Sunday, February 14, 2016

YOU are the heart and soul of the Democratic Party's future

Okay, I know that's an odd title coming from a self-proclaimed right-wing nutjob.  And yet, it's an important title to convey what I hope to bring to you today.  And by "you", I mean those of you who are:

* "Millennial" - born mostly between 1980 and 1990,
* Democrats or Democrat-leaning,
* among the rank-and-file (that is, not wealthy),
* and are Bernie Sanders supporters. 

Before I continue to my point for this blog entry, let me first state that I am not a Democrat, nor will I be one for a very, very long time - if ever.  That's because I know its past, and I know its present, and I like neither one.  It's because of that past and present that I can't foresee myself becoming a Democrat for many, many years to come, because I can't see the party changing in any significant way that would cause me to consider joining it.  Right now I know that some of you who are Democrat are thinking "Well, the GOP has its flaws!  Many of them!" 

I agree, and the two main reasons that I am with the GOP are, 1.) It's the only serious alternative to the Democratic Party, and 2.) It's allegedly the pro-life party, an issue that I hold very dear.  Don't get me wrong - I know the GOP has its flaws, primary among them is that it is filled with cowards who do not stand with the courage of their convictions, which annoys me to no end.  So my standing with the GOP is mainly because it's the only alternative to the Democrats.  That the GOP relies so much on that reason for so many of its members to be in their ranks should be a damn embarrassment to them, but they actually seem to be okay with that, and that's just damn disgusting.  And yet, I and most other members of the GOP really don't have a choice, and the GOP knows it.  Bleh.  Let's move on, before I barf on my keyboard.  :-P

Here's a little history: Let's take the side that fought FOR slavery during the American Civil War.  Let's take the side that fought against changes to laws to help former slaves in their new lives in the post-war world.  Let's take the side that had the KKK, had lynchings, Jim Crow Laws, separated water fountains, segregated schools, pools, lunch counters, and many public facilities. Let's take the side that fought against civil rights laws, and that attacked peaceful protesters with clubs, dogs, water cannons, and other instruments of enforcement.  Let's take the side that fought against school segregation, with even a governor blocking a school entrance.  Let's take the side that fought tooth and nail against laws and changes for a century after the end of the war before the former slaves and then their descendants finally had all the rights that our Constitution guaranteed for everyone.  Know which side that was?  All of that was from Democrats.  DEM-O-CRATS.  Check your history, folks - it's all there. 

And yet. 

And yet.

And yet, for some reason, the Dems are the side that's considered "on the side" of "the people."  They're considered the good guys, the ones with all the smart people, the ones who will go all out for the many categories of "oppressed" classes - especially in the faces of the GOP's "tactics" to keep those "oppressed folks" down.  When I bring up the Democrat party's very ugly past, it's usually explained to me that "those guys changed parties to the GOP sometime in the 70s"  I have to disagree; especially since it's the Dems who still need a class of our society to designate as "not human".  I speak, of course, of the unborn.  It took over a century for the party to finally recognize the humanity of the slaves and their descendants, and not a decade passed before they replaced them with the unborn as their new class to deny basic human rights.  It's plain as vanilla for anyone who really wants to see the truth.  But this is a battle that I'm not going to win overnight, and I'm certainly not going to win with one blog post.  It's time to get to the point of what I'm trying to write here today. 

At this time, the majority of my fellow Millennials vote Democrat, and they also believe that Socialism holds the cure to all of our country's ills.  They couldn't be further from the truth, but again, I'm not going to convince them of that with one blog post.  Right now, all I can do is to suggest a course of action in this 2016 presidential election.  Right now, they support Bernie Sanders as their candidate.  But also right now, the Democratic leadership has made it abundantly clear that they want Hillary Clinton as their candidate.  So the establishment and the Millennial voters are clashing over which candidate will get the nod.  In all honesty, the odds are overwhelmingly against the Millennials, and my fellow Millennials are known as the generation that got "participation trophies", so this seems to be a battle in which my generation is expected to simply give up and go home. 

That indeed seems to be the case, but I am hoping that right here, right now, is when my generation finally grows a pair.  I am hoping that this election season will be when the Millennials finally grow up, and fight for a cause that they believe in.  Now, here's the thing, friends - I will support my fellow Millennials fighting for Socialism and for Bernie Sanders, even if I am wholly against both - if it means that, for once in their entitled and "participation trophy-awarded" little lives, my generation will finally stand for something and fight for it. 

Again, the odds are almost completely stacked against them.  The odds are, by my guesstimation, to be at least 90+% that this will be a fight that they will lose.  But I hope they fight away.  I hope they make the Democratic Party leadership choosing Hillary Clinton as difficult as possible.  I hope they make the leadership pull all of their con games and other chicanery cards out, and very much in public, and make the leadership look in all the worst ways possible in order to get their desired candidate on the ballot.  I hope that my generation will help expose the Democratic leadership to be the party of corruption that I've long known them to be.  I could point it out to my fellow Millennials until I was blue in the face, but it's going to take being conned by the party before they will see it.  But they will only see it if they keep on fighting for Bernie, and they will only see it if they get burned by the party when the party finally selects Hillary. 

So, despite my preferences for a GOP candidate, I hope my fellow Millennials fight for Bernie - in fact, I wholly encourage them to do so, even if it means dealing with the expected disappointment in the end, because it will mean that, for once in their lives, they fought for something, even if they fought for it and lost, so long as they participated in the battle.  And in the process, they will have helped expose the Democratic party for ALL to see.  I will be honest in admitting that I hope that the Democratic party crashes and burns, and collapses in a heap under the weight of their corruption, because that's what it's going to take for the party to finally, finally change. 

And if this indeed happens, then it will be my fellow Millennials who will be there to pick up the pieces.  This is why I said in the title of this post that they are the heart and soul of the Democratic party's future.  So the battle for Bernie is for more than just for 2016, it's for all the upcoming elections in the near future, when the Baby Boomers step down and retire, and the next generation - my generation - takes their place.  You can either follow in the footsteps of the past generations, and continue all the ugliness that comes with it, or you can make your own footsteps, into a new and brighter future. 

So please, my friends, choose the latter.  We can always talk about your mistaken attachment to Socialism another time. ;-)

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Hello! Welcome to my blog!

If you're here because you read my FB post about posting to my blog while I am AFK for 40 Days from FB, then hello!  ^.^

Unlike in recent years, in which I went AFK from both FB and my blog for Lent, this time around I will be posting to my blog during Lent, because I haven't shown my poor blog much love in quite awhile, and it's not really "stepping away" if I'm not here on my blog anyway. 

So in the coming 40 days, I'll try to catch up on many topics that I didn't cover on FB, and at the same time, I'll reinvigorate those writing muscles that I used to cut my writing teeth during my pre-FB days. 

Stay tuned, my friends!  More to come!  :-D