Consequences

Well! Well! Well! If it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.

In politics there is plenty of blame to go around. Blame Republicans, Democrats, Independents, non-voters and people who ignore what is right in front of them. You can shift blame. However, there will be consequences. Ignoring them will only allow them to continue and possibly grow.

There is no simple answer. Citizens need to work, read and vote for politicians who vote in your interest and fellow citizen’s interest.

There are many factors you want in a politician. The most important factor is character. Intelligence, money, party, education and other factors are far behind character. If the politician has good character, all other factors can work for you. If the politician has bad character all the other factors can work against you.

When you look at a political candidate, you might think of the candidate as someone you are interviewing for a job in your own company.

Would you hire a candidate with the following things on their resume or common knowledge about the candidate?

The person claims to be very smart but has an SAT score less than the national average.
The candidate has several companies that went bankrupt.
The person does not pay taxes.
In the media, he was sued by subcontractors for not being paid.
The person claims he is much better than he is. Wealthier, smarter, always successful.
The person speaks in a very low level of language. Miss uses words. Pronounces them incorrectly. His language is crude and vulgar.
In the media, it is common knowledge that he cheated on all three of his wives.
He has been sued many times and lost most of them.
His language is racist, sexist, and insensitive to human subgroups.
He violates the Constitution.
He was convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in the first degree.
Twenty-eight women have publicly accused him of sexual misconduct and sexual misconduct. In court, he was convicted of sexual abuse and defamation, that ordered him to pay five million in damages.
He has been caught lying thousands of times by the press.
There are hundreds of other things that could have been included.

Could you afford the risk of hiring this candidate for your company?

Our current President, Donald Trump, does all these things in plain sight. The economy is worse. He spends more than he has in the federal budget. The national debt has increased by trillions of dollars. He has cut much of the safety net health care programs.

Yet many people say he is great. Many are ignoring the consequences of his leadership. He does whatever he wants by ignoring the US Constitution. He unilaterally started a war with Iran without congressional approval. This war has consequences: higher oil prices (3.70/gallon), increased national debt and more to come.

We voted him in. Maybe not you or me. However, the country did. People who did not vote helped him. People who liked his personality, which should have been a warning, voted for him. People who vote their party line regardless of their thoughts voted for him. There are many other people to blame. Democrats ran a poor campaign. The bottom line is that many people did not pay attention to and investigate this political candidate. We are dealing with the consequences.

CURRENT CONSEQUENCES

The news media does not really help. ICE arrests and deports people without using a judicial warrant or providing them with lawyers, shoot and kills citizens. The military killed people in small boats in international waters without evidence of an immediate threat, invaded Venezuela and captured their President, invaded Iran, threatening to make Greenland the 51^st state, cutting some of the safety net programs (Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, Medicare, FEMA), denying federal funding to states for projects that were approved by Congress, and more.

The significance of these actions will become apparent this year. Trump is trying to take away from the states’ control over their elections. Our freedoms are being cut. Trump wants to make voters have a passport to vote. Why? This will cut off over 70 million voters.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Make sure you are registered to vote. Vote by mail so you will not miss voting because you were sick the day of the election. You can register as an Independent, Republican, or Democrat.

By August, things will be so bad that you will want to vote.

When you contact a politician, they check whether you are a voter. They really give priority to voters. Not being registered reduces your effectiveness in making these phone calls.

Ultimately, the final line of defense of democracy is the citizens at the ballot box.

President Lincoln said, “Our country will not be conquered by another country. If it is to be conquered, it will be conquered from within.”