As an historian, history tells me that this presidential election about to go down on Nov. 5 is the worst offering of prospective White House occupants in history.
That’s three references to history in a very short sentence.
I should just keep it at that, as I have nothing positive or enlightening to say about this upcoming historical farce.
So vote your mind, vote your conscience, vote for one of the third-party gadflies, or sit this one out and don’t vote because making no decision is actually making a decision.
Speaking of history, do you know who said, “The difference between Republicans and Democrats is Democrats help people who need the help, and Republicans help people who don’t need the help.”
That would have been Harry S Truman, in my estimation a guy who did a pretty damned good job when he was president in the post-World II era.
Truman also said, “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.”
That’s a big problem nowadays because most people don’t know, or don’t care, or don’t understand history.
You see, without history, and learning and understanding history, we as a people have no common or shared memory of what came before us, and what decisions of the past have shaped or caused present circumstances, good and bad. Without history, it is difficult, if not impossible to make any sense of the political, economic and social issues of our times.
And we got a lot going on right now.
First of all, as I tell you after every election, remember, the voters are always right, no exceptions.
If you don’t believe in that principle, than you’re either an elitist, a Fat Cat insider, or a fool.
Voters, most of whom are common folk, working people, and the middle class, know exactly what they’re doing and why they’re doing it when they vote. Although both political parties perceive voter-citizens as ignorant rabble, easily manipulated by the media and huckster political consultants, nothing could be further from the truth. When people vote, they know what the deal is. They may not have Ivy League degrees or make seven-figure incomes, but they have more than enough smarts to figure out what’s the best decision to make on election day.
So just keep that thought in mind if things don’t go the way you want in November’s election.
If I were a Republican — I’m not, I’m a Democrat, but nothing like these bloodless dullards currently in charge — I would contribute loads of jack to the Dems. Just give them tons and tons of money to keep on their present course because they don’t want to give up the steering wheel even though they’re headed over the cliff.
The Democratic Party couldn’t be any more stupid if it took paid lessons in it, which apparently they did.
Instead of talking to people, Democratic elitists talk down to people. Instead of standing on a platform of solutions for real problems — such as the ongoing eradication of the middle-class, income insecurity, and Un-Free Trade — the Democratic brain trust has turned the election into a tit-for-tat liar’s dice game with Donald Trump. The only problem with that strategy is that the Dems didn’t and don’t offer any alternative to a pompous blowhard, who actually believes that people in this country dine on pets, and American soldiers killed in wars are “suckers” and “losers.”
This election, on both sides, is all about big lies and little truths.
As a Democrat I can say this: The Democratic party is more interested in protecting so-called Free Trade, ensuring One-Percenters remain One-Percenters, allowing Wall Street to regulate Wall Street, Hollywood glitz, and the Woke Gospel than it is in looking after the best interests of working people and the middle class.
The polling pros keep telling us this election is too close to call, which means no matter what the outcome, the rest of us are probably screwed.
If that’s the case, there’s probably a lesson to learn from history.
Most likely, it’s never give up and never lose your sense of humor.
(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific.net, the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org.)
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