Talking Politics, 2016

*Excerpts from a heated email thread with my parent’s friends

Do you think that Barack Obama has been bad for this country? Do you think he’s somehow ruined things? How so, exactly? Because I know what I consider damaging for the world and the country, and this is it:

Killing people. Military intervention around the world, bombing of questionable targets, destabilizing regions, “collateral damage”, selling of weapons to warring states, militarized police forces, police brutality against innocent (black) people…
Sickening people. Polluting water and soil from fracking, contaminants from unregulated factories, natural gas leaks, environmental disasters as a result of unfettered corporate misbehavior. Also worse food programs for kids, relaxed health standards, weakened FDA in favor of corporate lobbying and profit, more and more sugar and addictive food, neutered regulations designed to protect human life…
Violating people. Limiting and denying freedom and liberty regarding sexual activity and reproduction, marriage, personal drug use. Also violating privacy through communication (NSA) and travel (TSA)…
Embarrassing people. Stripping away social services, stripping away housing, fighting against living wages, perpetuating forms of slavery, maintaining massive personal debt, growing the prisons and shrinking the health centers, taking away the right to vote, the right to a fair trial…
Dooming people. Denying 99% of the scientific community on climate change until all coastal cities are all wiped out and air is unbreathable for some corporate interest, proliferating weapons designed to maximize death for another corporate interest, exacerbating income inequality for the interest of the 0.001%, advocating for biblical Armageddon in the Middle East by pushing for a Zionist state, hoping for nuclear war
Actually destroying the planet itself. Specifically through disasters and even business as usual by unregulated, largely unpunished corporations, and also through religious hope for revelation end times…

So yeah, these are all Republican/conservative policies. It’s all hidden under the rubric of Christianity (?!) and the invisible hand of the market and some manifest god-given rhetorical bullshit, but the outcome is the same: people suffering profoundly. And by people, I mean large swaths of human beings. Whole populations. This is plutocracy. Fascism — the literal running of the government by corporate interests.

Democrats like Obama and Clinton cannot prevent much of this because of things like the Military Industrial Complex, agribusiness, the drug war and its many benefactors, etc. And also they are paid for by the money that keeps these things going, implicit in this system. But the system is more powerful than whoever is president.

Can Sanders end all this evil? Doubtful. Certainly hard to imagine. But at least he *actually wants to.*

Here’s a breakdown of the five current presidential candidates:

Sanders
He’s the only candidate with ideals. That's worth something in politics. It should count for way more; obviously this is how young people feel about it. He has Obama's 08 appeal but without any of the sell-out money. Pretty damn refreshing, and obviously striking a nerve. If the president could actually rule the world, I can’t imagine a better one.

Clinton
She’s the most "qualified." She has instant cred abroad and knows the system. This is worth something, I admit, but it's cynical. She's ultimately the definition of a career politician. But still 100% better than any Republican - she won't go out of her way (too much) to fuck over the world the way every Republican will.

Trump
He has some of Sanders' appeal: honesty, mainly, but without the ideals. Just hogwash for people that see politics as entertainment. He speaks his mind, but for "team right"... but not the establishment right. (I actually love how he reveals that these are two different things: the rich assholes (Fox News) who own and run too much of this world, and the poor religious suckers (Fox viewers) they usually bamboozle.)

Cruz
He is a ridiculously fundamentalist (maybe? or just an act?), crazily repressed loon with zero likability. He must have an amazing campaign manager because I really see absolutely nothing appealing about him at all. He's an embarrassing, despicable joke.

Rubio
I don't know anything about Rubio other than he seems manufactured by the GOP to appeal to minorities somehow. This underscores the desperation of the party, and what a hole it's dug for itself over years of anti-people policy.

I will vote for Bernie from abroad, or for the NY Green Party (whoever their symbolic candidate is) if Hillary is the Dem candidate. I am confident the Dems will win regardless in what will not even be a close election, and I will be happy, because Hilary is certainly the lesser of two evils (a very real thing in US politics that must be acknowledged). The Republican party is a total farce; only the news media and the vast empty spaces of the country pretend otherwise.