Election Season is Almost Over – Part II
My brother posted the best argument about this election (and our government) that I’ve heard so far this season:
Both candidates are guaranteed to expand the powers of the executive branch, as most presidents have done since Washington. With every power grab, they decrease the power of the house and senate, and consequently reduce your voice in how you are governed.
So now we are forced to choose between the candidate that has a track record for sprinting toward expanding executive power (Obama), and the one that ham-handedly compromises his way there (Romney). I’m not saying that the USA will be a dictatorship in the next five, ten, or twenty years, but you can rest assured that both of these candidates and their successors will work to decrease your political, social, or economic freedoms in some way or another. They will do this in the name of “protecting and serving” you, the underprivileged, the elderly, the children, small business, big business, the economy, etc. Throughout history, all forms of government eventually break down into some form of tyranny, using every crisis as an excuse to increase the number of their citizens’ rights they can breach with impunity.
The best analogy I can come up with is that we (the citizens of the USA) are married to an addict (our power-craving, two-party system). It should be stupid for us to react with any amount of shock or disbelief when our government wants to limit our freedoms, take more of our money, or force us to act against our own best interests. Like an addict, they will promise us change, but continue on their own course, until that course ultimately destroys them and everyone tied to them.
I’ll probably chicken out and vote for Romney, hoping against hope that the USA won’t arrive at its inevitable destination of overwhelmingly oppressive executive powers in my lifetime. But the disciplined, courageous, and moral choice given our current political situation seems to be to vote for Obama and other politicians like him and give in to all their wishes, giving the addict what he craves most so that he is forced to destroy himself under the weight of his own addiction so that this evil can be dealt with sooner in my lifetime rather than later in my children’s.
Though it reads like the words of an alarmist, it’s far better than any of the other junk that has been, and will be, plastered all over our social media and news sites for the next two weeks.
My thoughts aren’t congruent with those above, but it is refreshing to hear a voice that sounds human, concerned, and without any blatant disdain or snarky insults hurled towards one side or the other. Even more refreshing, is that without any cute photoshopped memes packed with the stomach-turning snark and vision-narrowing disdain, I’m compelled to think and thoughtfully weigh these ideas instead of irritatingly dismiss them.
Thanks Jon.
Also, earlier today I stumbled onto the P.E. Hewitt Jazz Ensemble and haven’t stopped listening to them. My initial thoughts were how the rhythm section sounds much more like rock than jazz.
httpv://youtu.be/eJGKZgF_DHI
A strong review found here, had this to say:
The overall effect — helped along by buoyant, dreamy vocals from soprano Sonia Valldeparas and alto Nina Scheller, in addition to drummer Rick Hearns’s energetic, sometimes rock-like propulsion — feels like the flowering of a new style of cosmic/ ethno/ jazz /pop, one not heard before or since.
All in all, new tunes, a worthwhile thought about politics, and an evening without having to watch the Cardinals lose to the Giants.