Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The Election & Political Quick Takes

The Candidates for the White House in 2016
        Hillary Clinton - She has shown more support for free trade than Donald Trump.  Yeah, outside of that, her acceptance speech trouncing Trump's, and maybe one or two really small issues I find no reason to support her.  Case closed.

       Gary Johnson - I could probably vote for Johnson except for his pro-death position on abortion. There were glimmers of hope during his time as governor of New Mexico, due to his willingness to sign some mildly anti-death legislation (it was not pro-life). I would need to gain some sort of trust for him in regards to protecting life or else I will not be voting for him, and I do not know how it would be possible for him to convince me of his pro-life convictions given that it would seem like political pandering. He appears to support unconstitutional judicial precedent in regards to killing babies, as a result, barring a miracle, he is not a voting option for me.

        Darrell Castle - I do not know very much about Mr. Castle, and will obviously research him further before I vote for him, but currently he and Ted Cruz are the leaders in the clubhouse for whom I will be voting for.  It seems as if he is a pretty Constitutional candidate, which means for me basically a minimum of a 90% agreement level.  One of his main stances is he is the only pro-life candidate running in the general election for president, which, sadly, is pretty accurate (presuming he is pro-life anyways).  Overall, it seems as if he has some very decent political stances and hopefully has specifics to back them up as well.

        Donald Trump - If it wouldn't be for his personal character, his past political history, the 85% chance he is simply running a con game, and his support of a much larger government than I would support, I think I could actually vote for Trump.  So you are saying there is a chance you will vote for him, right?  Because if you do not vote for him, you will actually be voting for Hillary Clinton.  No, actually, barring a miracle, there is no chance that I will be voting for Donald Trump.  In regards to your second point, actually I will not be voting for Donald Trump or for Hillary Clinton, and by not voting for either candidate I will not be supporting either candidate.  I am uncertain as to what brainwashing led you to believe that voting for candidates is limited to the two main party candidates. It would actually be more accurate for you to say that by voting for some other option than Clinton or Trump, I am in fact voting for neither of them (what a thought).
        There are actually alternative candidates, even in the general election, who do not require you to either not participate in the process or to compromise your principles (again, what a thought!).  Why would I choose to vote for Hillary Clinton or one of her largest donors?  It seems like a false choice to me.  If, and when, Trump loses the general election the fault of his loss will not fall upon ideologically driven voters who vote their conscience and principles, it will fall on the man with a very smart brain who simply attacks others.

Results of each Presidential Term
      Hillary Clinton - Another Clinton presidency would likely be more similar to an Obama Administration than to a Bill Clinton Administration, but I think there is hope Clinton could enact legislation that is beneficial to Americans if the Republicans in the House and Senate would get spines.  But since that probably won't happen, I think a Hillary Clinton presidency would result in the furthering of more progressive and Marxist values.  Also, though, I think Clinton is more of a pragmatic individual than Obama, as a result it is possible to send her good legislation and she may sign it if it would improve her political clout and nationwide popularity.

     Gary Johnson - A Johnson presidency would be pretty unparalleled.  I do not believe that a Libertarian has ever been president of the United States and I think the ramifications of a Libertarian would at least be good for making people to think beyond the closed system of the two parties.  I do not believe Mr. Johnson is a good representative of Libertarians and, as a result, he would be a poor standard bearer for the Libertarian movement.

        Darrell Castle - A Castle presidency would also be pretty unparalleled, but it could at least be compared to a few of the first presidents with some similarity.  I am not certain about Castle's persona or modus operendi, but I believe such a presidency would do great things for defending American lives and promoting economic growth.

        Donald Trump - A Trump presidency would likely result in the implosion of the Republican Party (which would largely be a good thing) and the repudiation of Conservatism amongst many individuals.  A Trump presidency probably has the greater opportunity for good for America - as compared to Hillary Clinton - but it also has the greater opportunity for bad for America - and it has no opportunity for great, just in case you were wondering.  It all depends upon whether seeing a man only concerned with himself would lead people to realize that principles should be the foundation of a candidate or if the man with a smart brain is only an embodiment of a political party.  Regardless though, the likelihood of a Trump presidency is currently only at about an 11% chance of happening.

A Few Notes about Ted Cruz's Campaign
  1. Cruz spoke too highly of Trump early on in the campaign.  
  2. Cruz signed the GOP's endorsement pledge - even when there was an aligning of both the politically expedient thing to do and the morally right thing for Cruz to do to not sign the pledge.
  3. Cruz did not attack Carson for his claims after Iowa, instead Cruz simply apologized. Apologizing can often be a good thing, but it is not always the right thing to do, especially when you did effectively nothing wrong.  Additionally, in this cycle of the GOP primary the American people were not looking for an Apologizer and Chief, they were looking for a Commander and Chief.
  4. A decent portion of Evangelicals are not truly principled and some Evangelicals are not even Christians.
  5. Cruz lost the GOP Primary because Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham partially supported him. Actually, I am just kidding this was a reason why Cruz lost the GOP Primary, but the two halfway endorsing Ted Cruz was quite hilarious.
  6. Having Fiorina as a running mate was mainly a rearrangement of the chairs on the Titanic.  Possibly it convinced a few people one way or another, but mostly it was a non-factor.  
  7. A somewhat large ending factor of the Cruz Campaign was his seeming alliance with John Kasich. While I think it would have in some ways been tactically intelligent to divide and conquer against Trump, I do not think such a strategy should have been pursued.  The seeming alliance between Cruz and Kasich smelled of GOP elitism, even though Cruz is the antitheses of Republican elitism (there was a lot of irony throughout the GOP Primary process).
  8. I do not think that Cruz falling, in some ways, to Trump's level was a problem.  Except that Trump is better at the name-calling game than most people, so Cruz possibly should have kept to the high ground.  Regardless, though, it was good to see some vitriol from Cruz regarding a morally repugnant character and, as far as I know, all of Cruz's attacks were actually accurate, unlike Trump's attacks.
Random Quick Thoughts
  1. I find it somewhat incredible the U.S.A. has not suffered more terrorist attacks that it has in the last sixteen years. 
  2. Possible names for a new party that could be an alternative to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party: The Values Party.  The Constitution Party.  The Prudent Party.  The Liberty Party.  The Autonomy Party.  The Principles Party.  The Founder's Party.  The Virtuous Party.  The Justice Party.  The Integrity Party.  The Foundational Party.  Currently, I am leaning towards The Constitution (though it's taken), Liberty,  or Principles Party.
  3. I find it humorous how Obama's approval rating is going up the longer that Trump and Clinton are dominating the news coverage - to the general public, Obama seems somewhat tepid and sane in comparison to Trump and Clinton. 
  4. Did pro-lifers entirely lose the argument of the framing of the word abortion and other terminology, such as right to life, rights of the mother, and right to privacy?
  5. I think possibly the best president of the last fifty years is Bill Clinton, thanks to the Republican legislature during his presidency. During Clinton's term he enacted a number of socially prudent and economically strengthening policies. Unlike Reagan, he did not sign amnesty legislation or no-fault divorce legislation. While I think President Regan did some decent things as president, I certainly do not revere his term in office as much as most Republicans revere it.
  6. Republicans have lost the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 presidential races, soon it will be 6 of the last 7. When will Republicans learn citizens like to have actual differences between the candidates? If there are no differences between the two individuals, then the candidates will be framed by the media, the most likable candidate, and the candidate who connects with peoples' emotions the best. 
  7. Donald Trump's "horrible" comment about abortion was not actually all that horrible to me. I think it makes sense for a woman to be punished for murdering her child.  Would it be right for a mother to murder her three-year-old son or daughter?  Of course not.  Why is it legal for a mother to murder her three-month-old son or daughter in her womb?  Also, Trump provided some good gallows-humor (pretty literally) in his attempt to explain "specifics" about his "belief".  (And this is not to say that some mothers do not feel remorse for killing their child, of course some mothers do feel remorse and are punished for their actions in that way. But similarly, some murderers feel remorse for killing their sibling, this does not mean that the murderers should not be punished.)   
  8. Currently, the United States has a 3.81 trillion dollar budget and the United States is 18 trillion dollars in debt.  Presently the United States makes a 7% payment on national debt each year. Also, the U.S. spends 46% of its budget on Social Security & Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP payments. The typical bureaucratic talk in the government usually revolves around the 14% of "other" discretionary spending. Meanwhile, the other 86% of government is completely ignored.  On the other side of the balance sheet, 15% of U.S. revenue came in the form of printing money and selling federal bonds to foreign governments - sounds like a very reasonable method of obtaining money to me (or not). 
  9. There is no middle ground with abortion. Either abortion removes a glob of tissue or a life. The child cannot be partially alive. Why do some people, take Donald Trump a decade ago for instance, think abortion is a bad thing, yet they support abortion? Either abortion should be freeing for the women committing it or abortion is a murder of an innocent child, there is no logical position where you can hate abortion, yet accept it - unless you support legalized murder, which, I suppose, is what a fair portion of pro-murder individuals' do indeed support.
  10. Stare Decisis and other such judicial precedents have set a new standard which is opposed to Constitutional rulings.  I think this, due to semi-Constitutional judges typically falling back to Stare Decisis in their decisions, while liberal judges pick and choose when they want to follow Stare Decisis and when they desire to follow where their feelings lead them.
Thanks for reading.

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