In 2000 the citizens of
Florida decided to vote their idealism when they voted for Ralph Nader.
George W. Bush was chosen by
the Supreme Court as the next president of the United States.
We had wars, foreclosures, and
a financial collapse. People’s 401ks were wiped out, and many lost their life
savings when their house was taken by the bank after banks had given loans to
many people who could not afford the loans in the first place, all along making
huge profits at those people’s expense.
It seems that the American
people learned nothing in 2000.
On November 8th
they fell for a demagogue who told Americans that their country had been run to the ground, all this coming from an individual who had not paid taxes in at
least 20 years, somebody who had cheated on his first two wives, who told
evangelicals that he was a big Christian when in fact he couldn’t mention a single
book from the new testament, somebody who has egotistical behaviors, who would
say anything to get elected.
He told his followers that he
could clean the swamp in Washington DC, and based on his cabinet he has filled
his cabinet with a group of right wing nuts, who have lied on their background
disclosures, hiding the fact that one of them had stacked 100 million in the
Cayman, another one who enriched himself while being a representative when he
purchased stock of a company and then proposed legislation that would benefit
that company, a woman who will run the Department of Education with no
experience in education and who had no idea about the disability act.
This individual who became
president told us that he would never reveal his tax returns, something that no
other candidate for president has ever done, he never divested from all his
holdings, which will create a unprecedented conflict of interest for the moment
that he put his hand on the bible, he employed his son-in-law in the white
house even though there is legislation that forbids that.
All my comments above are just
some background before the subject of this blog, and that is elections have
consequences.
After the much contested Democratic
primary many of the Sanders supporters decided that because their candidate had
lost they would not be supporting the winner of the primary, Hillary Clinton.
Their mantra was Bernie or Bust. Republicans also had a much contested primary
with many members of the Republican Party saying that they could not and would
not support the candidate. When pull came to shove republicans fell in line and
came out to vote for their candidate, compared to democrats who decided to
either support candidates who could not win, or not show up to vote.
For those democrats that I
mentioned elections have consequences, and they will bust. The first and only
thing that the new president signed today was an executive order to start the
dismantling of the Affordable Caring Act, this means that people who are under
26 and get health coverage through their parents that coverage will be gone,
thus they will either need to get insurance on their own or risk living with no
coverage. When the republicans talk about repeal and replace, there is no
replacement, so 20 million people who were getting health coverage through the
ACA will lose their insurance, if any of them have pre-existent condition insurance
companies will either not sign them or will sign them at a higher premium.
Another promise that the new president has made is to no replace the late
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia with another right wing Justice. During
the next four years Mr. Trump may also have the chance of replacing other
Supreme Court justices, this may move the court to extreme right positions, and
making decisions that will hurt the average worker in the USA, including going
after women’s rights.
Bust is not a position that
will help those people, they did not inflict any damage to Hillary Clinton, she
is well off and will hardly be affected by the new president’s decision, the
damage, or “bust” will be self-inflicted.
No war has even been won staying
at home. The ill decisions that the new administration may take during the next
4 years will be felt for decades to come.
