As I have gotten older I have found myself more inclined to vote against something than to vote for something. I figure out what I stand for then vote against people that don’t stand for those things. I have an easier time telling you why I won’t vote for a Republican than I can tell you why I would vote for a Democrat. Some people would probably tell you that is a dumb way of going about it but it works for me because I am always looking at our past mistakes and not wanting to repeat them. It also keeps me true to my core beliefs. I have watched the evolution of our country and our political parties so it is really hard to lie to me about such things as suppression and racism. I knew who the racist were in the 60s and I know who the racist are now. I have watched riots in pretty much every decade of my life from the 1950s to the 2020s. I have watched the stability of the country, created by a strong middle class, and have watched the destabilization of our country because of a shrinking middle class. I have watched us coming together and dividing over numerous issues but never have I witnessed what I am witnessing today.

Do you know what I think the definition of insanity is? I think it is doing the same thing over and over again thinking you will get different results. All my life I have been reading and hearing about the same problem. You would think after almost 70 years we would have made some progress but it appears a lot of time we are just running in place and in some cases moving backwards.  When it comes to race relations that is what I think we have been doing. When it comes to the police that is what I think that we are doing. When it come to the poor that is what we are doing.

All my life I have seen minorities suppressed here. Mostly it is Blacks but they are not the only minority that is being suppressed here. I had a Hispanic neighbor for over 20 years. One day he was telling me that some white people drove by him in a car and told him to go back to where he came from. He had been a United States citizen for about 25 years at that point. He had as much of a right to be here as those guys in the car that yelled at him. I watched footage of the beatings that Blacks took at the bloody bridge outside Selma Alabama. I saw the photos of the beating that Rodney King took. I saw the Officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck killing him. We have not really come very far in 60 years. After the George Floyd murder at the hands of the police there was a huge campaign by people supporting the blue. A Black man died but too many said it was justifiable and they would back the blue no matter what. I made the comment that I supported the Constitution; you would have thought that I had just committed treason on the police department with what I said. I have been witnessing the same problems all my life with the same solutions and seeing the same results repeat and repeat and repeat. One of the reason it get repeated and repeated is because politicians use bigotry to stoke the fires of hatred. Ted Cruz screaming that they want us to hate our own race is not a way to fix the problem. That is a way to encourage the hatred and the bigotry.  What did I say my definition of insanity was? Do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

For over 40 years the Republicans have been preaching the way to prosperity is to cut taxes for the rich. Paul Ryan called for the Rich Job Creators. That just sounds great, right? I’m not a financial genius but here is my take on it. What in the hell have we been smoking all this time? We cut taxes for the rich and they don’t build new factories here in America, creating all kinds of great American jobs. All we did was make the Rich Richer. Were we so gullible to think that they were going to share their wealth? Since the 80s the middle class has been going backwards and the 1% keeps getting richer. The income gap got wider. Cutting taxes didn’t work for Reagan and G H W Bush. It led us into a recession that caused Bush to lose the election. G W Bush cut taxes and look what happened to the economy under him. We almost crashed and burned. Both Democratic President inherited bad economies when they entered office but left strong economies. Trump inherited a good economy, cut taxes, and by the end of his four years the economy was a mess. What does that tell you? The Republicans keep cutting taxes over and over again and the results have been the same. What is my definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

The way that this country treats its poor is downright disgraceful. We have system that creates poor. We have a system that is dependent on the poor remaining poor. Just look at the income inequity here in America. During the 50s when the middle class was growing, Labor Unions were lifting up the workers by helping increasing their pay, benefits and working conditions. As worker’s wages grew so did the middle class and the prosperity of the nation. Since the decline of the Labor Unions our middle class has been shrinking. Our job growth during that period has been in the service industry because manufacturing has gone overseas. Many of these service industry jobs are just minimum wage jobs and without organized labor they have remained minimum pay jobs. So let’s see, we have our good paying jobs going overseas being replaced by jobs just paying $7.25 an hour. Paul Ryan blamed the poor for being poor but we have a system that is dependent on the poor remaining poor. Just for reference that minimum wage has not been raised since 2009. You can say, get an education and get a better job. Well, look at the mess that we are at with the student loans. Education is not cheap and with the predatory lending industry getting an education can also mean staying poor.

Our government helped many businesses with PPP loans that were forgiven. Our government has given many breaks to the fossil fuel industry. Our government has bailed our financial systems. But when it comes to student loan forgiveness Republicans run around screaming socialism and communism. The way to get better paying jobs is to develop new technology like Green Technology to take on Climate Change. What do we do? We continue the same things that are killing our planet and killing our economy. What is my definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

Throughout history we have had a nobility class that has also been the ruling class and the working class, the surfs. No matter what political system. Communism, Fascism, A Nobility system all had a ruling class.  Our Republic was to change that but look at us now. We are becoming the very thing that we revolted against in 1776. Is that the vision that is now America?