The Melchizedek Chronicles – A Sacrifice for Christmas and New Years that asks too much of mere Mortals?

How about

we ask ALL our politicians

to give up

Hate for Christmas - 
and the new year!!!

Racism, Discrimination, Inequality, Judgment, or Bias - the Causes, Conditions, or Results of Something Worse?

As the presidential election campaign heats up, racism seems to be interjected over and over again.  The result of rampant polarization, it is a term being manipulated and misused by the news media and political pundits.  To brand someone a racist while failing to apply due process to the claim is an act ignorance of the law itself. 

When it comes to judging racism in America, when did MSNBC and CNN become the custodians and enforcers of racial equality in America?  For a couple of news services who operate under FCC licenses from the government you would think they have assumed the role of the Justice Department and the Courts along with prosecutor and jury.

The cable news media in America has become the Kangaroo Court of First resort for select groups of citizens though it has no Constitutional basis for such actions, it is not part of their FCC license, and there is no liability for the volumes of lies they may broadcast in order to control or manufacture news.

The phrase "rush to judgment" means ignoring the judicial process and the Constitutional safeguards inherent in our system of justice.  Our Constitution requires such a process to protect people from the abuses of unregulated justice.  It also directs that a person is innocent until proven guilty by the judicial system.

We all know our judicial system is filled with legalese doubletalk and gobble de gook in order to intimidate the public, provide jobs to our law school grads, and overload the circuits of our news media.  In this way the innocent can be convicted, the guilty can be protected, and the lawyers can join the country club.

When you add to this already rather dismal system the mouthpieces and talking heads for every non-profit (most certainly including preachers and churches) dedicated to protecting the social interests of our citizens from the predator practices of our legal institutions (law enforcement),  manipulation by our financial institutions, and discrimination by everyone else, you have a recipe for sure failure.

So, we now have our politicians, preachers, prosecutors, and press, the latter the procrastinators and perpetrators of the news media whose very jobs, ratings, and profits depend on perpetuating pipe dreams on the public.  How many special interests does it take to protect the public interest?

Excuse me, does anyone besides me see a problem here?  Polls show people do not trust these groups.  Polls show people trust anyone but these groups to accomplish anything.  So, why are the people dependent on these same groups to protect them, advise them, or speak on their behalf?

Too many of these people operate under the old theory that if you don't like or can't stand the truth, then change it.  That ancient philosophy is what has kept civilization from getting beyond the Neanderthal age all these millennia.  Sometimes it seems we have more in common with such barbarian behavior than with what one might expect from the evolution of civilization.

In short, people are fed a steady stream of lies, distortion, or misinformation to keep us apart, distrustful of different races, hateful of other religions, suspicious of motives and to convince us anyone of any other color is out to take what you got.

So, here are a few truths that may help you penetrate the fog.  First about grand juries, everyone has an opinion about them but few speak the truth.  Here is part of what New York state law says about the grand jury process.

New York State

GRAND JUROR’S HANDBOOK

THE ROLE OF THE GRAND JURY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

The grand jury is an arm of the court. It is not an agent of the prosecutor or the police. A grand jury does not decide whether or not a person has been proven guilty. That is the trial jury's job. The grand jury decides whether or not a person should be formally charged with a crime or other offense. The grand jury makes that decision based on evidence presented to it by the prosecutor, who also instructs the grand jury on the law. The grand jury's decision must be based on the evidence and on the law.

In general, the grand jury makes one of three decisions:

A. The grand jury may vote to formally accuse someone of a crime. This accusation is called an “indictment,” also known as a “bill” which is short for “bill of indictment.”

B. The grand jury may vote to dismiss the charges, also known as a “no-bill.”

C. The grand jury may direct the prosecutor to file an information accusing the person of an offense less serious than a felony.

There are also rare circumstances where a grand jury recommends that a case should be sent to Family Court or where the grand jury makes a report to the court.

WHY WE HAVE GRAND JURIES

The use of trial juries (also called petit juries) and grand juries goes back approximately 800 years. Beginning around 1215 A.D., both types of juries were used in England. The grand jury made the formal accusation, known as a “bill of indictment” or “presentment.” The trial jury decided whether the accusation was proven.

The grand jury is included in the United States Constitution and the New York State Constitution. In New York State, a person cannot be brought to trial for a felony unless that person has been indicted by a grand jury.

The grand jury has an awesome responsibility. It uses its power both as a sword and as a shield: a sword to accuse or indict those whom there is reason to believe have committed crimes; a shield to protect the innocent against unfounded accusations.

                      

Hum, a grand jury does not decide if a person is guilty or innocent.  A grand jury can be a sword or a shield to accuse or indict or to protect the innocent.  Don't hear many media or "experts" saying this, they just want a conviction which no grand jury can provide.

Personally, I think these tragic events taking place are not rampant racism smoldering below the surface of society but are more symptomatic of the unequal economic opportunity plaguing our nation.  First, why are cops involved in these incidents?  Are they are trying to stop criminal activity or are they enforcing stupid laws of the government.

Take the tragic case of Eric Garner in New York City.    In New York, the city and state wanted more tax revenue, so 60% of the cost of cigarettes is now taxes.  Imagine what would happen if you paid 60% of your income to corrupt governments.

Well the cigarette tax is like the gas tax, it does not care what your skin color may be or how much money you may have, it is the epitome of equality, the poor and the super rich pay exactly the same tax, even if the poor have no money, no jobs and no hope.

Therefore, unscrupulous people buy cigarettes out of state where governmental greed is not prevalent and bring them to the poor parts of town to sell them on the streets without the onerous taxes but for a fee.  Of course, the rich just send their jets to a country where there are no taxes on cigarettes to feed their addiction.

When the city needs more money to fund corruption they go after the citizens cheating on taxes and for the cost of lost cigarette tax a dead body lies on the ground.  Why did the government order the police to enforce tax collection?  Isn't that the job of tax collectors?

As for Ferguson, Missouri, where Michael Brown was killed, the entire city is trapped in economic despair, like so many parts of so many cities around the nation.  Abraham Lincoln once said all people were not equal, but all people must have equal opportunity.  They still don't.

However, unequal opportunity is not just a racial issue.  There are poor whites just like there are poor every other race.  Where poverty breeds there is attendant crime.  Those trapped in poverty are also trapped in an endless circle of crime which leads to hopelessness, which leads to envy, and then to revenge against those who have what the poor person does not have.

The effort to break the cycle of poverty has been one of very slow progress, dependent on many uncontrollable forces like the world economy, honesty in government officials, etc., etc.  The victims and the perpetrators of crimes are generally from the same race no matter what the professional mouthpieces tell you.

Contrary to what some of the mouthpieces have been saying to the media, the jails are not just filled with kids busted for petty possession of marijuana.  Many violent criminals are incarcerated, for victimizing their own people.

When our leaders get past pointing fingers and making judgment on people, and police are people too, then maybe we can get to the serious problem of creating economic opportunity, meaningful economic opportunity, and get on with solving our real problem of poverty for all races and genders.  Poverty, the underlying cause of economic inequality that results from lack of economic opportunity.

The Melchizedek Chronicles – America - The Enemy from Within - Part 2 Politics

2. Politics, Political Parties and Self-Preservation

First of all, my perspective regarding politics is most likely different than yours.  Since my earliest memories I was fascinated by politics and the people who ran for elective office.

In my home in the Midwest when people dedicated their time to public service it was considered honorable, patriotic, and something everyone should aspire to if they had an opportunity to help influence and improve the “people’s” government.

The vast majority of elected office holders hold part time and very low paying positions considering the magnitude of the impact on the people.  Yet some people had a combination of the necessary knowledge, commitment, foresight, compassion, common sense, and even a bit of ego to pursue this chance to help others.

My father was a typical World War II vet who, after returning from the war, finished college on the GI bill, got into the family business, and made time to seek political office.  His early campaigns for city council were my introduction to politics when I was six years old.

To me the challenge in politics was harnessing the power of government to actually shape the future, a better future, which required knowing everything about how politics and government actually got things done.  That power could generate constructive change and better address the needs of our future.

Change is always difficult, much more so when you had to achieve it through a massive bureaucracy like the federal government, and get it approved by a very diverse group of elected politicians at the local, state or federal government.

Since I began my political odyssey there have been twelve presidents, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump.  I devoured every scrap of information I could find out about them.  What were their priorities, influences, philosophies, policies, the books they read, and on and on.

Unlike many people today, from Eisenhower to Trump I followed them in real time, not from history books, newspaper archives or searches on Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Wikipedia or other sources.

I lived the history most people of today never experienced, and if they had few had the passion for politics.  While living through the careers of twelve presidents you see far more than a footnote in a history book.  You see the good, the bad, the hopeful, the tragic, the success, and the failures as they happened from beginning to eventual consequences.

It is a sobering experience.

My focus was always “what do the people need from our Constitutional government.”  Of course, there were often conflicting views between candidates and political parties, but the underlying purpose of government was to protect the rights of all people, assure equal opportunity for all, and defend our safety and security.

One must focus on the needs of the people, not the whims of the politicians.  Recognize the diversity of cultures, religions, political philosophies and expectations within the electorate.  Insure that whatever actions are taken, they can be financed by the government.  Finally, do not waste valuable time fighting for causes or candidates that will never succeed.

The dynamics of government change requires finding the Truth in what is needed, justified and fair in the eyes of the people.  Finding Truth means striking a balance in meeting the interests of the people and finding the money to do it, while knowing it s possible to succeed.

By nature, Constitution, experience and history we are a nation of compromise, balancing all interests for the good of all people.  Where does that leave us today?

Politicians

We are polarized, pigheaded, hateful, uncompromising, rigidly aligned philosophically, and have our own ideas on what is good for the people.  Much of today’s electorate and news media is clueless about what makes government work.

Many of our politicians are far more interested in their own press coverage than focusing on the needs of the people.  Money, big money drives action in Congress by pouring millions, even billions of dollars into campaign war chests and filtering it through the maze of special interest groups demanding that their interest is right for America.

Younger politicians with little knowledge of the inner-working of the legislative process or executive branch have no sense of history nor experience, yet they already know everything.  They get exceptional press coverage and actually believe it is because of their expertise.

As a member of the news media and former reporter, I can tell you the Truth is a far different story.  News media and politicians alike are bought and sold by special interests and the rich.  If some media outlet gives you coverage, it is because they can use you to further their interests.  Right now, the top interest of the media is discrediting Trump.  Truth, honesty and integrity are all casualties of the media feeding frenzy and politicians on TV are the puppets for the media cause, bringing down Trump.

As a former congressional staffer, several times over, I once heard legendary, brilliant and beloved by both political parties House Speaker Tip O’Neill (Democrat) share with the newly elected congressmen of both parties some sage advice he borrowed from President Abraham Lincoln.  It was indicative of Tip’s genius and mastery of the art of compromise.  He said:

“Do not be in a hurry to stand up and speak in the Halls of Congress and before the press.  It is better people not know what you know, than know what you don’t know.”    

Without the knowledge of history, and experience within the system, which includes experience in matters of decorum like respecting people regardless of their beliefs, and knowing the rules and protocols, you are a voice in the wilderness and a puppet for the biased news media and special interests.

Fueling dissent and animosity, embracing disrespect, and spouting empty promises may give you temporary attention, but the empty promises, boasts and threats will only get you on the scrap heap of failed politicians in the long run.

Political Parties

As for political parties, they only make governing more difficult.  In the early twentieth century the Democrats and Republicans finally got a stranglehold on our political system.  While all kinds of political parties and candidates may get on the ballots in some big cities and states, only a Democrat or Republican can ever win in our broken-down political system.

Ironically, neither party is mentioned in our Constitution.  Once upon a time the majority party took a bi-partisan approach to legislating but that ended in the Reagan-O’Neill era.  From working together our parties have devolved into radical opposition to compromise and often irrational condemnation of each other’s policies because of ideological ideology differences.

Even more ironic, in spite of the stark differences between the party platforms, neither party, once in power, has ever come close to implementing their sacred ideology through our system of government.  Party platforms are dead upon arrival and are never more than an empty campaign promise forgotten the day after the election.

Maybe the news media, political parties and politicians think their platform is important, but you have not fooled the people.  The vast majority of the people do not believe political promises and know the platforms are window dressing for the campaign.  They know the same of news media coverage.

The Electorate

Over fifty percent of the eligible voters in America are so disgusted or disinterested in our political system they refuse to register to vote.  Long ago they realized Independent voters are disenfranchised by discriminatory laws.  The two-party system has failed to energize the voter.

So, they sit out the election.

Yet even among the other fifty percent that do register to vote, enthusiasm is struggling.  Voter participation in the past three presidential elections was 62.3 percent in 2008, 57.8 percent in 2012, and 61.4 percent in 2016.  In other words, about 40 percent of our registered voters did not even vote.

Of those that did vote, for the first time in modern history there were more Independent voters than Democrat or Republican.  Do not expect any action any time soon to fix the discrimination against the new majority of Independents.  Democrat and Republican parties both have self-preservation before the good of the people.

Right now, the two parties are protected by restrictive state laws regarding the rights of Independents.  It is a result of the state party affiliates taking orders from their national parties.

However, the Silent Majority or registered and unregistered Independents who sit back and watch the political circus will one day be silent no more.  Wen they have had enough, they will register and fix the corrupt campaign finance laws, break the two-party stranglehold on our election system, and they will hold the wayward news media accountable for their lies, untruths and fake news.

For the record, the Truth tells us no presidential candidate in modern times can declare their election represents a mandate to speak for the people when only twenty-five percent of the eligible voters vote for the winning presidential candidate.

Believe it or not, with fifty percent of the eligible voters refusing to register, and forty percent of eligible voters choosing not to vote, no recent president has been elected with anyway near a fifty percent plurality.  Obama and Trump both were elected by twenty-five percent of the eligible vote, a substantial minority of eligible voters no matter what kind of math you use.

The People of our One Nation, under God, are watching.

Good people want discussion, not discord.

They want cooperation, not confrontation.

They want civility, not calamity.

They want compassion, not conspiracy.

They want compromise, not chaos.

They want progress, not promises.

They want results, not rhetoric.

Mostly they simply want the Truth.

And that is what God wants too.

A Sacrifice for Lent that asks too much of mere Mortals?

.

How about

we ask ALL our politicians

to give up

Hate for Lent!!!

.

An Election Analysis by Actual People - Not Politicians, Pollsters, Press, or Pundits - Part 5

.

One of the pleasures of publishing the Coltons Point Times is the opportunity to share with you the comments of my readers, the everyday persons working to survive and filling their life with everything they love.  A series of post-election analysis will be offered from contributing writers sharing their thoughts on the election.

They are not seasoned journalists but they are dedicated, patriotic Americans.  At times it is refreshing to hear honest observations rather than biased news so do not expect to hear from any professional politicians, pollsters, press, or pundits.

I want to thank the contributing writers and hope we can all learn more about each other if we will just take the time to read.

This Contributing Author post is hosted on the Coltons Point Times.  Contributor authors control their own work and the views do not reflect those of the Coltons Point Times.  If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email in the comment section.

A Report on the Election from the People's Republic of Johnson County Iowa

By Charles Kapp

November 14, 2016

I live in Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa, and a place the rest of the state sneeringly calls "the People's Republic of Johnson County."  I grew up in Southeast Iowa, not in Johnson County, however, and felt I had a reasonable grip on my state's electorate. 

For the last three months I have been telling my Iowa spouse, my Iowa offspring, my Iowa friends, and pretty much any who would listen that the Trump campaign would implode in a debacle that would do harm to the Republican party that would take them decades to undo.  Watching returns the other night on most of the networks it was pretty clear that my wildly mistaken analysis was shared by many.

The Donald made good on his boast.  The upset was "Uge."  Iowans returned their all-Republican-less-one delegation to Congress and supported Trump.  We are a red state.

I can only assume that votes for Donald Trump were of the "at least he isn't one of them" stripe and a vote against a woman whose bad press made that act an easy pleasure.  "He can't screw it up any more than they have" is profoundly naive.  Or is it pure cynicism?  Or just giving up? 

What it is, first and foremost, is sexist.  The question became "Are you going to support that nagging wench that we can't trust because right-wing quasi-news media tell us so or the strong 'broad shoulders' of the man?"

I have spoken with countless Iowans who I now suspect planned to vote Trump from the get-go.  A few were vocal supporters but most breasted their cards.  These are fine, loving people.  They do not want others to suffer.  But they do feel threatened.

A changing world continues to whittle away at our livelihoods.  People of color are encroaching on our white melting pot.  Our nation has actually been successfully attacked.  Violence, while hardly on the scale of so many places in the world, moves ever closer to us all.  And so, we must need more guns to protect ourselves.  We must need a strong, blustery man to protect us. 

An Election Analysis by Actual People - Not Politicians, Pollsters, Press, or Pundits - Part 4

.

One of the pleasures of publishing the Coltons Point Times is the opportunity to share with you the comments of my readers, the everyday persons working to survive and filling their life with everything they love.  A series of post-election analysis will be offered from contributing writers sharing their thoughts on the election.

They are not seasoned journalists but they are dedicated, patriotic Americans.  At times it is refreshing to hear honest observations rather than biased news so do not expect to hear from any professional politicians, pollsters, press, or pundits.

I want to thank the contributing writers and hope we can all learn more about each other if we will just take the time to read.

This Contributing Author post is hosted on the Coltons Point Times.  Contributor authors control their own work and the views do not reflect those of the Coltons Point Times.  If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email in the comment section.

Just Relax and Feel Good About the Future

By Ed O'Connor
November 14, 2016

I have been thinking about my impressions and thoughts after the election. Today it hit me while smoking a cigar on my back patio. I realized I was no longer worrying about what kind of second amendment attack will the Federal Government unleash tomorrow.

Nor was I worried about what person they try to put on the Supreme Court, what kind of regulations are they try to implement to stop Fracking here in Colorado, or what we do about boarder security.

Perhaps somebody will stand up and tell some of these foreign leaders where to go and not mince words.  Lastly, John Bolton may get the position he truly deserves.

Now it is the progressives turn to worry about all of this stuff.  I finally felt there was peace at last in my mind. Maybe it will not last, but it sure felt good this evening.

I guess this pretty much sums up how I have felt this last few days. I was not looking forward to the future prior to the election as I felt I knew what road Clinton was going to take us down.

Now the road seems wide open like the front range out here in the Colorado foothills. I only pray Donald Trump makes some bold moves and gets us rolling down that open road.

Maybe it is this sense of relief I feel that I can just relax and feel good about the future.

An Election Analysis by Actual People - Not Politicians, Pollsters, Press, or Pundits - Part 3

.

One of the pleasures of publishing the Coltons Point Times is the opportunity to share with you the comments of my readers, the everyday persons working to survive and filling their life with everything they love.  A series of post-election analysis will be offered from contributing writers sharing their thoughts on the election.

They are not seasoned journalists but they are dedicated, patriotic Americans.  At times it is refreshing to hear honest observations rather than biased news so do not expect to hear from any professional politicians, pollsters, press, or pundits.

I want to thank the contributing writers and hope we can all learn more about each other if we will just take the time to read.

This Contributing Author post is hosted on the Coltons Point Times.  Contributor authors control their own work and the views do not reflect those of the Coltons Point Times.  If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email in the comment section.

Preamble 2016

Michael Wm. Krafka

November 14, 2016

We the People, in order to form a more perfect union, have some serious work to do.  We are not, at this point in history, beset by an occupying external power.  Rather, we are dealing with what the business community calls “disruptive change” because of this presidential election.  The foundational fissures have been opening over the years from the lingering frustration that economic well being remained out of reach for the vast majority of hard working Americans.  They have watched their incomes stagnating and declining in purchasing power while the corporate profits they delivered through their hard work continue to flow to those at the very top of the economic ladder.  These pent up frustrations have vented and found a singular and unusually disruptive voice.  That voice, through the unexpected co-opting of a major political party, was freely elected into power by marginally less than a plurality of “We the People” who cared to exercise their right to vote.  This duly elected voice makes bold promises he guarantees to deliver, apparently through the messianic force of his being.  Those promises are paired with a corresponding and alarming set of threats to re-impose the centuries-old restrictions to freedom that our Constitution explicitly protects against.

Specifically, establishing Justice and insuring domestic Tranquility may once again be made subject to determining if one is of a preferred race or religion, potentially subject to government verification. Our next president has called for racial profiling by law enforcement. His desire to impose these restrictions was regularly in evidence as he loudly incited mob rule at his political rallies.
  

To provide for the common defense with an all-volunteer military is a bipartisan congressional responsibility of adequate funding and a militarily strategic matter for the commander-in-chief to deploy that military in the most responsible manner with declarations of war approved by congress.  Today, we are taken aback by cavalier talk of nuclear proliferation to our non-nuclear allies, and, compounding this alarm, by his questioning why we should not consider actually using our nuclear arsenal.  This recklessness not only jeopardizes our freedoms but our very being.

This seventy-year-old has already lived on the nuclear precipice in 1962 during the Cuban missile crises as a high school student in a military academy, certainly not oblivious to that national existential threat. The entire nation was transfixed on its black and white televisions at that time to watch President Kennedy’s address on the developing situation as he cautioned against initiating nuclear war, where the “fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth..”  In the White House, the president was counseling with his Joint Chiefs, some of whom were favoring a strike as they opposed the option of a naval blockade.  I would refer the new presidential advisers to Robert Kennedy’s memoir, Thirteen Days, where he recalled:

“One member of the Joint Chiefs, for example, argued that we could use our nuclear weapons, on the basis that our adversaries would use theirs against us in an attack.”

Apparently, our president-elect has been contemplating this dangerous logic based upon the questions he has raised.  Robert Kennedy continues his observation:

 “I thought, as I listened, of the many times that I had heard the military take positions which, if wrong, had the advantage that no one would be around in the end to know.” 

As they say, elections have consequences – God forbid.
  

The political divide on how we should promote the general Welfare is foremost in the minds of those who voted for this celebrity business mogul, trusting that he will help them reach a level of prosperity they know they deserve but are unable to achieve in the current political-economic climate.  Unfortunately, for them, his aligned party has consistently stacked the deck against the average wage earner.

He and his party continue to champion financial deregulation, which was at the core of the 2008 financial crisis, allowing predatory lending to run unchecked.  The poster-child of entrenched income inequality is how the bailed out Wall Street banks paid millions in employee bonuses while accepting taxpayer-provided TARP funds to cover their losses.  Citigroup reportedly rewarded over 700 employees with at least $1 million in bonuses while losing nearly $19 billion during that year.

Yes, the investment banks largely repaid those government loans, but those executives directly responsible for causing the worst recession since the Great Depression continued receiving increased incomes and bonuses.  As a result, the middle class lost their jobs and their homes, triggering the global financial crisis, a crisis the president-elect said he was openly rooting for HYPERLINK "http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/19/politics/donald-trump-2006-hopes-real-estate-market-crashes/"to engineerHYPERLINK "http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/19/politics/donald-trump-2006-hopes-real-estate-market-crashes/" HYPERLINK "http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/19/politics/donald-trump-2006-hopes-real-estate-market-crashes/"a HYPERLINK "http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/19/politics/donald-trump-2006-hopes-real-estate-market-crashes/"personal financial windfallHYPERLINK "http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/19/politics/donald-trump-2006-hopes-real-estate-market-crashes/".   

However, by 2008 the middle class and the poor had already found themselves dealt out of the game for some time.  In the forward to his fortieth anniversary edition of The Affluent Society, economist John Kenneth Galbraith discussed what might have changed from his 1958 observations with a perspective of forty years later.  On the attitudes of achieving affluence, he notes:

“Forty years ago I did not fully foresee the extent to which affluence would come to be perceived as a matter of deserved personal reward and thus fully available to the poor, were they only committed to the requisite effort.”

Galbraith’s 1998 observation was just taking root.  Fourteen years later the 2012 GOP convention championed the attitude of affluence equating to personal and moral worth.  Then VP-nominee Paul Ryan coined the term “hammock of dependency” to demean the initiative of those still struggling to recover from the Wall Street catastrophe, or who looked to find a leg up in life.

He insinuated those who were down and out lacked the dreams for themselves and their children, favoring to live out their lives in government-subsidized poverty.  He would divide the worthiness of Americans into two classes, “the makers, and the takers.” 

Presidential nominee Mitt Romney put the nail in his electoral coffin with his infamous “47%” address to wealthy donors, charging that the lower income group would never accept livelihoods out of poverty, apart from government aid.  Those nominees that year found new ways to shrink the Republican tent that resulted in their defeat. 

Yet, this “47%” now makes up some of the electorate throwing their support behind this new outsider and his party, and they may ultimately find that they have voted against their own best interests.  The GOP, again in the Oval Office after eight years and with continued control of congress, will primarily pursue tax cuts first before programs to drive growth.  This will continue to put the middle class at the bottom of the heap.

Speaker Ryan’s Medicare and Medicaid restructuring will first and foremost directly impact senior citizens “by raising out-of-pocket costs for some and shifting others from traditional Medicare coverage to commercial insurance”, according to a Forbes magazine article.  There has been no disclosure on the amount of offsetting tax credits seniors might receive, along with ambiguity on many other details, which is typical for Ryan-authored proposals.

Then will come the promised large tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations which could spike the national debt by $1HYPERLINK "http://crfb.org/papers/promises-and-price-tags-fiscal-guide-2016-election"1.5HYPERLINK "http://crfb.org/papers/promises-and-price-tags-fiscal-guide-2016-election" trillionHYPERLINK "http://crfb.org/papers/promises-and-price-tags-fiscal-guide-2016-election" over ten years according to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.  Once again, we find the middle class voters who elected this upcoming government left holding the bag to pay the debt.  Par for the course, the net gains from these tax reductions will likely find their way through the loopholes and to the offshore havens that keep the tax rate percentages of the wealthiest lower than 90% of the country.
  

We have yet to see anything from this next president or his congress that would un-rig this game for the people who put them into office.

Now the election is over and the vote count completed.  The voters constitutionally handed the presidency to Trump, the rogue Washington outsider, widely seen as an ethically and morally challenged demagogue.  The numbers, data, and evidence matters as the results are in and we are required to accept them.

Just as climate science confirms the trend of global warming, we, in the global community, largely accept those results.  If a doctor were to diagnose you with a serious illness, not accepting the result would be foolish.  We must accept the results in each of these cases.  However, accepting the results is not the same as saying these results are acceptable.  Illness, climate change, and this election present long-term outcomes that can trend toward the unacceptable and potentially on to cataclysmic unless corrective intervention is applied.  

So how do we now secure the Blessings of Liberty for us and our Posterity, with the promised threats and observed recklessness this election has delivered?  Fortunately, our Constitution has inherent remedies.  Elections are transient events and no single person or party can fail outrageously and then continue in power perpetually.  However, this election’s outcome also conclusively indicates a need to address symptoms of national fracturing.

First, the tribalization of our country has been exacerbated primarily due to the middle class losing out economically.  People are becoming less and less comfortable, not to mention less tolerant, of those not sharing their ethnic heritage. Cable and Internet “news” media outlets have been the primary accelerant to tribalization, seeing an opportunity to drive racial animus as a political tactic against the first African American president.

This was in full force in 2012 with the current president-elect serving as propagandist-in-chief until Obama was re-elected.  The results of the ensuing “autopsy” prescribed by the GOP party chairman recommended more outreach to minorities and more tolerance of the progressive social views of millennials in order to expand the Republican base.  That recommendation lasted up until the 2016 nomination process where the nominee, with his characteristic unreserved vitriol, carved up America into the racial, ethnic, and religious groups to be demonized, monitored, and otherwise dealt with as his supporters cheered his new xenophobia platform

In the end, the GOP did win the Electoral College but has now lost the popular vote in six of the last seven elections, 2004 being the lone exception. This election has been characterized as a “white wash”.  Eventually, the concept of a whites-only firewall to protect Republican candidates is a losing strategy, especially given the outcome of this latest popular vote. (Yes, maybe Bernie would have won it all.)

But this tribalization is of no benefit to any group politically or economically. The entire middle class and those economically below that line need to unite to challenge the policies that will continue to be passed by this new president and his party that, as history has shown, will continue to undercut their well being.      

Secondly, civil discourse has devolved into one-hundred-forty-character road rage.  (Need I point out who champions this method as his favorite form of retribution? Leadership, anyone?). The cure to our divisions will not occur via text, or Facebook, or impulsive, angry and anonymous comments on a newspaper opinion writer’s column. Offering opposing and constructive views without personal insults might be an approach one would typically use if not separated from another by the Cloud. We rarely see this in practice, especially in the political context.

Finally, elections are cyclical, and in two years will come another opportunity for adjustments. The separation of powers defined in our constitution might supply sufficient safeguards in the interim to constrain someone familiar only with unconstrained authority from acting irresponsibly, but this would not be something we should take on faith.

This nation has been said to be an ongoing experiment.  Had the election results been as all the polls mistakenly forecast with Hillary emerging as the winner, then the outcome of that experiment could be easily predicted; we would have potentially endured four more years of congressional gridlock and ongoing investigations of the new president in order to render her ineffective and, perhaps, impeachable.

However, those were not the results and we have cast ourselves into an unforeseen period of disruption. Now, our current experiment can potentially result in resetting many of the controls on which we have historically relied to sustain our national identity as the model of freedom and democracy, and as the world’s most responsible superpower.  By nature, experiments frequently deliver unexpected outcomes.

If we’re fortunate we may get penicillin. NASA crashed several unmanned launches before putting Alan Shepard atop a Redstone rocket.  In this case we have neither a laboratory nor a test launch pad.  This experiment will be done live and in real time.  It requires close monitoring and the readiness for an immediate response if and when things begin to trend toward the detrimental.

About the author:

Mike Krafka is a native of Ottumwa, Iowa and currently resides in the Providence, Rhode Island area.  Mike has a degree in composition from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and a graduate certificate in Business Analytics from Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island.  He has a career over the past thirty years working primarily in the financial industry as a technology executive with a speciality in systems capacity management. Mike is the father of three sons who are musicians and educators in the New York City and Boston areas.