Hillary or Bernie? I May Side with the Kids... or Not.

I have been absolutely and completely tortured by my choices for this presidential election.

2008 was beyond difficult as Maria and I split our votes. It felt kinda awful. It was the first time we chose different candidates since we canvassed the East Village in 1992 for Governor Moonbeam.

And here we are, almost eight years later, and we may split our primary votes again. Believe me, we both know what’s at stake; and our hearts and minds couldn’t be more invested.

So, I asked Aleda, our 14-year-old daughter, “Who would you vote for if you could?”

“That’s almost impossible for me to answer.”

“Why?”

“I love Bernie. He’s from Vermont and I believe in him, but I worry that he wouldn’t get anything done because everyone in Washington would be against him.”

“You would vote for Hillary then?”

“No, because her intensity doesn’t seem real.” [I shit you not. She said this.] “And I worry that she’s the kind of person to put us in another war.”

“So, if I gave you $1,000,000.00 to choose, who would it be?”

“Then it would be random.” [Pause.] “No, wait, it would be Bernie. He cares more about the future.”

My daughter is the Modern Young Woman and making choices like a Modern Young Woman not unlike the 80% of 18 to 30 year olds who support Bernie. The history of women in the world is not, thankfully and disappointingly, hers. [Did we err as parents?]

Bernie is my truth and Hillary is a woman and I have lived my life trusting women more than men, almost always.

Tonight, 23 days from New York’s primary, and I’m no closer to making a decision than I was on April 28, 2015 when Bernie announced his candidacy.

I may side with the young who are siding with the old man… and then again, I may not.

Not Necessarily a Joke

Facebook post from two days ago:

So, Bernie and Hillary are having pints at Donegal’s on 72nd St. talking about their respective campaigns. Bernie says, “Listen, Secretary Clinton,” and Hillary cuts him off:

“Oh, Bernie, Hill is fine.”

“Well, Hill, the only way I will step away from this race is if you promise…”

“I promise already.”

“You don’t even know what I’m goin’ to ask.”

“Well, I have a sense: Raise the minimum wage to $15, forgive education loans, eliminate tax breaks for the oil companies, make all public colleges tuition-free, support states’ rights to legalize marijuana, expand social security,…”

“Yeah, yeah, all that too, but not what I was goin' to ask.”

“What, Bernie? What? I’ll do it.”

He takes a gulp of his IPA and she sips her Guinness.

“I want you to ‘Drumpf’ 'im.”

“’Drumpf’ him?”

“I want you to kick the mutha fucka’s ass so hard that only shit comes outta his mouth.”

“Clearly, Bernie, he was Donald Drumpf-ed a long time ago.”

Just to Confirm...

Just to confirm what you already know, the KKK’s current political platform IS the same as the Republican Party’s agenda, if not always overtly so. Their positions include, but are not limited to:

1. The recognition that America was founded as a Christian nation.
2. The recognition that America was founded as a White nation.
3. Put America FIRST in all foreign matters.
4. Stop all Foreign Aid Immediately.
5. Abolish ALL discriminatory affirmative action programs.
6. Put American troops on our border to STOP the flood of illegal aliens.
7. Abolish all anti-gun laws and encourage every adult to own a weapon.
8. Drug testing for welfare recipients.
9. A flat income tax should be introduced to allow for the funding of community, state and federal projects.
10. Abortion should be outlawed except to save the mother’s life or in case of rape or incest.
11. We support a national law against the practice of homosexuality.
12. Restoring individual freedom to Christian America.
13. We support state sovereignty resolutions.

The Knights Party Platform is currently unavailable on their website. Instead, I found it tucked away in the Internet Archive. Here’s a snapshot: https://web.archive.org/…/201507020523…/http://kkk.bz/main/…

While we scream about Bill’s proximity to polling places in Massachusetts, dive deeper into Hillary’s private server, and condemn Bernie as “unelectable,” we need to confirm our overall positions. The above beliefs are unacceptable, no matter who conveys them, Trump or Cruz. Let’s stop our infighting and focus on the big picture. Please.

Spring Out of Myself

“Spring is the mischief in me…”  (R. Frost).

This will be my 45^th spring and if I can keep my health, avoid the self- and selfless-destruction that I seem so bent upon, maybe I’ve got another 40 springs to enjoy.

Spring means planting and that’s what I am, a planter, not necessarily a gardener – the latter implies physical and aesthetic control over that which is being planted. I like things to grow… and grow. I am, unquestionably, the world’s worst bonsai artist.

No other season comes close to this one. Summer, while great, can carry with it the complications of heat and sunburn and August droughts.

Autumn wrecks me (although when living in Vermont, its foliage lessened the blow). I fall into a seasonal funk that extends beyond my emotions as all my senses are cut in half. By November, I’m storing extra weight and retreating from everyone, including myself.

Winter is good – I’m full of beer and pasta, idle and okay with that – and can hint, like the past few days, at the promise of spring. Dates begin to matter again: March 1, and I’m moving again; St. Pat’s Day, and everything tastes better; March 20, and I’m ten pounds lighter (I almost shit you not).

In about two weeks I will begin to plant my first seeds. This year, after a five year break, I’ll be planting tobacco. The nearly microscopic seeds produce ten foot stalks, 20 inch leaves, and clusters of flowers that draw almost every beneficial insect its way (and more than a few unwanted ones).

I’ll be planting sweet peas directly into the containers on the roof – seeds I swiped from the vines that seem to grow wild around the Park-McCullough House in North Bennington, VT.

I’ll be planting okra because, and I swear this is true, my daughter loves the fruit. I, in turn, adore its trumpet blooms – probably my favorite flower, hands down.

In a few weeks, my one forsythia will start to bloom, my cherry blossoms will be pinched by the sparrows, and my plum tree will begin its endeavoring to give me my first plum. In about a month, the gladiolus will start to spike. Around April 15, my chile pepper plants will arrive from Hunterdon, NJ (see Chileplants.com) and my planned descent into my own burning bowels begins. I’ll plant a few tomatoes for Maria and fill all our ceramic pots with farmers market bought annuals. When the absolute danger of frost [pun intended] is past, I will bring out my deadly citrus trees (all thorns and no fruit) and not mourn the loss of a few of them. And then everything will grow and my chin will reappear and my irises, of the optic kind, will be visible and then on Wednesday May 4, when I go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Plant Sale (on the first afternoon for members), I will buy perennials that I know will fail, like pomegranate and water lilies, but I’ll try again.

By June, I’ll be completely alive; but by July, I’ll be crossing off one more spring and looking forward to my 46^th version.

And in 2017, I plan on growing hemp because it grows. And in 2018 I'll be working the garden at the Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, NY.

I'm the worst kind of American. I'm an educator.

The other day, in the midst of a heated political debate, I was asked if I would leave the country if Trump or Cruz becomes president. It’s a reasonable question, not because I would be disgusted with America’s choice, but because my very make-up, my blood, my ideology, and my profession leave me, and my family, wide open to wound. Consider this: I am almost everything these blockheads hate: A Catholic with a Jewish last name -- a belief system that the evangelicals view as a “cult” and a last name that screams “Jew”; as socially liberal as they are made; a believer in wealth equity and universal health care; a creator of artsy things; and willing to put my life on the line for ALL equal rights. But you want to know what they probably hate most about me: I’m an educator… and worse yet, an educator with the above beliefs who also happens to be in a union... A UNION! But would I leave? “No,” I said. “It’s probably the only chance I will ever have to be a contestant on SURVIVOR.”

White States of America

Trump is becoming white America's ego, id, and reflection in the mirror after binge drinking Coors Original. 

In obsessiveness that could easily transition into full blown panic, I sort through the daily presidential polls and see that individual states support a Trump candidacy over his Republican rivals by overwhelming margins; and, when factoring in her huge advantage in the South, it is looking like Clinton will be his challenger on November 8th. Head to head, many of the state polls that are currently showing data also lean (moving towards "rest") in Trump's favor in the general election. (Nationally, Clinton has a dwindling lead well within the margin of error.) We (I mean, "I") have to stop the derogatory Trump statements (although, unlikely) and turn my ire on white America, especially of the male variety. If this happens, it's their fault, not his. 

I'm not at the point of saying, "If you want him, you can have him"; but the "you" here is so vile to me, so selfish and soulless, that they deserve the worst... and Trump is the WORST. The ramifications of a White States of America, however, will extend well beyond our walled borders -- the World doesn't deserve this outcome.

Former KKK leader, David Duke said, "Voting against Trump is treason to your heritage," and he was referring, of course, to only white Christian Americans and their European heritage. Yes, there is still a fringe ugliness in Europe, but in its majority, Europe rejects Trump and his followers' ideologies. Sure, by "heritage" Duke means (disgustingly dreadful) past, but in re to the here and now, the world is different, still very cruel, but in many places more enlightened... and in many places more embracing of humanity's plurality than America has been, is, and appears to become.

It's not about Trump anymore, it's about white America... and white America disgusts me (especially a majority of its men).

The Idiots Shall Inherit the Earth

I find this poll somewhat alarming: The degrees to which education seems to play a role in Republican voters' choices for presidential candidates.

The New York Times is questioning where Bush's voters go now that he's out of the race; and the answer may be, "Nowhere." Last year, the Pew Research Center discovered that Americans who graduated from college are likely to vote (or lean) for Democrats over Republicans by 52% to 40%; and those with post-graduate education lean towards Democrats vs. Republicans by 56% to 36%. Go back 25 years and these numbers almost reverse themselves -- Republican voters tended to be more educated; hence, this is one of the many reasons old school Republicans are starting to feel disenfranchised when looking at their choices. Education is not a mark of intelligence; so, I would like to scrap these statistics when looking for reasons why someone would vote for Trump over a vastly more qualified Kasich… but I can’t. Trump and Cruz, a.k.a., Grunt and Thumper, seem to appeal to those who are either grossly ill-informed or limited by their mistakingly righteous views of how the country should function. No, it’s not the meek (nor the wise) who shall inherit the earth, it’s the preening idiots.

Despot Cruz

This’ll be my last post for, at least, several days. Our sweet dog, Barley, one of the great loves of our lives, is dying. I have just this amount of energy to distract myself to send this plea and I’m shedding sarcasm (mostly) to write my thoughts about last night’s caucus winner in Iowa.

Ted Cruz is a dangerous man. I’ve already explored his false Christianity (and will continue to below) but it concerns me beyond my own beliefs that earnest followers of Christ can’t see through the darkness of his brimstone to witness the truth of this “human being.”

While reviewing ten of his positions, I ask you -- conservative, liberal, middler -- to imagine how he’ll govern the United States of America:

1. Ted Cruz will doggedly try to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision on same sex marriage and propose an anti-gay marriage amendment. His blindness on this human right, supposedly informed by his religiosity, veils his own probable latent feelings but also challenges those of his own open-minded and open-hearted Savior’s.

2. He voted “No” on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act – an attitude and stance that is lost to Neanderthals. Seriously. No matter the extremes of your own belief structures, from fundamentalist to nihilist, the idea that this man, this future president, could vote against something so basic, so primary in our American belief structure, is almost beyond comprehension. Just imagine our country in the void of this credo – an American Dark Ages.

3. He believes in removing “senseless” obstructions for corporate growth. Fine. Not my belief, but I get it. Kind of. But ask yourself, is this the man to decide what “senseless” is if he has no broad-based human sensitivity?

4. He voted “No” to protecting our ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems. If God made humans the charge of his great gift, our world, what does Ted Cruz's fiendish stance mean? We are not of God? Then what does that make Ted Cruz? The answer: A destructor of God’s creation. [Add to this, as I pointed out earlier, he denies climate change. If God exists, there will be a reckoning, for She/He made the planet and all the things on it before She/He made man and woman.]

5. He supports, like most conservatives, voter ID requirements in order to avoid fraud. Fair enough. I’ve discovered that this is among even liberals’ least concerns; but what do we become when we allow a government to pick a choose who votes and how? And doesn’t this represent one of his many hypocrisies? Wouldn’t this require more government oversight? So much for “small government.”

6. He is opposed to ALL gun restrictions. Just look at his opinions and his record:

a. Against “burdensome” gun restrictions.

b. Opposed the banning of high-capacity magazines of 10 or more bullets.

c. Opposed the United Nation’s Arms Treaty.

d. Opposes limiting the Second Amendment.

Fundamentally, he supports the wayward expansion of firearms to protect what? I’ll tell you: White, conservative fundamentalists from everyone else. He’s for the arming of one aspect of America against the others (plural!).

7. He wants to raise the retirement age and eliminate Social Security. Don’t believe anything else you read about his stance on these issues. This IS the truth. Even if you are for the imploding of Social Security, are you FOR the increase in retirement age? Really? Is that just your youth and health answering?

8. He likes to compare himself to Reagan… but he ain’t nothing like Reagan. Go ahead, be a hindsight-Reagan-hater. Have at it. But Ronald was, if anything, endeavoring to unite people. Reagan was liked. People liked him even when they disagreed with everything he stood for. I liked him. I did, even if I was opposed to almost ALL of his positions. NO. ONE. LIKES. TED. CRUZ. Except for those who don’t know him, like those who vote for him.

9. He would defund amnesty for immigrants and offer no path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. [Sarcasm alert. Can’t help myself:] Clearly, very Christ-like.

10. He would defund and replace ALL federal healthcare programs leading to a privatization of ALL health insurance agendas. [AGENDAS!] As it stands, and this is a FACT, the United States has, when contextualized, the most expensive and least effective healthcare system on the planet. This is not due to Obamacare. This is due to all the Pharma Bros and Premium Predators and their unfettered greed and the still lacking oversight.

I could go on, but I probably already lost you… And that may be why a President Cruz is a possibility.

Look at him. Listen to him. This man is barely containing the unhinged personality of a despot.

I’m out, for now.