Have We Become THAT Dumbed Down??????

With the Presidential debate a few hours away, a shockingly surprising thing has happened...... the polls in America and "swing states" have tightened dramatically. As if by some magic, Donald Trump has erased his treatment of grieving parents of a dead soldier, his comments about the reckless use & proliferation of nukes, treatment of women..... even demeaning their appearance with a dead raccoon atop his head, that Black & Hispanic voters have now decided that they "don't have anything to lose" since their lives are so bad in the first place (doo-dah, yas boss) and the myriad of other outrageous and untruthful things that spout from his mouth every "3:15 minutes" have somehow all been forgotten by America!


Yes we are a "dumbed down America" from the 1960's, but not that dumb! So who would profit from a tightening Presidential race? Pollsters can sell more polls. Networks can get more viewers and charge MORE for their advertising because of it. America stays interested & concerned over the outcome, watching MORE television news and commentary, who then charge MORE for advertising. Newspapers, the few people still buy, will sell more. Magazines will sell more. On-line blogs & news sources like the Huffington Post, get more hits and MORE MONEY.

There is a trend here. The race may well be tightening, but not to a "dead heat" just in time for the first debate! Are we now THAT dumb?

Many years ago, in my "political infancy" a "pundit" whose name I have forgotten said very wisely, something to the effect that: "One Party could nominate a turnip and the other Party could nominate a pumpkin and they EACH would get 47% of the vote because that is where the American electorate sits. 94% are set in their party! SIX PERCENT of America is undecided and it is these Americans who decide the election."

That statement made me determined to always be one of the six percent and I was...... until the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the theft of the 2000 election from Gore, the hijacking of the Republican party by christian radical fundamentalists and the total obstruction of the entire Obama Presidency, cured me forever of Republicanism!

So up to 100 million Americans will watch the "Great Debate of 2016". This will earn millions of dollars for many people, not during the debate, but for the few days after and leading up to the election. I predict the polls will remain tight and will move back and forth between now and then and in January we will have not just a new President, but cable news networks, newspapers (on-line and traditional), networks and all the "sellers of soap" that advertised between now & then, will report record fourth quarter earnings...... thanks to these polls and the concern they generated!

Republicans will pray for for a rainy day nationwide on November 8th, because Democrats don't vote in as many numbers as Republicans do when there is inclement weather. Democrats will hope that as in 1968, Nixon's "Silent Majority" will again rise up and the six percent of us that decide elections, will move to the saner of the two candidates as they did then and again in 2008.

Whatever happens, America again has been done a disservice through the media being a "controlled media", this time and every time..... driven like so much in this new millennia, by the bottom line!

The Biggest Club

The way politics works, world-wide, is essentially the same below those with "absolute" powers (e/g: dictators). The struggles for power and the interactions between political operatives remains the same as it has been since we began to form communities back in pre-pre-history. This involves classic, though evolved, primate behavior. It cannot and will not change unless and until humans evolve further, which is not going to suddenly occur in the span of one election. It is a multi-millennial adaptation.

Thus, the actions to preserve and maintain power that we see, criticize and would like to change (e/g: "politics as usual"), are inherently impossible unless human thinking changes. What we have, is what we get as far as the way politics operates.


With the challenges facing the world right now, part of which ARE an evolution in human thinking (terrorism instead of conventional war for example), what this country does NOT need, is an experiment in a change of thinking that is not a change, but a return to the biggest man in the clan brandishing the biggest club and daring all others to challenge him. We need someone who can demonstrate the power of combining those clubs, metaphorically speaking,  to show how more can be accomplished by cooperating instead of bullying.

This was demonstrated by the fact that the person who has "brandished the biggest club and stood on high ground a distance away from a potential opponent", rhetorically speaking, seemed to be reluctant to even show his "club" to the leader of Mexico, a so-called "Third World" country.

This is also classic primate behavior! Bluster, swell up, make noise a retreatable distance from a potential adversary. Then in the face of a challenger who does, or MAY do the same, back down if you are not willing to risk defeat. We saw this in Mexico City and will see it in the world should we lose our collective minds and put Donald Trump in the White House.


Few have ever challenged the bully with the big club (money in this case), because they want to use the club to their own benefit (get some of the money). But in a world, a GLOBAL society & economy, with America having 4.8% of the world's 7.2 BILLION population and comprising about 7% of the world's land mass, cooperation rather than confrontation is required. DIALOG is required and not from someone whose negotiating skills are limited to bankruptcy and defaulting on remittances! Many, including a very experienced "club-wielder" with the same size club (Putin) will call Trump out, or worse, stroke his expansive ego to gain concessions. If he shrinks in the face of MEXICO's leader, what will he do in the face of the leader of a super-power?

This is why, with all her flaws..... flaws that are part of this "classic primate behavior"..... the WORLD needs Hillary leading America. She won't brandish a big "club" a safe distance from danger. She will brandish the power of the combined "clubs" of all Americans face-to-face and will do it WITHOUT the noise and bluster that demands a "club-waving" response from the adversary.


So yes, e-mails, foundation donations, secrecy and "connections" aside, we will be safer and fare better IN THIS TIME with an "alpha female" statesman reminding the world quietly we possess the biggest combined club that when combined with their club, can do wonders, than with the "omega male" waving his and making noise from a safe distance, that may back down and turn away from a confrontation, as he did in Mexico City when he had the chance to voice in person, what he has said from a distance while brandishing his club and howling!

We do not live in a perfect world. But I would like there to BE a world in four years that we can continue to try to improve!