Thursday, November 06, 2014

MICHIGAN: Why did we vote the way we did?



Reading the mid-term election results; I am amazed at all the reasons promoted in the media about why people voted the way they did which in many cases, defied all logic.

The way U.S. elections turn out is maybe because our elections are all about “hype” even if the hype is false and never strictly about “facts” because voters vote with “emotion” and not logic.

The newspapers try to temper the hype with “fact checking” but I don’t believe voters actually pay attention to any of that.

Voters do not even pay attention to who and what the newspapers “endorse” which in the past may have been based on the newspaper owner’s ideology but now, I believe, comes from a thorough investigation and analysis of the facts.

Both newspapers endorsed SNYDER for governor of Michigan and yet the Democratic opponent came close to winning even though Snyder has done such a terrific job in bringing Michigan back from the edge of disaster.

Both newspapers endorsed the little known opponent of our Attorney General mainly because Bill Schuette was and is a right wing nut that follows his own conservative agenda and is basically positioning himself to run for governor in four years and yet he won by a landslide based on bullshit hype.

Another irrational win is the one for a judge of the Michigan Supreme Court. Richard Bernstein a 40 year-old lawyer with absolutely no judicial experience but with a long history of public exposure as a member of an “ambulance chasing” family was elected in a landslide mainly because he is blind, a known personage through many TV ad appearances and he is “for the little guy” according to his ad campaign.

On the surface, Bernstein, because his lack of experience, is not qualified for the highest court in the state, cannot read the necessary paperwork that comes with the job but has to have it all translated into Braille and is biased against corporations and especially insurance companies who he has fought against as an ambulance chaser and yet he is elected. 

Our political system has obviously stood the test of time but lately, due to the technological revolution in communications, I feel is in danger of becoming a system governed exclusively by those with money and the technical know-how of how to dupe the voters into voting their way.

I don’t think the voting public is going to get any smarter or better informed in the near future but actually the opposite is probably true.

How does this bode for our future elections? Well we have the presidential elections coming up in 2016 and the campaigning has already started…should be interesting.

OBAMA: He could have done better to win the mid-terms...



The Republicans did well in the mid-term elections because they used OBAMA as their primary weapon against the Democrats.

I will admit that Obama has disappointed me or maybe my expectations were too high but to me, the reason the Republicans were able to use Obama as a weapon against the Democrats falls squarely on Obama’s shoulders.

There are many positive things that Obama has done in the years of his presidency and basically we are all better off now than we were before his presidency but Obama has failed to communicate that fact; he has not tooted his own horn and his fellow Democrats have not praised his good deeds to the public at all…he needs a liberal FOX News network to tout his accomplishments.

Speaking of FOX NEWS, they spit on Obama on a daily basis and believe me many people (including my friends and relatives) buy into that FOX drivel.

So why has Obama failed to toot his own horn; that maybe due to the people he surrounds himself with and that includes his wife who is no Nancy Reagan.

If Rahm Emanuel, his original chief of staff, would have stayed instead of running for mayor of Chicago; things would have been different…Dick Chaney sold the Iraq debacle as positive!!!

Obama also failed to project leadership with the ISIS crisis brought on by an IRAQ crisis of leadership and of course the SYRIAN crisis and let’s not forget the Ukrainian/Russia crisis; all current issues that he failed to show his command of the situations. 

I am not saying that another president could have done better but an idiot like BUSH could have “sold” his positions on these issues better or had idiots like Dick Chaney do it for him.


CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS: Stay or Go...

Another subject that I feel needs some clarification because it is so divisive among us is the issue of Confederate Monuments, why they ...