trump clinton

After seeing what ignorance can do to a country with the Brexit vote, I woke up this morning and decided that come November I’m voting for Hillary Clinton.

I do not want to vote for her. I do not want to vote for either candidate. Neither have good ideas.

In The Republic, by Plato, he talks about how a functioning Republic requires unbiased leadership. Leadership that wants for nothing. Not fame. Not money. Nothing. Leaders should be philosophers. Because only philosophers have access to ideas that benefit the whole of the society. Not a party. Not a lobby. Everyone.

The United States is a Republic.

I was raised in a conservative Republican household in the Deep South. I was a card-carrying Republican from my first election in 1982 until the mid-nineties when I attended college and began peeling back the layers of dogma attached to party thinking. Yes, I voted for Reagan (whom I blame for our current economic chaos). Then Bush. But then Perot. Twice. Because his ideas aligned with my life at the time. Then I voted for Gore, and whoever went against Bush in 2004. But in 2008, I voted for Barack Obama because he had the best ideas. Revolutionary ideas that benefited the largest percentage of our Republic. However, in 2012, after seeing how little Obama could get done within our current 2-party stranglehold, I abstained from voting. I’d become disenfranchised with the system.

I was, and still am, angry at this system. A system where money decides who we get to vote for to lead us. From the NRA to Big Pharma to the super-rich looking for political leverage, money is thrown at candidates who represent the best interests of these entities. And the politicians take the money and use it to buy TV time and yard signs and radio spots designed to appeal to dogmatic constituents. These entities, who control the media, then sit back and watch us battle it out when in the end they’re going to win either way.

And we don’t see it. We think we’re doing our patriotic duty by voting.

So this year we have to choose between a lifelong millionaire politician who is in bed with Wall St., and an egomaniac cult of personality billionaire who has no clue about anything from trade to military. Neither have good ideas that will benefit the Republic. Both are relying on riling the dogma of their constituency.

Only one, the billionaire who made his fortune in CASINOS, is more dangerous than the other. Literally dangerous. Not just with his ideology, but in how he may handle foreign relations. And yet he’s tapped into a river of anger on the conservative side that is sick and tired of their own party and want something new. I felt that way about Bernie Sanders, but alas the one person with the best ideas wasn’t even nominated because of the system. In an ordinary year I’d write Sanders in. Or maybe the Libertarian candidate. Anything other than the status quo (Clinton) and potential chaos (Trump).

sanders

But not this year.

This year I have to waste a vote to keep our country from burning to the ground.

I’m sure Democrats are rejoicing to hear people like me–people who can think, and who realize what damage might come from having Trump as President. But I assure you, my vote isn’t a vote for your party. It’s a vote out of fear. And that is a tragedy. I will continue to seek out people who are not influenced by big money and who want to do well by our entire Republic. Not just a party line.

I’m pissed and we still have four months before the election.

I can’t get to an island fast enough, man.

***

Jim

Parenting in 2016
Enemies

Jim Mitchem

Writer. Father to daughters. Husband. Ad man. Raised by wolves. @jmitchem on twitter. First novel, Minor King, out now.

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