Why I Like Donald and Bernie

For years I have raved on about how much I dislike and distrust the political establishment.  I am not a Republican because I once was one and they profoundly disappointed me. I became a Democrat and marched with them until they just flat out disgusted me. I am not a fan of either party, for good reasons. I have become a bit of a Libertarian, not so much because I like all of their political stances, but because they seem to generally tell the truth – something the other parties are either unable or unwilling to do.

Many people have asked me (a Political Science major) why the two major political parties nominated two such disliked and distrusted candidates. I will admit that Donald and Hillary both have a bunch of true believers in their camps, but there are a huge number of clear thinking Americans who can’t stand or trust either one of them. For most of the “true believers” in each camp, the decision to back their respective candidates is much more an emotional decision and much less a rational decision.

I tried to watch both conventions but could only take them in small doses. People standing and cheering for such poor candidates who are being proclaimed as the answer for all that troubles America was just irksome. Many of the followers of The Trumpster and Her Hillariness struck me as much like followers of far out religious cults… starry-eyed, out of touch with reality and just a little bit scary. I have pretty thoroughly studied both candidates and like a little bit (a very little bit) about each of them, I honestly wouldn’t vote for either of them. No offense to any true believer reading this but they are two pitiful people and neither would be a decent leader of our country. If you are a knee jerk Republican or Democrat, you don’t like what I have written, but it is still the truth.

I will repeat a question I ask often and have yet to receive a rational answer. Why does such a huge block of the African American population continue to constantly and consistently vote the straight Democratic ticket? Now I realize that the Democratic Party talks incessantly about being the party that stands with African Americans and is their answer to all the social ills and issues that beset them. But with all of that said and many years of Democrats holding office in Washington, the poverty rate among the Black population has risen more than 3% in the past eight years, up to 27.2%. The unemployment rate among young African Americans has dropped some but is still outrageously higher than the rate among the white population. My question to the African American voter is: Are you only listening to the political rhetoric or have you bothered to notice if the Democrats have delivered on decades of promises? I am suggesting that, instead of just listening to empty promises that make you feel better and voting for the politicians who promise you the moon and fail to deliver, look around for someone(s) who will really help. I’m I suggesting you go over to the Republicans? Of course not. They are mired in the same dysfunctional morass as the Democrats… seeking only power and to be re-elected. Seriously, do you really think either political party gives a rat’s ass about you? We are all pawns used to keep them in power. Wake up and think!!! The solutions will not be found in Washington. The answers will be found in us.

But let me tell you why I like Donald and Bernie. They both challenged the political systems in their parties. They flew in the face of the establishment and sought to take it down. Would I vote for either of them – Oh, Hell No! But I like what they did. They each had a different experience and outcome. Trump hijacked the Republican party from the Washington inner circle. They were caught flatfooted. They threw everything they had at him but there were too many disgusted, disenfranchised, thoroughly ticked off Republicans out there – far more than they realized. The Washington political inbred family spent too much of their time talking to and arguing with each other and not enough time listening to their constituents. They tried to carry on business as usual and the party regulars said, “I don’t think so. We have had enough.” I like Donald because he gave the party leaders a good and well deserved butt kicking. And they, of course, responded by putting on their frowny faces, picking up their toys and stomping home. Maturity reins.

And then there is Bernie. Dang, he almost made it. Unfortunately for him, too many of us have been around a long time and we have seen socialism being tried and failing miserably enough times that we couldn’t get all that fired up about living in a socialistic state. The present socialist countries they like to hold up as positive examples haven’t been around long enough to degenerate into the mess that socialism inevitably slides into. Human nature (greed and laziness) precludes socialism working for long. Like many things, socialism is better in theory than in practice. Poor Bernie and his dewy eyed followers completely underestimated the devastating power of the Democratic Party machine. He was crushed, ground up and spit out the other end. His supporters were completely shocked at how he was undermined and disrespected. Come on people, anyone who understands American politics has known for eight years that Hillary Clinton was going to be the 2016 nominee of the Democratic Party, come hell or high water. They owed it to her. She had earned it. She has been a part of the machine for decades. I give Bernie points for trying but wonder what possessed him to think he had a chance.

I’m asked if I am excited that a woman was nominated for President. I would be if the woman nominated had a decent value system and didn’t treat the people around her like she is above them. My disappointment has come in seeing Bernie and his followers roll over for the machine that screwed them out of the nomination and vowed allegiance and support to Hillary. Their thinking, I am sure, is that she is better than Donald. But she is not. She is just different. She takes money from the same people he does. She makes the same kind of outrageous promises that he does. She cares as little for the average voter as he does. (She just talks a better game.) She has shown herself to be as inept as he is (No matter what the great truth teller Obama says) and her trust factor is even lower than his. That in itself is completely unnerving.

Unfortunately, Bernie also gathered his toys, quit the Democratic Party and went home. He resigned from the party and went back to being an Independent. Which is what he should have stayed… and run for President. This country could use a good third party. Lord, we could just use a good party.

Copyright © 2016, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Bill McConnell is the Interim Minister at Norwood Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press.

He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell or on Twitter @billmc45053 or visit his Amazon Author Page @ Amazon

Campaign Cringe

I will freely admit that Presidential campaigns cause me to cringe. Each election cycle viscerally reminds me how broken our system is. Unfortunately I majored in Political Science in college. There I learned how our political system was set up and it was a great system. Many folks don’t know any better and believe the system we now have is the system our founding fathers intended. It is not even close.

For example: Separation of Powers. The legislature was designed to keep the President from becoming an elected King. The Supreme Court was supposed to hold the Legislature’s decisions in line with the Constitution. Instead of appointing Supreme Court justices because of their constitutional knowledge, they are appointed because of their political leanings… leanings that should, in no way, influence their decisions. Instead of working together to keep the republic running properly, each branch has become separate, renegade and power seeking entities. To hell with the Constitution, to hell with the health of America, nobody gives a crap about Joe average citizen. It is all about getting one’s way, pleasing one’s voter base, getting reelected and gaining and exercising power.

For decades our Presidents have been running over the top of the Legislature and acting as elected kings. The defense for this unconstitutional activity, as ridiculous as it is, has been, “The President of the other party did it while he was in office.” The fact that others have done it doesn’t make it right for such behavior to continue. And Congress has consistently lacked the gumption to do anything about it. Remember that members of Congress are only interested in one thing – being reelected. The solution to this particular problem is term limits. Term limits would bring to an end to the power and influence of lobbyists, special interest groups and big business giving huge amounts of money to reelection campaigns and thus controlling the votes of our legislators. Term limits would free legislators to do what they were elected to do – vote the will of the people, instead of concentrating on being reelected. I have had people tell me that if term limits were implemented our present system would no longer word. I am concerned when I must point out the obvious to these people. Our present system is already not working.

During the past century a shift took place that has changed everything and made the election process a chaotic, “I can give you more” slugfest. Originally the government was designed and empowered to do certain and limited things. In the 1900’s the politicians added something to that list. I am not privy as to why. I wasn’t there. It could have been for the best of intentions or it may be an effort to control the electorate. Whatever the reason, it became the government’s job to take care of everyone. As far as I can tell it started with Roosevelt’s response to the great depression. His response was Social Security, welfare and government jobs. Many people think these were the greatest things to happen in the history of our nation. I don’t. Especially since his programs didn’t work. Roosevelt’s New Deal didn’t solve the Great Depression; our participation in World War II did.

 The government has proven itself inept at caring for those in need. It is not even close. Over the years our government has consistently funneled huge amounts of money into government programs to solve poverty and social problems and have made almost no discernable progress. Decades of antipoverty programs and billions of dollars have been invested and still we have almost nothing to show for the effort. I would call that inept.

While on this train of thought, I honestly can’t understand why such a large majority of African-Americans vote consistently for Democrats. In general, under Democratic regimes, the economic plight of African-Americans has consistently grown worse. Is there some kind of magical thinking involved here? I would suggest that looking at the results of your vote… what your candidates did or didn’t do… should inform your future votes. Is our voting just a knee jerk reaction; a habit; a case of not paying attention; thoughtlessly believing the same empty rhetoric campaign after campaign? Good old practical Jesus put it like this: “You shall know them by their fruits.” What do they produce? Ignore the rhetoric and look at the results. If we, Republicans and Democrats alike, were to judge by the fruits of our politicians, we would vote them all out of office. Are we too ignorant or too frightened to vote such a change? We, as a nation, have been set up to fail by our thoughtless, uninformed voting patterns. My dad told me that my grandfather McConnell was a “Yellow dog Democrat.” When I asked him what that meant he said, “My dad would vote for a yellow dog if he was on the Democratic ticket.” Unfortunately there are “Yellow dog Republicans”, too. Such an approach to the political system is not only dumb, it is dangerous. We can and must do better.

It is unclear who first said this, but not knowing the source doesn’t lessen the truth it holds: “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to a loose fiscal policy… ”

I don’t know what that the collapse will lead to but it won’t be good. When writing the part about voting ourselves money from the government treasury the author is right on target. We have been doing it for years. Just listen to the politicians as they work at outdoing each other in promising to give us more in return for our votes… election after election. And this election the candidates have taken this approach to new heights.

Are our present political and economic systems screwed up? Obviously. Does our present governmental system have a snowball’s chance in hell of fixing it? Absolutely not. First we have to fix our system. Business as usual will not work. One more time – TERM LIMITS. That won’t completely solve the problem, but it would be a great start.

Copyright © 2016, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Norwood Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press.

He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell or on Twitter @billmc45053 or visit his Amazon Author Page @ Amazon