great - again?
Thu Jul 14 11:38:56 EDT 2016Make America great again!
There's an implicit assumption that America was great before. America was never great for a lot of people. If your people were here before the European onslaught, and were driven off your ancestral lands and ravaged by exotic diseases, America stopped being great for you. If your people were brought here in shackles against their will and treated as property, America was not great for you. If you were female and had far fewer options for all aspects of your life, America was not meeting its promise. If you were in a religious minority, or a racial minority, or a gender-orientation minority, and there was no real recourse to the mistreatments you experienced, America was not great for you.
The "again" of "Make America great again" is not something that a significant (and growing) part of this nation wants.
It's not like the President can make America great again. Our political system is designed to limit the power of any individual. The American who's going to make America great is the one who commercializes safe nuclear fusion and makes energy clean and laughably cheap. Or the one who cures cancer, or obesity, velc. Or who figures out how to get us out of using cars to go anywhere more than 1/10 of a mile (0.161km) away. Or who leads a successful cult of equality.
And what is it with the Bernie Sanders supporters who refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton? Do they want a President Trump? There's only 2 real possibilities with our system, and if you refuse to accept the next-best you're going to get the worst.
There's talk of going 3rd-party and supporting Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. I've mentioned in past years that the Green Party is my best fit, but I don't vote Green because my strategic vote has to go to whoever has the best chance to beat the Republican candidate, i.e. to the Democratic candidate.
I've stopped hearing talk of a 3rd-party split on the Republican side for the people who can't stomach Trump. I can't understand the vitriolic hatred so many people have for Hillary, but if they don't want Trump either they really have no choice. If they do get another candidate, all they'll do is split the Republican vote; they might ensure that Trump doesn't win, but they won't win either. (Thank you, Ross Perot; damn you, Ralph Nader.) Keep in mind that there's a lot of logistics to even getting on the ballot, and many Nth-party candidates aren't even on the ballot in every state/territory.
What would be (frightening but) interesting is having alternative candidates to both Hillary and Donald, splitting both major parties' votes. And how does that play out in the Electoral College?
(And why is it called a 3rd Party when there's already more than 3?)
Monday 01:04
Ohio governor (and eliminated Presidential candidate) John Kasich is not going to the Republican Convention, even though it's in Cleveland. Sour grapes? More likely the deep disrespect for Donald Trump from the Republican establishment.
Tuesday 00:59
Wow, BBC News just lifted several passages from Melania Trump's speech at the Republican convention tonight. They're nearly verbatim quotes from Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech. I guess whoever wrote Melania's speech thinks her audience won't overlap with Michelle's audience.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what is plagiarism?
NPR: Section Of Melania Trump's Monday Speech Closely Imitates Michelle Obama In 2008
Michelle Obama, 2008Melania Trump, 2016
And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values:From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values
like, you work hard for what you want in life;that you work hard for what you want in life.
that your word is your bond;That your word is your bond
that you do what you say you're going to do;and you do what you say and keep your promise.
that you treat people with dignity and respect,That you treat people with respect.
even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them.
They thought and showed me values and morals in their daily life.
And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these valuesThat is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son,
and to pass them onto the next generation,and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow.
because we want our children - and all children in this nation -Because - Because we want our children in this nation
to know that the only limit to the height of your achievementsto know that the only limit to your achievements
is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/822930.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
There's an implicit assumption that America was great before. America was never great for a lot of people. If your people were here before the European onslaught, and were driven off your ancestral lands and ravaged by exotic diseases, America stopped being great for you. If your people were brought here in shackles against their will and treated as property, America was not great for you. If you were female and had far fewer options for all aspects of your life, America was not meeting its promise. If you were in a religious minority, or a racial minority, or a gender-orientation minority, and there was no real recourse to the mistreatments you experienced, America was not great for you.
The "again" of "Make America great again" is not something that a significant (and growing) part of this nation wants.
It's not like the President can make America great again. Our political system is designed to limit the power of any individual. The American who's going to make America great is the one who commercializes safe nuclear fusion and makes energy clean and laughably cheap. Or the one who cures cancer, or obesity, velc. Or who figures out how to get us out of using cars to go anywhere more than 1/10 of a mile (0.161km) away. Or who leads a successful cult of equality.
And what is it with the Bernie Sanders supporters who refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton? Do they want a President Trump? There's only 2 real possibilities with our system, and if you refuse to accept the next-best you're going to get the worst.
There's talk of going 3rd-party and supporting Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. I've mentioned in past years that the Green Party is my best fit, but I don't vote Green because my strategic vote has to go to whoever has the best chance to beat the Republican candidate, i.e. to the Democratic candidate.
I've stopped hearing talk of a 3rd-party split on the Republican side for the people who can't stomach Trump. I can't understand the vitriolic hatred so many people have for Hillary, but if they don't want Trump either they really have no choice. If they do get another candidate, all they'll do is split the Republican vote; they might ensure that Trump doesn't win, but they won't win either. (Thank you, Ross Perot; damn you, Ralph Nader.) Keep in mind that there's a lot of logistics to even getting on the ballot, and many Nth-party candidates aren't even on the ballot in every state/territory.
What would be (frightening but) interesting is having alternative candidates to both Hillary and Donald, splitting both major parties' votes. And how does that play out in the Electoral College?
(And why is it called a 3rd Party when there's already more than 3?)
Monday 01:04
Ohio governor (and eliminated Presidential candidate) John Kasich is not going to the Republican Convention, even though it's in Cleveland. Sour grapes? More likely the deep disrespect for Donald Trump from the Republican establishment.
Tuesday 00:59
Wow, BBC News just lifted several passages from Melania Trump's speech at the Republican convention tonight. They're nearly verbatim quotes from Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech. I guess whoever wrote Melania's speech thinks her audience won't overlap with Michelle's audience.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what is plagiarism?
NPR: Section Of Melania Trump's Monday Speech Closely Imitates Michelle Obama In 2008
Michelle Obama, 2008Melania Trump, 2016
And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values:From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values
like, you work hard for what you want in life;that you work hard for what you want in life.
that your word is your bond;That your word is your bond
that you do what you say you're going to do;and you do what you say and keep your promise.
that you treat people with dignity and respect,That you treat people with respect.
even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them.
They thought and showed me values and morals in their daily life.
And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these valuesThat is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son,
and to pass them onto the next generation,and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow.
because we want our children - and all children in this nation -Because - Because we want our children in this nation
to know that the only limit to the height of your achievementsto know that the only limit to your achievements
is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/822930.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]