End of the year, and I haven't said much...

It’s the end of the year, and this will be the second post I’ve done in 2016. Yeah, life took over again. However, with this year being an election year, I made a conscious decision to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself because it was just getting too messy and there were a lot of angry and upset people. I’m not going to quit being someone’s friend simply because I don’t ascribe to their political viewpoint. While I believe my vote is my business, I have no illusion my vote is secret. My county knows which ballot is mine and I’m sure it would take them less than an hour to find it. At the same time, I don’t believe in screaming from the rooftops who I voted for. If who I voted for is going to be a point of contention between us, then for your sake I’ll say I voted for your favorite candidate. And we’ll leave it at that. In my estimation, life is far too short to have something so transient come between me and someone I like.

So: In about a month, we will have a new President. Someone who has held no prior elected office, and in some respects appears to be a blank slate (perhaps he’s kept his true opinions to himself, but I think Twitter shows otherwise). His choices for different cabinet posts run the gamut from political professionals to business leaders. There’s one thing I’ve noticed though. If you look at some of his choices (we’ll take the EPA and Education in particular) you see an interesting phenomenon. Allow me to give some information on those people, and then discuss what I see.

His choice for the EPA is Scott Pruitt. Mr. Pruitt made his mark as the Oklahoma Attorney General fighting the EPA on its regulations, particularly in regards to oil and gas drilling. On the surface, this looks like a ‘fox in the henhouse’ type of choice. And this same observation could also be applied to Trump’s pick for Education, Betsy DeVos. She is an education activist from Michigan. Her perspective on education is one of ‘school choice’, providing vouchers for parents to send their children to private education, if they so choose. Which could result in a mass exodus from public education, and/or significant defunding of school districts.

In thinking about these, and some other choices (I’m thinking Housing and Urban Development and Labor in particular), I’ve come to a conclusion. Using business as a baseline of understanding instead of government, these people were nominated for these positions not as a ‘fox in the henhouse’ but rather to reduce the size of that department, or perhaps to even shut them down.

There are examples of businesses sending people into problematic organizations or departments for this purpose. Whether it’s simply to ‘trim the fat’ or to close it down, they have no other purpose. Those people tend to be categorized as ‘hatchet men’, since they're doing a lot of cutting.

Something else to keep in mind is, when you look at these two departments, they are fairly recent cabinet creations. The EPA was created in 1970 by President Richard Nixon (it was originally put in place by Executive Order, but the order was ratified by Congress). The Department of Education was created in 1979 by law and signed by President Jimmy Carter. Neither of these departments have a long history, and both tend to be controversial in their activities. This makes them preferred targets for elimination by those who do not like government departments and the like.

Looking at this a little further, this fits well into Conservative views on government. For those in the Republican Party who ascribe to the quote by President Ronald Reagan in his first inaugural address: “Government is not the solution to our problem, it is the problem.” These choices match well with this view. Get rid of the bureaucracy and overreach by the Federal Government by cleaning out the bureaucrats and closing down the unnecessary departments.

Whether or not this is what Trump is trying to do has yet to be seen, as well as what the result will be. I am not ‘cautiously optimistic’ at this point. I am simply cautious. I cannot remember there ever being this much acrimony and divisiveness in the changing of administrations. I’m not talking about just the Republicans and what they potentially are implementing, but also the Democrats and their reactions. The election is over, and if we believe in our system of government, then, in a paraphrase of the late Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock in ‘The Undiscovered Country’ “we must have faith that things will unfold as they should.” I say this for myself first and foremost.

There is one other darker element to this, and it is a concern for the country at large regarding the acrimony and divisiveness: If things do not significantly change, and if both sides continue to refuse to discuss and work together to solve the problems and issues our country has, and resolve to do only those things you want to do, the resulting polarization may leave us in an ungovernable situation. Now please keep in mind, I would hope that I’ve proven throughout all of this that I’m not one of those screaming Trump is not my President, or otherwise having a meltdown over the election result. I’m someone who has some serious concerns that the person we elected is going to do more harm than good in the long run. Now, what does that make me? A liberal? A ‘loony leftist’? No. That makes me someone who is more concerned about my country than about what half-baked political party is in charge of the government.

Spring has sprung! Fruits and nuts galore!

I try.  I really do.  I keep thinking I need to sit down and write posts, if for no other reason, than to ensure people I’m still alive, doing well, and at least paying minimal attention to the world around me.  However, life rears its ugly head and then it’s another 2-3 weeks before I think about posting again.

I looked back on my post from last year about this year’s beauty contest (otherwise known as an election).  On the Democratic side, I don’t seem to have been too far off base.  Bernie Sanders has turned into a somewhat effective opponent for Hilary Clinton.  He’s honestly done better than I thought, and while the nomination appears at this point to be Hilary’s to lose, it’s not over yet.  More surprises may be in store for us, and I think it will be interesting to see the final result.

The Republicans?  I was way off base.  My only thought at this point is:  Are you freaking kidding me?  Each primary and caucus causes my mind to revert to the old DOS command line saying ‘error:  abort, retry, fail?’  I sit, with my mind spinning as it tries to reconcile what I’m seeing with what my mind tells me should be reality.  I keep trying to say different things, but nothing coherent or complete seems to come out of my mouth.

Donald Trump a year ago seemed to be the comic relief for this election.  Now, he’s the lead candidate for the nomination.  I’ve sat there on many nights, trying to listen to him speak on his ‘positions’ and what he believes needs to be done.  I just can’t do it.  Usually, I can MST3K candidates, or just shake my head.  However, when he speaks, it’s as if someone is drilling and I need to move away to make it stop.  Even reading his statements in print doesn’t help.  I keep seeing where he makes statements that would cause other candidates to go down in flames, and he just keeps on going sometimes even better than before.

Now, I’m seeing comments and statements where if Trump does win the nomination, it could fracture or even destroy the Republican Party.  I am not someone who delights in the misfortune of others (in German, it’s known as schadenfreude).  However, when the party leaders and the pundits conduct their post mortem on this election season, there are some significant questions that need to be answered.

I don’t want to see the Republican Party disappear.  Competition is necessary in this country, if we are to continue growing and improving.  If one of the political parties disappears, there will be a vacuum.  What would take their place?  It may be a case where the replacement is worse than the original.

It’s not the first time a major political party has disappeared in this country.  The record of their replacements, however, is mixed at best.  The first to go were the Federalists, who all but disappeared in the 1810s.  It took until the 1830s for the Whig party to emerge in its place.  You can look up the Whigs to see their history.  They only lasted until the 1850s, when the Republican Party moved into prominence.

So, we’ve had two major parties who’ve managed (for the most part) to change with the times from the 1850s until now.  Has the Republican Party lost that ability?  Will we see a new party rise out of their demise?  Or, will the GOP once again make the necessary changes to remain relevant to the American electorate?  I guess, as the saying goes, only time will tell.