Most Americans generally recognize we do have serious political and social shortcomings in our society. There’s that ever-widening gap between the wealthy and the rest of us. Our education system is underfinanced and antiquated. Our Health Care is too expensive, and is unsatisfactory for many. Infrastructure is crumbling. Racism, homophobia, gender discrimination, and fear of immigrants run rampant. Gun control is out of control. The national media is under attack. The national debt has surged to over 21trillion dollars. Facts and truth become fading memories. Political attitudes are divided and overly contentious. Etc. Of course, much of the cause is often attributed to President Trump!

But let’s get honest here. Face up to the actual underlying cause! Too many Americans are too self-absorbed and lazy to take a studied interest in political issues. Music and sports and such consume far too much of our leisure time. An over-emphasis on escapism is often the order of the day. Less than half generally bother to vote on election days. Therein, lies a real roadblock to overcoming our difficulties. To be fair, let’s admit it, if we look for it, we might find the fly in the ointment. And, of course, it is us! Sure it could be comforting and convenient to place blame elsewhere, but the reality remains that Trump is the symptom and the result, not the source of our dilemmas.

Well then, for the sake of argument, let’s examine: What could we or should we have done better to avoid landing in the disheartening age of Trump? There are a number of factors.

1) Our social consciousness requires some revamping! We tend to expend our energies and efforts more on selfish pursuits in lieu of critical thinking and social understandings. Perhaps as the great highly esteemed broadcaster Walter Cronkite once observed, “We need to find a middle ground between Capitalism and Socialism.” Our love affair with Capitalism may have led us to over-dependence on competition rather than on cooperation or compassion. Hence the willingness of many to unwittingly basically sacrifice their souls to the adoration of master con man Donald J. Trump. However, fortunately, there appears to be an actual measure of optimism here. The childlike, irresponsibly destructive behavior exhibited so far by Trump appears even too much for a populous drugged on consumerism and materialism to handle. It shouldn’t be long before he’s gone! But let’s try not to forget he was a symptom more than a cause!

2) Factor number two! An antiquated electoral system recognized by most, but held in place by vested political interests, flies in the face of true democracy in America. The flaws are numerous!

a. The antiquated, electoral college system probably heads the list. More than once, in the recent past, in the presidential election the winner of the popular vote has lost. In Trump’s case, his “landslide victory” resulted in a 3,000,000 loss in the popular vote count for him. Obviously all states are not given equal representation according to population. The state of California with 40 million residents has exactly the same votes (2) as Rhode Island (population barely 1 million) in the U.S. Senate which is presently judging on the impeachment of Pres. Trump. In a sense, you might say, regarding the Senate, a Rhode Islander has 40 times the voting power as an inhabitant of California! Could something be out of balance here? A constitutional amendment vote is required to fix this!

b. The gerrymandering trick utilized by both the Democratic and Republican parties represents another blight on the democratic process. The party in power at the time will often re-align the borders of the voting districts to favor their own constituents, usually bunching their opponents together in one large district. Since each district sends only one representative to the State Legislature, guess which party gains an undemocratic advantage?

c. Election financing remains the “elephant in the room” affecting the democratic process. The U.S. Supreme Court is not innocent! The Citizen’s United ruling, placed in law by a Republican appointed majority of the judges, allowed wealthy donors to political campaigns to remain anonymous! How’s that for transparency in the democratic process! It may require a change in Court justices to rectify this abomination. (Lots of luck with the recent Trump appointees!)

d. Restricting, or at least, exposing large donors to political campaigns would certainly help. In the somewhat recent past this had been the case. It generally takes about $1,000,000 presently to be viable in running for a seat in Congress. This, of course, gives the large corporations and millionaires a huge advantage in our elections. This could be easily fixed! If we just had a time machine and could return to the past. The government could and should provide financing for candidates that provide sufficient petitioners to back their candidacies. Financial limits should be placed on donations and donors.

e. Voting regulations and rules in our country play a large part in the assault on our democracy. It is generally recognized that politicians play fast and loose establishing rules and regulations regarding eligibility for voting which could favor one or the other side. If I were to attempt to list here the many well documented indiscretions involved in this I would probably run out of paper. We’ I’ll just have to let it suffice here to say that the citizens, the media, the legislatures, the Government, and the courts had better keep a wider eye on this! It might be observed that in most other countries the central governments have the greater authority in these matters.

f. The basic structure of our election processes might fall into question here. The two-party system may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Generally both parties in order to prevail will cater to the conventional wisdom, which in a sense, might hinder the chances of more innovative and modernized approaches to dealing with problems deserving a hearing. Possible solution! Give voters a chance to list a second choice on the ballot which could count if the first one fails. That would give the voter a voice to support new ideas rather than just risk wasting his vote on the “lesser of two evils”. Another approach to better democracy would be to require runoffs between the two top leaders in all elections. Americans have been elected President in the past with less than 50 percent of the vote. Let’s remember, Hitler gained power with only 40 percent!

3) Our educational system is rapidly falling behind. Many other countries are passing us by if you believe assessments offered by the United Nations survey. Actually, the recent election of Donald Trump alone should be sufficient enough to prove that point! Quote the Donald, “I love the uneducated.” It’s not really that difficult to identify the various reasons for our problems with education.

a. Financing the system seems to lie at the root of much of the problem. The individual states and local districts have too great a burden to handle financing on their own. If they raise taxes for the schools, the local tax sources will often seek to find another location where taxes are cheaper. The districts that raise taxes to help education will then often lose revenue rather than gain. Other industrialized counties have been outdoing us in education because they realize that education can be best funded by money produced from the central governments. Serious deficiencies such as class size, teacher salaries, special ed., pre-school, etc., can only be corrected by a much greater influx of money from the Federal Government.

b. Pet projects such as charter schools, championed by Donald Trump and his Department of Education Secretary Betsey Devoss should be abolished! Profit for private interests only debases our education system as it often does with our Health Care. Charter schools generally serve to suck away what little financial blood we have left for public schools. As the previously mentioned, Walter Cronkite, once observed, “socialism as well as capitalism need to have their place in our society.” Let’s get it right! Capitalism for profit and incentive, Socialism for freedom and equality. Bernie and Warren would agree. Education and Health Care should be freeee! Yes, we can afford it.

c. Finally, we have to come to the realization that there is a distinction between education and training. Recently it would appear that our schools have taken a right wing shift towards job training rather than to the humanities. More and more students seem encouraged to seek courses in job training and earning money, than in intellectual enlightenment. Civil service, teaching, logic, critical thinking, psychology, philosophy, history, sociology, have taken a back seat to more financially lucrative crafts like economics, engineering, medicine, law, dentistry, or training for more immediate results like mechanics, construction, agriculture, etc. Capitalism and consumerism seem to be holding the fort. Perhaps if we wish to avoid the future world of Trump, we should be giving more thought to the humanities, lest history should repeat itself!

4) Finally, Isn’t it well past time for the voting public to wake up, and smell the coffee! Get back to the tunes of the promising 60s? It’s “Blowin In The Wind”. “How many times must a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see.” Of course some see only what they want to see. The old-time-religion may not be the answer today. Many tend to feel that they can sit back and let God take care of things rather than get involved. That if they just believe, there will be a good place for them after death. Nothing like wishful thinking!! Yes, the economy appears to be going well. Especially, for the well –to- do! Really, is that all we have to be concerned about? Have we also not bothered to notice that, under Trump, the national debt has ballooned to over $21 trillion! Trump’s tax cuts for the rich hasn’t halted that. Have we forgotten what happened in the Thirties when debt grew out of hand? Yet, when it comes to our president, the damages and dangers we face, may not all be that imaginary! The beat goes on. And the list goes on. Trump’s bigotry, anti-immigrant attitude, hateful tweets, childish and boorish behavior simply sets a poor example for the youth, and a fair measure of disgust for most adults. Furthermore his foreign policy really sucks. He has abandoned the Paris Climate Accord, aborted the Iranian nuclear protection agreement, denounced NATO, alienated our European allies and curried up to many dictatorial regimes! And, of course, he’s presently undergoing impeachment proceeding for placing our national interest at risk with his meddling in the Ukraine. Yes, we could go on and on, but at risk of the reader’s attention span. In conclusion, let’s all remember,
Trump’s been a symptom. We should be the cause in 2020 for a change!

RALPH SHROYER (12-6-19)

Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven

And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Yes, these words typlify the teachings of Jesus in the Bible. Jesus was obviously a socialist. He certainly couldn’t have been a capitalist! So, why did all those “born-again” Christians vote so overwhelmingly for a man who surrounds himself with oil-rich capitalists? Pretty obviously America’s God is not the one in Heaven. Let’s be honest. America’s true God is Hypocrisy!

But wait! Let us not dispare. There is an out. We just need to toss out of the Bible Jesus and the New Testament. And we can go to Numbers, Chapt. 31, King James Version of the Holy Bible. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites’ … And Moses said unto them (The Israelites) … ‘Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that has known man by lying with him.’

Yes, sir! We don’t want no “Turn the other cheek and love thine enemies stuff”. Destructiveles, the Roman God of War – that’s our guy. Get rid of Hypocrisyes. We don’t need any whimpy Jesus messing with our plans. We’ve had a good old war every 20 years since 1776. And we love it.

But let’s get honest here. Face up to the actual underlying cause! Too many Americans are too self-absorbed and lazy to take a studied interest in political issues. Music and sports and such consume far too much of our leisure time. An over-emphasis on escapism is often the order of the day. Less than half generally bother to vote on election days. Therein, lies a real roadblock to overcoming our difficulties. To be fair, let’s admit it, if we look for it, we might find the fly in the ointment. And, of course, it is us! Sure it could be comforting and convenient to place blame elsewhere, but the reality remains that Trump is the symptom and the result, not the source of our dilemmas.

Well then, for the sake of argument, let’s examine: What could we or should we have done better to avoid landing in the disheartening age of Trump? There are a number of factors.

1) Our social consciousness requires some revamping! We tend to expend our energies and efforts more on selfish pursuits in lieu of critical thinking and social understandings. Perhaps as the great highly esteemed broadcaster Walter Cronkite once observed, “We need to find a middle ground between Capitalism and Socialism.” Our love affair with Capitalism may have led us to over-dependence on competition rather than on cooperation or compassion. Hence the willingness of many to unwittingly basically sacrifice their souls to the adoration of master con man Donald J. Trump. However, fortunately, there appears to be an actual measure of optimism here. The childlike, irresponsibly destructive behavior exhibited so far by Trump appears even too much for a populous drugged on consumerism and materialism to handle. It shouldn’t be long before he’s gone! But let’s try not to forget he was a symptom more than a cause!

2) Factor number two! An antiquated electoral system recognized by most, but held in place by vested political interests, flies in the face of true democracy in America. The flaws are numerous!

a. The antiquated, electoral college system probably heads the list. More than once, in the recent past, in the presidential election the winner of the popular vote has lost. In Trump’s case, his “landslide victory” resulted in a 3,000,000 loss in the popular vote count for him. Obviously all states are not given equal representation according to population. The state of California with 40 million residents has exactly the same votes (2) as Rhode Island (population barely 1 million) in the U.S. Senate which is presently judging on the impeachment of Pres. Trump. In a sense, you might say, regarding the Senate, a Rhode Islander has 40 times the voting power as an inhabitant of California! Could something be out of balance here? A constitutional amendment vote is required to fix this!

b. The gerrymandering trick utilized by both the Democratic and Republican parties represents another blight on the democratic process. The party in power at the time will often re-align the borders of the voting districts to favor their own constituents, usually bunching their opponents together in one large district. Since each district sends only one representative to the State Legislature, guess which party gains an undemocratic advantage?

c. Election financing remains the “elephant in the room” affecting the democratic process. The U.S. Supreme Court is not innocent! The Citizen’s United ruling, placed in law by a Republican appointed majority of the judges, allowed wealthy donors to political campaigns to remain anonymous! How’s that for transparency in the democratic process! It may require a change in Court justices to rectify this abomination. (Lots of luck with the recent Trump appointees!)

d. Restricting, or at least, exposing large donors to political campaigns would certainly help. In the somewhat recent past this had been the case. It generally takes about $1,000,000 presently to be viable in running for a seat in Congress. This, of course, gives the large corporations and millionaires a huge advantage in our elections. This could be easily fixed! If we just had a time machine and could return to the past. The government could and should provide financing for candidates that provide sufficient petitioners to back their candidacies. Financial limits should be placed on donations and donors.

e. Voting regulations and rules in our country play a large part in the assault on our democracy. It is generally recognized that politicians play fast and loose establishing rules and regulations regarding eligibility for voting which could favor one or the other side. If I were to attempt to list here the many well documented indiscretions involved in this I would probably run out of paper. We’ I’ll just have to let it suffice here to say that the citizens, the media, the legislatures, the Government, and the courts had better keep a wider eye on this! It might be observed that in most other countries the central governments have the greater authority in these matters.

f. The basic structure of our election processes might fall into question here. The two-party system may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Generally both parties in order to prevail will cater to the conventional wisdom, which in a sense, might hinder the chances of more innovative and modernized approaches to dealing with problems deserving a hearing. Possible solution! Give voters a chance to list a second choice on the ballot which could count if the first one fails. That would give the voter a voice to support new ideas rather than just risk wasting his vote on the “lesser of two evils”. Another approach to better democracy would be to require runoffs between the two top leaders in all elections. Americans have been elected President in the past with less than 50 percent of the vote. Let’s remember, Hitler gained power with only 40 percent!

3) Our educational system is rapidly falling behind. Many other countries are passing us by if you believe assessments offered by the United Nations survey. Actually, the recent election of Donald Trump alone should be sufficient enough to prove that point! Quote the Donald, “I love the uneducated.” It’s not really that difficult to identify the various reasons for our problems with education.

a. Financing the system seems to lie at the root of much of the problem. The individual states and local districts have too great a burden to handle financing on their own. If they raise taxes for the schools, the local tax sources will often seek to find another location where taxes are cheaper. The districts that raise taxes to help education will then often lose revenue rather than gain. Other industrialized counties have been outdoing us in education because they realize that education can be best funded by money produced from the central governments. Serious deficiencies such as class size, teacher salaries, special ed., pre-school, etc., can only be corrected by a much greater influx of money from the Federal Government.

b. Pet projects such as charter schools, championed by Donald Trump and his Department of Education Secretary Betsey Devoss should be abolished! Profit for private interests only debases our education system as it often does with our Health Care. Charter schools generally serve to suck away what little financial blood we have left for public schools. As the previously mentioned, Walter Cronkite, once observed, “socialism as well as capitalism need to have their place in our society.” Let’s get it right! Capitalism for profit and incentive, Socialism for freedom and equality. Bernie and Warren would agree. Education and Health Care should be freeee! Yes, we can afford it.

c. Finally, we have to come to the realization that there is a distinction between education and training. Recently it would appear that our schools have taken a right wing shift towards job training rather than to the humanities. More and more students seem encouraged to seek courses in job training and earning money, than in intellectual enlightenment. Civil service, teaching, logic, critical thinking, psychology, philosophy, history, sociology, have taken a back seat to more financially lucrative crafts like economics, engineering, medicine, law, dentistry, or training for more immediate results like mechanics, construction, agriculture, etc. Capitalism and consumerism seem to be holding the fort. Perhaps if we wish to avoid the future world of Trump, we should be giving more thought to the humanities, lest history should repeat itself!

4) Finally, Isn’t it well past time for the voting public to wake up, and smell the coffee! Get back to the tunes of the promising 60s? It’s “Blowin In The Wind”. “How many times must a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see.” Of course some see only what they want to see. The old-time-religion may not be the answer today. Many tend to feel that they can sit back and let God take care of things rather than get involved. That if they just believe, there will be a good place for them after death. Nothing like wishful thinking!! Yes, the economy appears to be going well. Especially, for the well –to- do! Really, is that all we have to be concerned about? Have we also not bothered to notice that, under Trump, the national debt has ballooned to over $21 trillion! Trump’s tax cuts for the rich hasn’t halted that. Have we forgotten what happened in the Thirties when debt grew out of hand? Yet, when it comes to our president, the damages and dangers we face, may not all be that imaginary! The beat goes on. And the list goes on. Trump’s bigotry, anti-immigrant attitude, hateful tweets, childish and boorish behavior simply sets a poor example for the youth, and a fair measure of disgust for most adults. Furthermore his foreign policy really sucks. He has abandoned the Paris Climate Accord, aborted the Iranian nuclear protection agreement, denounced NATO, alienated our European allies and curried up to many dictatorial regimes! And, of course, he’s presently undergoing impeachment proceeding for placing our national interest at risk with his meddling in the Ukraine. Yes, we could go on and on, but at risk of the reader’s attention span. In conclusion, let’s all remember,
Trump’s been a symptom. We should be the cause in 2020 for a change!

RALPH SHROYER (12-6-19)

Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven

And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Yes, these words typlify the teachings of Jesus in the Bible. Jesus was obviously a socialist. He certainly couldn’t have been a capitalist! So, why did all those “born-again” Christians vote so overwhelmingly for a man who surrounds himself with oil-rich capitalists? Pretty obviously America’s God is not the one in Heaven. Let’s be honest. America’s true God is Hypocrisy!

But wait! Let us not dispare. There is an out. We just need to toss out of the Bible Jesus and the New Testament. And we can go to Numbers, Chapt. 31, King James Version of the Holy Bible. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites’ … And Moses said unto them (The Israelites) … ‘Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that has known man by lying with him.’

Yes, sir! We don’t want no “Turn the other cheek and love thine enemies stuff”. Destructiveles, the Roman God of War – that’s our guy. Get rid of Hypocrisyes. We don’t need any whimpy Jesus messing with our plans. We’ve had a good old war every 20 years since 1776. And we love it.