(An
outsider’s view from inside)
In about twenty months America will again determine a course
for the future and not a moment too soon.
Maybe we should all agree that this time we will support the president
we elect and give him or her a chance to do some good for “we the people.”
What a novel idea indeed.
However, it sure looks like a painful path lies ahead to get there.
Think about the monumental task ahead for our president,
whoever it may be. First, they have to
traverse the minefield called the primary election, and win. Only two will be left standing of the nearly
thirty candidates of the Democrats and Republicans. Then they must get elected president a couple
of months later.
On the one side we have the Republican incumbent Donald Trump,
who thinks he should have been immortalized as the newest American Action Hero
and given a Marvel comic Book Series.
The other side are two dozen or more Democrats of all stripes,
sizes, genders and bias, who are promoting everything to everyone regardless of
the cost, the consequence, or even the possibility for approval. In truth, they are all chasing Joe Biden.
Of course, reporting on the election circus is done by the highly
suspect news media and I use that description with much trepidation. Once upon a time there was a definable, properly
sourced, and credible news media. It was
objective, gave both sides to every story, and very seldom were they rewarded with
a byline – which means getting credit for a story for those too young to
remember.
Today objective and unbiased stories are nearly impossible to
find. Today reporters want to be the
story, the stars of the Virtual Internet News era, which means they tell you
what to think.
Fortunately, the vast majority of people place little
credibility in the news media. That is a
fact that can easily be sourced. Look at
the latest Nielsen TV ratings and note viewership has fallen off the cliff. Gallop polls show the News Media credibility
is fighting Congress for the least trusted of American institutions.
In the fifty-four years I have been eligible to vote there
have been eleven presidents, Kennedy – Johnson – Nixon – Ford – Carter – Reagan
– Bush Sr – Clinton – Bush Jr – Obama – Trump.
Six Republicans and five Democrats.
Only four served a full two terms. Three smoked pot as if that is a big deal. Six graduated from the Ivy League which has
now controlled the American Presidency for thirty straight years, and that might be a big deal.
As for me, I am the embodiment of diversity. For eight years I was a Democrat, a
Republican for eighteen years, and a Registered Independent going on thirty
years. From my perspective, it was hard
to tell the difference between the two parties, other than their meaningless
political platforms.
Now I want to apologize to my native home state of Iowa,
safely located in the Midwest, the American heartland. You are under invasion from the ever-growing
herd of Democratic candidates and will be for the next nineteen months.
The avalanche of presidential candidates
comes on the heels of the last presidential election where nearly twenty
candidates competed. Oh, and they bring
with them those dastardly fake news crews, political pundits and professional
politicians.
You see poor Iowa is host to the first major vote in the
presidential primary election, the legendary Iowa caucuses. For the past two years since the last
presidential election Iowa has been inundated with five hundred-year floods, quite
an anomaly for a natural disaster. It was
also inundated by people running for president in 2016 and now they are off and
running for the 2020 campaign.
Just the two major parties have now offered nearly fifty
candidates, with over thirty for the 2020 slugfest, to win the hearts, minds
and pocketbooks of those good people and unsuspecting Iowa Hayseeds. That means there have been nearly as many
candidates in just two elections as the total number of presidents in our
nation’s history.
 |
| It really was a swamp! |
People I met from around the world always marveled at all the
choices available to American consumers, but fifty presidential candidates defy
logic. Bear in mind that does not
include the third-party radical fringe candidates also on the ballot.
American voters have to find their way through a lot of smoke
and fog to pick the right person. Iowans
will be the first to make their mark in our election Olympics and fear not, they
will be up to the task.
When caucus day comes Monday, February 3rd, 2020 it
will be the first indication of who actual voters are backing, not who the overly
ambitious and biased reporters and anchors are telling them to back.
I am betting on those Hayseeds to set the record straight for
our national debate. Will it be the anti-establishment Action Hero Trump or the consummate establishment Bobblehead Biden?
Stay tuned…
