So, what does it tell you about our politics (or about us!) when……
1) The citizens consistently through polling suggest that they want decreased military involvement and a smaller military footprint overseas, but the only candidate on the Dem side suggesting that path forward is mocked as a “dictatorship sympathizer”? (Tulsi Gabbard)
2) The Dems consistently say they want a smaller military so they can route those funds elsewhere, but the only candidate who suggests a foreign policy that would allow them to reach that objective is mocked as an “isolationist”? (Again, Tulsi Gabbard)
3) The Right is constantly chided by the Left for being heartless (children in cages, immigration) and accused (unjustly) of racism (also a problem of the heart) but the only candidate that actually talks about protecting, guarding, and growing that “heart” is mocked for doing so? (Marianne Williamson).
4) The Right is constantly accused of wanting to usher in an authoritarian state, but one of the Democrat front-runners is an ex-prosecutor with a decade long track record of using harsh methods to enforce the law, sometimes giving only lip service to civil liberties in the process? (Kamala Harris)
5) At least two front runners want to ditch the highest quality health care delivery system in the world (it’s our health insurance problem that keeps us from having the best health care statistical outcomes in the world, not our ability to deliver state of the art care) and force everyone into a model which only seven to ten other countries in the world use, cutting provider compensation by half to a third while expecting no decrease in quality of service, and which is notorious for being unable to deliver needed but non-urgent care in a timely fashion? (Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren)
5) Candidates who remind us that this nation was built on a free market economic mode are mocked for not wanting to switch to another economic model which has no record of success anywhere in the world? (Several, mostly the current and ex- governors, who know what works and what doesn’t through experience that mere Senators lack).
6) Trump, a problematic man at best, is president and no Republican will primary him?
I could go on, but I think the point is made. We have been experiencing a declining quality of leadership in the US since Bush I.
And from the looks of things, there is no reason to think that Trump’s replacement, be that in 2020 or 2024, is going to change that trend.
Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised, but only time will tell.
