to this poll.
History is repeating itself once again and we are seeing it play out right in front of us with Gary Johnson. In the next couple of weeks I am going to release a series of blogs as these event unfold, and it should get pretty interesting.
Keep this in mind when you are reading these…..
I have voted both republican and democrat evenly since I could vote
I am registered as a democrat currently, but have been registered as a republican, democrat, independent and libertarian in the past.
I usually follow the money and that leads me to the real answers.
So let’s wrap this up. In the last two blogs, I laid some ground work in to some major problems in the political process today. To recap, I bullet point them for you:
3rd Party Candidates don’t stand a chance…. ever, and it sucks!
The Media may be conspiring to stomp out any chance of an alternative candidate getting any air time as we saw in the case of Ron Paul, and Gary Johnson.
Being left with 2 horrible choices isn’t that much better than no choice at all.
The public sphere in general is getting pretty stupid and it’s scary.
So what do we do about it?
As I am finishing this last blog I am currently vacationing in Bali Indonesia. I love traveling and I LOVE Bali. One of the greatest experiences I get to have when I am traveling is running in to people from other parts of the world to get their take on how they perceive American Politics. The other night I was sharing a table at dinner with my Wife, 2 girls from Sweden, a guy from Germany and an Australian dude. The consensus was the Donald Trump is a buffoon, and Hillary Clinton is just down right shady. So, we were in agreement.
The next night while having dinner with my friend Luke and his girlfriend we got in to a long conversation about politics ranging from 1984, to 9/11 conspiracy theories, the Viet Nam War and my experiences traveling to Viet Nam to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Man city.
This is the point that we all came to. Americans live in a state of irrational fear and the Federal Government has a lot of motivation to keep it that way. This is always apparent in every election, and any time someone, or something is trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
Politicians are professional liars. They say what ever they have to so they can get elected. The funny thing is that generally we all know this and agree that it is true, yet you will her people argue over who said what at some debate as if in 2 months either politician will follow through on any thing they said.
So what should you do? Well, as I told my friend in our conversation last night, I believe that as long as millennials can get the rent paid, get a new iPhone, and have some money left over to get drunk on the weekend, they are going to do shit to change anything. I think people are indifferent, but being indifferent is not going to change anything.
Older folks like my parents who lived through the 60’s understand the importance of voting and a 3rd party, yet in a lot of ways it’s like they forgot about Viet Nam and the Nixon scandals in the 60’s & 70’s because here we are 50 years later in a long drawn out war with plenty of civil and racial unrest to go around and not one likable or redeeming politician in sight who actually has a chance to win.
I am beginning to think that most people just don’t give a shit anymore or they are like me, meaning they will vote their conscious not matter what, say fuck a political party and generally believe that things are probably just going to need to get worse before they get better.
That being said, if you do give a shit, and you are looking for some actionable items to help you decide who to vote for this year, I have provided some bullet points.
Follow the money. If you want to know who the next president is going to be soft on and quick to help out, simply look at who is donating money to their campaign.
You don’t need to pick a side, fuck what your friend said, don’t worry about your liberal college professor, and you can just tune out your parents when they start telling you how great Ronal Regan was. Just form your own opinion and if you feel like you need to change your mind, then do so, it’s a free country.
Finally, the most scary and sinister of all is the repressive desublimination of the public sphere which is more zombified than it has ever been. The only way to combat this is to turn off the news and find your own information. We are getting dangerously close to an idiocrocy generation and the Federal Government is starting to look more and more like Big Brother every day…. Don’t beleive me? Read this and prepare to have your mind BLOWN http://theantimedia.org/george-orwell-1984-came-true/.
Now go out and vote and enjoy this clip from Trump VS. Camacho Debate
