Time to Vote: What to Do?
by Errington C. Thompson, MD –
Unfortunately, this election is very much like the 2000 election, with one candidate having enormous experience and the other having almost none.
The governor of Texas has almost no responsibility. He or she is functionally a figurehead who just has to sign stuff. Your local mechanic has more responsibility.
One candidate was very articulate on the issues, and the other really didn’t say much: he simply relied on his gut to help with decisions.
The only thing that is different is that Bush was kind of a likeable guy. Sure, he made bad decisions which led to war, the Katrina debacle which devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. But he was likeable. He was the kind of guy you wanted to invite to Cheers (the TV-show bar) and have a beer.
Donald Trump is not George Bush, but they are similar. The similarity should be enough to make your stomach a little queasy. Remember that Bush was able to look into Putin’s soul and Bush thought that he was a guy he could deal with. History has proven Bush wasn’t quite right on that Vulcan mind-meld. Trump has had nothing but praise for Putin.
Trump has asked blacks to vote for him because, “What have you got to lose?” The thought is that things are so bad now that only Trump can fix them is mind-numbing.
Look, I KNOW things can get much worse. We saw it under Bush. I speculate that the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department would somehow get vastly underfunded under a Trump administration. All of a sudden it will be okay to treat minorities and women like second-class citizens. Don’t hire them. Do fire them. Heck, don’t let them into your apartment complex or neighborhood—the way Trump and his father didn’t—because under Trump the states would handle their own business any way they want.
Don’t laugh and say it will never happen, because it has happened in the past.
Do you like the air that you are breathing and the water that you are drinking? Trump will change that. With a Republican House and Senate, even if laws do not get overturned, they simply will not be enforced. If a major corporation starts polluting your water or your air, do you think that Trump will stand up for your rights over that of a corporation? It simply will not happen. I don’t think that he will try to eliminate the EPA. Instead, he will vastly underfund the agency, stating that we simply don’t have the money. And, of course, we won’t if he pushes through is $435 billion-a-year tax cut for the one percent.
Do you remember former Presidential candidate and current Senator John McCain singing that song, Bomb, bomb, bomb. Bomb Iran. (He sang it to the tune of the Beach Boys hit, Barbara Ann.) This song will become Trump’s theme song. He isn’t about diplomacy. He is about imposing his will. So I hope that you like war, because that’s what Trump is about. War.
He says that he will fix ISIS. How? More troops in the Middle East? That is exactly what we don’t need. In fact, the NY Republican State Committee just sent out a mailer on his behalf that explains exactly how “Donald Trump will defeat ISIS once and for all.” This is the three-part plan:
- Pause immigration from countries that sponsor terror.
- End the stream of Syrian refugees entering our country.
- Call violence by Islamic extremists what it is—terrorism.
So, keep ISIS’s victims from reaching a safe haven, and call the terrorists “terrorists.” That’s his entire plan.
I’m with Hillary. I know that Hillary will not invade first and ask questions later. Hillary understands that diplomacy can and will keep our nation safe and strong. She will keep our military strong, and she will maintain and build alliances with nations around the world that share our values. She knows that we are “stronger together.”
I know that Hillary will continue to improve the economy so that it works for all of us. We are currently enjoying the longest private sector job growth in history. (Thank you, President Obama.) Oh, and those missing workers who had dropped out of the labor force and stopped looking for work, they are returning to the labor force. We have seen evidence of this for the past 12 months.
I know that Hillary will continue to fight for the poor, children, and women, not against them. She will expand and improve Obamacare, which has made healthcare affordable for millions.
Hillary will work hard to expose the problems of race relations in this country. She will stand up for minority rights, and she will then work even harder to help find solutions to these complex, lingering problems.
Our rivers and streams will be a little cleaner because of Hillary Clinton. Our air will be just a little easier to breathe because of Hillary Clinton.
Oh, and Hillary will not take away your gun. She will, however, work tirelessly to try to decrease gun violence in our wonderful country.
Make America great again? America is great. Hillary Clinton, like Barack Obama before her, embodies the American dream. She dreamed that one day, she, a girl, Hillary Rodham, could be president of the United States of America. This was an impossible, unrealistic dream when she grew up in the 1950s and ’60s. Yet, she believed, if she worked hard enough…
She did. She was an outstanding student in high school, and she was accepted to elite universities for college and graduate school. She put in the hard work of working for committees on Capitol Hill as an intern, and for the Children’s Defense Fund in Massachusetts when she finished law school. She learned how government worked on both the state and national level. She has worked to pass legislation on both the state and federal levels which has helped, and continues to help, families throughout this country (8 million children from low-income families have CHIP healthcare, thanks to her).
She has been a superb Secretary of State and an effective, accomplished U.S. Senator.
Barack Obama. Hillary Rodham Clinton. America is great. She will make America even greater. I am with Hillary.
