vote

There is no perfect candidate.

There is no perfect cause.

If you are waiting for either before you head to the polls, you will never vote.

And that is why he is president today.

Two years ago, we were given an imperfect choice.  After a bruising primary, too many were left feeling left out by a system that they believed was rigged to coronate Hilary Clinton as the nominee on the left.  Bernie supporters, mortified by Hilary, and perhaps simply not ready to support anyone but Bernie, stayed home.  Hilary was too much like Bill.  Bill represented an old order they no longer believed in.  Hilary represented a sense of self-entitlement.  Hilary was in the eyes of many, a throw back to the back rooms of yore and corrupt beyond redemption. 

I did not believe this.  I did not believe she was a good candidate either, and would have preferred another nominee from the left. But Hilary is what we got.  And Hilary is who I voted for.

But many told me they could not in good conscience vote for her, regardless of him.

To be sure, they could not vote for him either.  They saw in him what we all see in him to this day.

But they could not vote for her.

While they campaigned against him and everything he stood for and stands for to this day, they still could not pull the lever for her.

So they voted for Johnson.  Or wrote in Biden.  Or Bernie.  Or Mickey Mouse.

Or worse, they stayed home.

And every one of those votes was a vote for him, because they were not a vote against him.

Even the ones who stayed home.

All because she was not the perfect candidate.

There is no perfect candidate.

On Tuesday, there is no perfect candidate.

But there is a way to make sure we do not make the same mistake.

By not voting in 2016, by voting a symbolic gesture of defiance, we were, in effect, voting for him, and we ended up with him.

And as a result, we ended up with:

A government that cares more for billionaires and multinational corporations than for the rest of us, and so they "reformed" the tax system on the backs of the rest of us to the big boys' benefit.

A government in which the ends justify the means, in which winning, whatever that means, takes precedence over doing what is right.

A government that does not believe in climate change, and will let us all die rather than address it, even those billionaires, just so that they do not have to make the hard choices to save the planet.

A government that thinks nothing of separating children from their families just because they don't look like us, and they don't sound like us.

A government that does not believe that health care is a fundamental right of all people.

A government that does not believe that voting is a fundamental right of all people, especially if they think some of those people are going to vote against them.

A government that thinks it can define away the very existence of a chunk of society that is larger than they think simply due to an outmoded form of bigotry and a colossal show of ignorance.

A government that thinks they have the right to tell you what to do with your own body if you are a woman.

A government that thinks they have the right to tell you who you are entitled to fall in love with and marry.

A government in which it is okay to assault women because it's just boys being boys.

A government in which people who seek to stand up for their rights and the rights of others are arrested, threatened with arrest or vilified in terms we used to send children to detention for if they dared say in school.

A government in which science and intellectual reasoning are either ignored or considered a weakness.

A government in which autocrats, fascists, madmen and tyrants are held in higher esteem than our oldest and most trusted allies.

A government that thinks there are many fine people among nazis or members of the ku klux klan.

A government that believes that a free press, the very bedrock of our Constitution, is the enemy of the people.

A government that allows people to be shot while attending a music festival, children to be shot over and over again while attending school, people to be shot while praying, all so gun manufacturers can make more money.

Look at this list.  This is what you voted for last time, or what you might vote for again, all because there is no perfect candidate.

Look at the list.

There is no perfect candidate.

There is no perfect cause.

There is what you believe in, and what direction you believe the country should take.  If you vote, you can influence in your way, the only way the Constitution gives you, the direction we go in.  If you do not vote because there is no perfect candidate or perfect cause, you will have once again voted for him, and you will have gotten what you deserve.

Look at that list and think of other items that could also be on that list.

There is no perfect candidate.

But each of us can be that perfect citizen.

VOTE.  VOTE. VOTE.

Top Ten Worst Persons in the World -- U.S. Political Version

Top Ten Worst Persons in the World -- U.S. Political Version

I used the watch the Keith Olberman show on MSNBC, primarily because he would end each day with a bit listing of the three worst persons in the world for that day.  As we head into midterm election day, inspired by Mr. Olberman, I offer my top ten worst people in the world, U.S. political version, although you may believe these are the bottom ten in a world of bottom feeders.

I note that others will obviously have their own list.  You will note there are no democrats on this list.  There are certainly any number of awful people in the world and in this country who are liberal/democrats in nature and who under ordinary circumstances would certainly merit a mention on this list.  I am sure you would include any number of them on your own list; however, this is my list, and this year, the political right has emerged as the dominant horror.  Given their never ending thirst for victory over anything else, I imagine the GOP will be proud to have achieved a shut out on this list.  

Honorable mentions herein include Paul Ryan, who appears to have at least some instincts for decency, which may explain why he is giving up his post as Speaker of the House without trying to get re-elected.  Mr. Ryan was originally on this list due to his constantly bowing to the worst instincts of this administration simply to get "conservative" legislation, judges, etc. he wanted, but was kicked off at the last moment upon sober reflection, to the extent that anything I may do is sober.  He may yet find his way here in the future.

Kelly Anne Conway is also not on this list.  Ms. Conway certainly merits some attention as the person who first explained some of cadet bone spurs whoppers by calling them "alternative facts".  She was also a last minute deletion; however, due to the fact that even though she appears before the public often on behalf of this administration, and lies about every fifteen seconds when she does, she has been supplanted by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is the one sent out there for cover most often, and she does so willingly and must know that she is covering whoppers with bigger whoppers.  There are only so many public spokespersons/press secretaries you can include herein.

Also not included is Brett Kavanaugh.  While his performance at his confirmation hearing was truly awful, and I personally believe he lied right and left about just about everything, including the allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford, at the moment, he has not yet authored or joined in on any truly awful decision at the Supreme Court.  Yes, I personally believe Dr. Ford, and even though what was alleged occurred more than thirty-six years ago, the judge should have expressed at least a morsel of sympathy for Dr. Ford instead of sneering at everyone to the left of him and swearing revenge on them.  Give him time.  I do believe he will graduate to this list next year.

Finally, not on this list is cadet bone spurs himself, whose inclusion would otherwise instantly retire lists of this type all over the world.  I had to be fair to everybody else; therefore, he is not on this list.  Neither is any member of his family or vice-president bone spurs, who apparently needs to be reminded that in the search for a rabbi to give an invocation at a memorial for murdered Jews, it would be nice to find somebody who has not been defrocked and is actually, well... Jewish.

The preliminaries out of the way, in reverse order, the ten worst persons in the world, U. S. political version are:

10.  SUSAN COLLINS -- From the moment she announced along with Jeff Flake and Joe Manchin that she wanted an investigation into Brett Kavanaugh before voting to confirm, it was obvious to anyone who has ever followed her career that Senator Collins was simply using the "investigation" for cover.  We all knew she was going to vote to confirm, just as we all knew she was going to vote for the disaster of a tax reform bill that is now sinking the future for our children.  Senator Collins pretends to be a moderate; however, time after time after time she votes right alongside the worst of the worst for the worst of the worst.  Nobody should ever look to her for moderation about anything again.

9.  RYAN ZINCKE -- You may as well call this the cadet bone spurs cabinet representative on the list.  If Scott Pruitt were still around, he would win this one hands down.  Mr. Zincke, however, is the present subject of more investigations than a Sherlock Holmes novel.  From a Mediterranean holiday at tax payer expense, to pay for play with his cronies, to opening up the national parks to oil and mineral drilling, to subverting the resources of this country for personal and political gain.  This list goes on.  Congrats Ryan. 

8.  DUNCAN HUNTER --  This one falls under the category of politicians under indictment or criminal investigation who are running for re-election.  We could not include them all.  To do so would fill up volumes of White Fluffy Duckies, which I am sure chills everyone to the bone.  So here we are with Duncan Hunter.  We are all used to seeing politicians get into trouble when they look out for number one before serving their constituency; however, this guy takes the cake.  Using campaign funds, for among other items, to buy an airline seat for a pet rabbit gets him into the idiots' hall of fame, and then blaming it all on his wife is enough in and of itself to get Mr. Hunter on his list.  We won't even get into the fact that the funds were also used to fund affairs with multiple mistresses.  Amazingly, he appears to have a real good chance of being re-elected, primarily based upon the emphasis of his campaign upon the fact that his opponent is part Hispanic, part Arabic; therefore, he is obviously a terrorist in the caravan struggling to reach our southern border, if they ever do.

7.  SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS --  As noted above, this could have been any one of the minions trotted out by cadet bone spurs to defend the indefensible.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as press secretary, however, is the face of the administration above and beyond his orangeness.  Sooooo...  Largest crowd size ever....  We won!  We won!...  E-mails!  Benghazi!...  Fake media...  Words matter, well, except for his...  You get the point.

6.  TED CRUZ --  He had to be on this list somewhere.  His personality is odious.  He may be the most disliked person in the country, even among his colleagues and his constituents.  His most recent piece of brilliance was to suggest that his opponent in the present election funded the Honduran caravan.  How he keeps getting re-elected and how he is leading in the polls in the current campaign is beyond my comprehension.  Perhaps we should pause for a moment in looking at what may be in the water in Flint, Michigan and see what the good folks in Texas -- and there are truly great people in Texas -- have been ingesting.  I will say this much, however.  The fact that Mr. Cruz was the last one considered to be the reasonable alternative to cadet bone spurs in the 2016 republican primary tells you just how awful the G.O.P. candidates were.

5.  BRIAN KEMP -- He is the Secretary of State of Georgia and is running for governor.  He is badly behind in legitimate polling, so he is doing what any right minded losing candidate who happens to be the secretary of state would be doing -- purging voters from the rolls who are likely to vote against him.  He is the one who is in charge of ensuring the integrity of the election in Georgia, but does not seem to think that his being a candidate for governor creates at least an appearance of a conflict of interest, all while he merrily rids himself of voters who will oppose him.  On top of everything else, he has walked out on the final scheduled debate with his opponent so that he can appear instead at a campaign rally with cadet bone spurs, showing the world he is Making America Great Again..

4.  LINDSAY GRAHAM -- This is the saddest of the persons on the list as far as I am concerned.  Were it not for the outright awfulness of the next three, this year he may have been the winner.  I used to believe that Senator Graham had a reasonably good sense of integrity that would prevent him from sinking into the muck along with everybody else.  He appeared to be willing to actually govern rather than participate in the perpetual campaign.  No more.  His sneering performance at the Kavanaugh hearing dispelled that notion forever.  During the 2016 presidential campaign, he correctly noted that a cadet bone spurs presidency would be an unmitigated disaster.  Now, he kisses the ass of the idiot in chief at every opportunity.  Just this week, when cadet bone spurs announced he was going to do away with birthright citizenship by executive order, something we all, including Senator Graham, know is unconstitutional, he immediately announced that he would introduce legislation to outlaw birthright citizenship, which he also knows is unconstitutional.  One wonders if cadet bone spurs has incriminating photographs of Senator Graham.

3.  SEAN HANNITY -- Clearly, the Fox Cheerleading Network had to be represented on this list.  Clearly, they are mostly non-journalists, which allows them to be on a list of the worst politicians.  I had to pick one, however, and while there was close competition from the likes of Jeannine Pirro and Lou Dobbs, in this instance, I will go with the guy who argued that even though he hosts a prime time show on a network that claims to be a news network, he has no obligation to tell the truth or be fair and balanced, as the network claims to be because his show is not a newscast or is even attempting to report the news.  It apparently is entertainment, at least to somebody out there.  In the long run, Mr. Hannity gets the honor here, as there apparently is nothing that cadet bone spurs can do that Mr. Hannity does not believe is pure genius, regardless of how blatantly wrong or even illegal it may be, and there is nothing anyone can say in response to his master that Mr. Hannity cannot attack in vile terms.  He appears to be the go to guy to figure out excuses for his excesses.  I am, however, impressed that he somehow managed to be one of only two other persons on the entire planet who hired Michael Cohen to represent him, although after Mr. Cohen was flipped by the feds, he apparently only hired him for about ten minutes on a very minor matter.

2.  STEVEN KING -- Were it not for the next guy on the list, this genius would be the hands down winner.  I will never watch reruns of "The Love Boat" again.  From fraternizing with Nazis to fear mongering Hispanics, gays, and anyone else who is not lily white, to savaging Native Americans, many of whom happen to be his constituents, and then blaming it all, as he did recently, upon the "fake media", well....  do we need to go any further?

1.  MITCH McCONNELL --  It takes a whole lot of chutzpah to spend eight years outright telling everybody in sight that your job is, first, to make sure President Obama did not get re-elected, then when that failed, blocking every proposal made by the Obama administration, and then turning around and complaining that the democrats were not interested in governing.  Senator McConnell spent eight years doing everything he could to bring down an administration short of calling a sitting president "Boy".  I will hand this much to this guy.  He certainly knows how to game the system just so that his side can "win", whatever that means.  Don't have enough votes to pass your tax plans?  No problem.  Change the rules so you need less votes to win.  Don't have enough votes to confirm a thoroughly awful judicial candidate or cabinet nominee?  No problem.  Change the rules so you need less votes to win.  Hearings?  Investigations?  Huh?  Well, maybe if you are investigating a guy who has not been president for twenty years and his wife, who is not running for anything at the moment.  Perhaps the worst part of this is the fact that this guy knew what was coming, had the power to stop or at least reign in the worst impulses of cadet bone spurs, but chose not to either in the name of "winning" or due to the fact that his wife is a member of the cabinet.

Clearly, I have left some gems out.  As noted at the outset, cadet bone spurs is not on this list, as he is in a class by himself.  I will brook dissent and additional names for consideration.  Feel free to include me on the list as well.  I may not be a politician; however, I am certainly one of the worst persons in the world.