I’ve written at length how in religion, most of us have inherited our belief systems as opposed to doing an objective search. The same thing is true for our political party affiliations. Sadly most of us default to whatever our parents were without giving the matter too much thought.

That’s somewhat predictable. Challenging the status quo can be hard. I get it. It can also be painful to have to announce what amounts to the equivalent of a coming out party if you do decide to go against the grain. You risk getting ridiculed by family members and friends. Not an easy choice.

But it’s a necessary choice now. Republicans have gone off the deep end. Since Ronald Reagan, I used to think Republicans had only one devious plan and that was to completely unravel the New Deal. For decades they’ve wanted nothing more than to eliminate social security, medicare and welfare programs of any kind. It’s a move towards pure capitalism where the wealthy get their just rewards and if you weren’t so lucky, then that’s just too bad.

But it’s different now. Not only do Republicans want to cancel the New Deal, they actively support conspiracy theories, are willing to look the other way when our elected leaders taking bribes from foreign countries, gut our justice department of any semblance of independence, support a leader who tries to play both sides on racism, and now seem content with blatant voter suppression – but only in cities with a high percentage of minorities.

But it’s even worse than that. Republicans are suddenly open minded about national security when it comes to first family security clearances and personal e-mails. Such short memories. The latest incomprehensible strategy adopted by the party centers around science denial. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a global pandemic that will likely kill 500,000 people or climate change , Republicans are on the front line of “you know, there are multiple opinions about this.”

During the Reagan/Bush years, it used to be standard policy debate about what blend of capitalism and socialism we wanted to define ourselves as a country. We’ve been a mix of both since FDR introduced social security in 1935. Until now it’s been a debate about how far to take the concept – full blown socialized medicine or reduce or even eliminate social security and medicate because you know, deficits. Those were the good old days.

Alas Trump and MAGA changed everything. Now there are real reasons to go through the pain and challenge the political party you inherited. Our elected leaders are ignoring science and the scientists. Anit-maskers are literally killing people. The pandemic has put the real hurt on small businesses. Many won’t recover. Food insecurity has reached all-time highs since the Great Depression. Some states are over 25% of the population. Meanwhile Amazon is killing it.

Speaking of Amazon, this brings me to the second reason people subscribe to a particular political party. Their beloved 401k. The “Trump helped boost my 401k, therefore I love him” crowd.

This is a special kind of ignorance that doesn’t get corrected until the poor become so poor that they have to step over a dozen people who haven’t had a shower in 6 months on their way to the Symphony downtown. A city with no middle class is no city to be proud of. Homelessness is getting worse, not better under Republicans’ dog eat dog pure capitalism play. If only you weren’t so greedy about your cherished 401k.

Maybe you’re a Republican because of your religious affiliation. That can be somewhat understandable given the pressures of crowd-think. Abortion has been a wedge issue for Republicans since Roe v. Wade. I get it. It seems black and white and simple to choose which side to be on. I can understand the struggle with a moral issue here, I really can. My best effort to convince you to reconsider the Republican party has to do with opening our eyes to all of the moral issues. There just isn’t anything in the Republican party’s platform on economic equality or social justice that remotely resembles the life of Jesus. I’m sorry, but it’s more complicated than one issue.

Leaving the Republican party does not equate to joining the libs. You can become an independent like myself. I grew up in a fiscally liberal but socially conservative family. But to my parents’ credit, that social conservatism was applied to our family and didn’t necessarily ascribe what’s good for us was how it had to be for everyone. I became an independent in the 1990’s during the first Iraq war. I didn’t see the benefits of party affiliation and if anything I felt there might be risk associated with party affiliation (see Saddam Hussein, Baath party members tortured).

If I haven’t convinced you to consider thinking for yourself and not being defined by the party of your parents or your retirement account, then consider one last issue. How does it feel to be a part of the party that bailed out Kyle Rittenhouse? The kid brought a rifle to a rally and opened fire on black people with no other purpose than to please the Proud Boys — also staunch Republican supporters. Perhaps you get tired of people calling Republicans racist, but what other option is there? They are literally packing heat to peaceful rallies and lining up their scopes with people of color. Meanwhile the party of Lincoln sits there and doesn’t denounce anything. I would make the decision to leave for that reason alone. Guilty by association. Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer are apparently your new peeps now.

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can leave the party and become and independent minded thinker and vote on issues. It affords you the flexibility to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal or the other way around. It’s up to you. But no one should have to be a Republican just because their mom and dad were.

With senate control on the line in Georgia, can you even imagine how much money will flow into those campaigns? I like the fact that Trump won’t be on the ballot which should keep a few of the MAGAs in their caves.

The presidential race will be called today and Biden will become president-elect. I should be dancing in the aisles. But I’m not.

The truth is instead of relishing this victory I’m spending more time dealing with the disgust I have knowing a little less than half the country said yeah, Trump’s my guy.

So yeah, alrighty then. We get to say goodbye to the guy who, every time he spoke gave me flashbacks to the 6th grade. That’ll be nice to not have to deal with that anymore. We get to say adios to Bill Barr, Stephen Miller, Mark Meadows, Steve Mnuchin and Mike Pompeo. That’s definitely worth celebrating.

The MAGA cult will lose its flame. It will take some time, but it will diminish. But it doesn’t change the fact that I live in a country where half the country are either terrible people or really gullible. I did not accurately forecast that the numbers where quite that high. But here we are.

The first thing to note from Thursday night’s debate was that Kristin Welker did a really good job of keeping the topics moving. The muted microphone was helpful, but even so she seemed firm and fair. Kudos to Kristin for doing such an admirable job after being attacked on Twitter by Trump as a leftist partisan hack. The attacks were viscious.

Apart from that, it was entertaining to watch the conservative pundits attempt to declare victory because he went a whole 90 minutes without pissing himself on national TV. Indeed Trump has set the bar for success low. He can stand there and lie for 90 minutes and as long as he keeps his outbursts to a dull roar, Rick Santorum will declare he was “Presidential” tonight.

Oftentimes in a debate, 99% of it is forgotten within a week. Who remembers anything from the Vice Presidential debate besides the infamous fly? Where Biden scored with swing voters and independents was his message about pledging to be the president of ALL of the states, red and blue. Trump was hell-bent on penalizing blue states as he has done for the last 4 years. But you can’t just blame Trump. The republican party has in fact rejected stimulus deals related to Covid-19 based solely on the fact that there was “too much money going to blue states” in them.

This is the issue that I believe has caused Trump to do so poorly with suburban women. There are many reasons to be disappointed in Trump, but the one that I think is weighing heaviest on the minds of people in suburbia is his strategy to divide us as a nation instead of unite us. This has exacerbated the Trump fatigue factor and may be his biggest miscalculation going into November 3rd.

I personally felt Biden should have going on the attack a little bit more. When they focus on Hunter Biden, there’s no shortage of emoluments issues that could have been brought up about the Trump family. I realize this is whataboutism, but in some cases you have to fight fire with fire. I would have asked him why his family is banned from running charitable foundations in the State of NY? It was because of theft. Ivanka’s sweetheart trade deals with China. Why did he take out a full page ad in the NT Times against the Central Park 5? They were proven innocent. I would have brought up Charlottesville, Charlottesville, Charlottesville until they cut off my mic.

This is war after all. Nice guys finish last.

To his credit, Pence isn’t a horrible debater. He’s full of shit of course, but as far as doing a sell job to the Duck Dynasty crowd, you have to conclude mission accomplished.

Pence had one job at tonight’s debate with Kamala Harris: No flub stubs that cause him to trend on Twitter. Well, that didn’t work as half way into the debate Mike unwittingly sported a fly on his rug for the world to see.

Now he’s the subject of Twitter derision the likes of which the world hasn’t seen in awhile. After all,

Black Flies Matter

I had to work at not spilling my morning coffee when in response to a question from Brian Karem about the peaceful transfer of power the Orange One proclaimed “We’ll have to see what happens. I hear those ballots are a disaster.”

I couldn’t agree more. Those ballots are going to be a disaster for you. I’d be concerned too.

At this point, I think I can speak for a lot of people who are just plain old worn out from the daily drama surrounding Donald Trump. We’ve tuned out watching most news channels. Not completely, but just enough to get the gist of what the next scandal is.

I’ve resorted to a fair amount of MeTV shows like All in the Family, Mash, and Hogan’s Heroes. He’s just not worth the energy. The constant need for attention, the overt racism, the blatant lies, are just too much to take.

You can count me among those who never recognized him as my President. It’s clear to me from the Mueller report that the 2016 Election is tainted from payoffs and Russian interference. The election was decided by a small margin of votes across 4 swing states. Had he not cheated, the outcome very likely would have been different. He’s looking for every avenue to cheat this election too.

He didn’t win. He’s not up to the job. He screwed up the response to Covid-19 and even talks about it in past tense.

I also agree with Nancy Pelosi’s suggestion that Biden should not waste any cycles debating Trump. Trump is behind in the polls. Let him stay behind in the polls. Don’t give him any avenue to claim victory.

68 days seems a long time to give republicans the shellacking they so richly deserve. It is interesting to see the drama queen melt down on Twitter from time to time. At least that part is entertaining.

But perhaps what I’m most looking forward to, only because it gives Republicans an immediate aneurism, is gun reform. 51 votes in the Senate + the executive branch is all it’s going to take. Can’t wait for the Duck Dynasty crowd to lose their cookies while whining on Fox News.

Like a lot of people I think I’m exhausted from the Trump presidency. I’ve been a news junkie for decades but I’m finding it harder to justify spending my time listening to conservatives parrot right wing talking points in their defense of Trump.

The fact that he is an ignoramus like no other is not up for debate. It’s frustrating to see them filibuster the questioning and get away with it. I find myself switching over the Andy Griffith reruns or concerts on AXS TV in support of better personal mental health.

Fortunately it looks like the shit-show is about to enter its closing act similar to Macbeth. I plan to stay inside and order a lot of popcorn.

One thing that has been hardest to deal with is knowing that there are friends and family have supported the cult of Trump or at a minimum turned a blind eye to the damage to the office of the presidency and the country. In the age of Trump we are no longer talking about simple policy disagreements. It’s about the soul of the country. Who we are as a people. Right from wrong.

There have been some who threw caution to the wind and supported Trump because they just couldn’t get into Hillary. I’m thinking the choice was painfully obvious but okay, if that’s how you felt at the time I get it. But what about now? There’s no denying that the Trump family is running a criminal enterprise for personal gain. There’s no denying he doesn’t have any idea what he is doing, ignores the advice of professionals at the cost of thousands of lives. We’re over 2,000 deaths a day now from Coronavirus. Other countries have figured it out. Trump only cares about the economy and trying to get re-elected. So please tell me that you made a mistake and are moving on. Please don’t ask me what’s the big deal about Trump, he’s just like my crazy uncle but he gets stuff done. Please don’t change the subject because it makes you uncomfortable in the moment. Please do acknowledge the disaster these last 4 years have been. We don’t have to dwell on it. I just want to hear some honesty.

There’s a contingent of high school classmates that have been brainwashed by a steady diet of Fox News. I feel bad for them, I really do. It’s way more people than I ever predicted. I’m going to sound elitist for saying this but it must be really painful to be that dumb. I can assure we’re done debating about it on Facebook because I’ve left the platform. I don’t want any part of supporting Zuckerberg. My hope is that Facebook becomes the next MySpace, and that Bloomberg buys Fox News and rids it of its cancer. But alas this may be a pipe dream. Maybe it’s just life unfolding as life does.

Onward with Hogan’s Heroes and Gomer Pyle reruns.

Let’s dream a little. Why not?

People choosing to be a part of the country is a choice. A group of immigrants made that choice and started the 13 colonies. 240 years later we have 50 states and the District of Columbia.

It’s been quite a ride through good times and bad. But what if it’s permanently broken?

There hasn’t been serious talk about secession since the Civil War, but I can make the argument that it’s time to put the topic on the table.

There are many analogies between being a part of a country and marriage. I don’t like to think of myself as a quitter, but I was married for 27 years and reached a point where I had to conclude that what was broken just wasn’t going to get any better. Try as I might.

When that’s the case, one can only conclude that it’s best to part ways.

So let’s talk about the so-called ‘Left’ coast. We don’t fit in with the rest of America. Most of what we witness on TV is cringe-worthy behavior from our fellow Americans in red states. It’s no secret we’re divided. They can’t stand liberals and we liberals and moderates can’t stand the MAGA crowd. Maybe it’s time for a divorce?

Think about it. It’s been like talking to a rock for over 20 years. They just don’t get the notion of a progressive country. It’s back to the 1950’s ‘Merica or you ain’t a true American. Stand for the anthem no matter how disgusting the brutality is. Be quiet and stand. Kick the immigrants out even though this country was built by and has always had robust immigration policies and we would not be where we are today without them. Drink the Kool-aid on trickle down economics. It’s just too big of a divide to fix.

So what if the entire West Coast considered seceding from the union in order to form our own Country? We should at least be talking about it. 47 states would be like, wut? They would have to figure out how to survive without California’s enormous economy. The West Coast dominates in high tech between Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Portland. We would lay claim to ownership of every single social media account in the world. Now that’s power!

It’s akin to telling your spouse you’re thinking of leaving. You’re what? Yes, we’re thinking of leaving. Let’s give it some thought. I haven’t thought through all of the repercussions for sure, but I want to put it out on the table so that the rest of the country can understand over here we’re pretty sure this isn’t working very well and would like to consider a long-term change.