Conflict is Good!

The elections, the conventions, all of this political debate is certainly good for the economy!  Newspapers, Radio and Television must be getting a bounty in advertising revenue; literally, billions of dollars are being spent.  Whoever wins, he will be the best President that we can afford.  No country on Earth spends on elections like we do.  It has to be good for the economy!
   Personally I like elections.  My normal day is not unlike yours.  I get up, find something to do and get tired doing it, then go to bed.  Just routine.  Elections make me think of the world around me, get out of myself and think of others, and yes, even fantasize about an "ideal world" and then laugh  at the comedy of it all.  It seems that we screwed up when Eve offered Adam the Apple and this can never be Heaven on Earth!  We have to wait for that pie in the sky when we die.  That is always the problem.  It is later, if only and under conditions that things will get better.  I don't know why it is so difficult to make a plan, stick to it, and make things a little better all along the way?
   Now is when we want it.  We don't see things in increments, no longer listen to arguments.  We make our own bleak world, close the drapes and get comfortable in the darkness and always blame others for everything that is wrong.  With us and with the world.
   If we could have unlimited coal and tar sands oil then everything would be all right!  One more apple, Eve, please!  That tree may be beneath the Arctic and we will destroy that last pristine place to get it.
Humans have a hunger and believe that the Earth should be used UP.
   Tell me three nice things about Obama and I will tell you three nice things about Romney!  Really I would.  I read both sides, conflicting editorials and diverse opinions.  I like some elements of each and each have elements that I dislike.
   I think the elections will boil down to two issues for me and this may be selfish because they would effect me personally.  The issue of Medicare won't harm me either way but I know the math.  A voluntary and competing program with Medicare will destroy it.  Health issue, National Health will not affect me.  I am one of the 1% there for sure and history has proved over the years that we really do not feel another's pain!  National Health Care would be less expensive than our present system, but that is pretty simple math and if you want to you can work that out yourself.  Gay rights mean nothing to me personally although according to the math, we all know someone who this issue is important to and I think I should cast my ballet in their favor.  Voting for the benefit of others! What a novel idea and this one would not cost me a dime.  Women's issues mean a lot to me.  I like women!  And I have two daughters so for very selfish reasons I would vote for their rights and equal benefits.
   There are two issues that will determine my vote.  The Republican Platform does not even mention
our wars, not a single word about Afghanistan and the 31 American Soldiers who die there every single month.  One Dead Every Day.  These are our youth, America's best and we have forgotten them already.  In the months and years to come we will spend trillions on those returning soldiers, for their care and support.  It is a debt we will try to weasel out of as we have in the past.  We already have homeless veterans begging on street corners, young ones now, next to the Vietnam vets, struggling for position.  I will think long and hard about which political party will recognize our obligations.
   We are tired of war and can not afford it.  I am thankful there were no troops on the ground in lybia and we are not in Syria.  I will think long and hard about which party can keep us out of future battles.
   There is one single issue that comes down to belief that will determine my vote.  One Issue that I use to believe in that I no longer do.  I believe in the American Worker.  I do not believe in Trickle Down.
For over a hundred years the Chief Executive Officer of a corporation made six times the wages of the average worker and that money stayed here at home, in our neighborhoods, supporting our communities.  These were attainable jobs and through education, hard work and discipline, average people  could get there.  I graduated from the University of Oregon and paid $96 dollars per term for the classes.  I received no grants or free money.  I did it with a part time job and student loans totaling only $1,500 for five years of education.  Something has changed.  This is impossible now.
    Trickle Down doesn't work.  CEO's can make MILLIONS of times the pay of their average workers!  And the money doesn't stay here.  It goes to China along with our jobs.  It is safe in off shore accounts with clever accounting avoiding taxes.  Four years ago Google and Amazon Stocks were selling at less than $200 and now they are over $700!  Corporations have never been richer and never invested less in their local communities.  They don't even bank here.
   I believe in Henry Ford who didn't have a dime invested in China, who rightfully became wealthy investing in American workers and paid them enough so they could buy the cars they were making.
   It is greed that will get us in the end.  Greed and the idea that there are simple solutions, that we could drill our way out of this, like a lottery ticket is awaiting us under the arctic ice.
   I believe in hard working Americans.  I believe in the Middle Class.  The more the better, that center bulge on the graph that goes to work every day, banks locally, supports their schools, their community.
That is who I will vote for.