20 More Days

October 19th, 2016

These last 20 days are going to feel like 20 years. Is there anyone out there that is not wishing this election was over already? I am so done discussing it, watching it, and hearing about it. Yet another debate tonight. Really? Haven’t we had enough of that yet?

While it is getting a bit old, I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed it. This year we have candidates like no other election ever did. They brought it. These two have made us stand up and take notice like no others before them. Before 2016 voters were complacent, didn’t make any real effort to understand the platforms and voter turnout was disappointing. Not this time. I think people are going to go to the polls in record numbers – and right now neither candidate should be feeling like they have a lock on it. We have the Donald who is bat-shit crazy and we have Lyin’ Crooked Hillary. Oh, what do we do?

Tough choice. Tough or not, we HAVE to make one. (As far as independents go, we all know the only thing voting for them does is cast a negative vote for the the big two – not a good option.) The only choice we absolutely cannot make is to sit home and not vote at all. If you are pushed to that point, it is because you care. You sat up and paid attention through this whole thing, and now is not the time to curl up on the couch and suck your thumb because you are offended by both choices. We gotta put on our big boy pants and stumble to the polls.

I read a post today about Hillary that really made sense. It did not excuse everything she’s done that we are upset with her for, but it did, in fact, show us how her flaws are the very thing this country needs right now. That’s right. Her flaws. We don’t need another nice guy. We need a cunning, complicated individual made of steel that won’t quit on us. Obama is way nicer than Hillary. She will use ways and means in the House and Senate to get things done. She is not broken easily, if at all. And above all, she has the intelligence to use her flaws to move us forward. This is the way the article ended:

“The political landscape that lies before us next year will require a president who has the capacity to be a cutthroat negotiator, a quiet friend, a forgiving enemy, a turncoat, and a detail-obsessed wonk. If the country elects such a person, there is a distinct possibility that American democracy will discover that inch-by-inch progress on legislation happens after vigorous wrangling, which eventually gets to a deeply unsatisfying resolution that leaves almost everybody in a grumpy mood, and sort of works, but not all that well and yet well enough to get us to the next fight—which, if you will recall, is exactly what the Founding Fathers sketched out on paper in 1787. And here’s the thing: If it unfolds that way, under President Hillary Clinton, then historians will be able to honestly say that Donald Trump lived up to his promise, however accidentally, and made America great again.”

Wow. Yeah. You can read it below. (It’s long and involved – but well worth it if you can’t deal with the many faces of Hillary that have flooded the news.)

Now, to be fair to the other side, Donald has also shown us all of his faces, but he did it blatantly in the course of a few months played out on national TV and we don’t need a complicated article to point out just who he is and what kind of president he will make. All we need to do is just thank him for who he is and be glad that, he too, had the gumption to not fall under all that has been slung at him.

So there you have it. Two people that both want to lead our country and have taken a public bloodbath that would shake most of us to our core and send us into a dark closet. There’s a lot of strength on the ballot this year. Lots to ponder and choose from. It’s not as bleak as it sounds. Don’t sit home complaining about how you don’t like either candidate. Grow a pair and go pull a lever.

And so, as another debate day goes by, I have truly enjoyed engaging in some great discussions with those whose views are different than mine. Kudos to you for not being nasty and condescending, YOU are who makes America great and makes us stronger together, and…I have written.