This is notice to Ronna and Jaime: Hit me with your best shots; convince me with actions not words. In fact, now that I look at that sentence, I will change “notice” to “challenge” because the present politically reported situation calls for it. With that done, let me explain what it means.
The two people I named are the chairs of the two prominent political parties in the United States. Ronna McDaniel heads the Republican National Committee and Jaime Harrison is over at the Democratic National Committee; the NCs seen in bold print above. It is the job of both of these people to get their party’s message out to the voting populace in every precinct in every state in America and beyond (beyond being overseas military, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
It is accepted that a majority of voters registered of either of the parties will vote the party line by casting their ballots for members of their party, as well as any issues touted by their party, so one of the biggest aims of Jaime and Ronna is to get those voters who are somewhere in the middle. And that is me.
I am a voter registered as a member of the American Independent Party. And the word independent is used in its most literal definition, as I am not cajoled by any member of my party to vote straight party line because frankly I don’t know any other members, nor do I know any of their candidates and agendas beyond the fact that they, we, don’t want to be straight-jacketed by misplaced party loyalty. So I want to put forward a few issues and comments on what Mitt’s niece and the man from South Carolina may want to pay attention to.
Issue No. 1: Children 5 through 18 years old now die at a greater number by gun violence than automobile accidents. Since the Columbine shooting in April 1999, there have been 376 shootings on school campuses witnessed by a little over 348,000 students and the deaths of 304 students and staff.
Social media comments by Republican supporters of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution indicate they are convinced someone in government is going to take their guns and leave them prey to “bad guys,” but to many of them the bad guys are the government, not the populace they seek to remain armed with as many kinds of guns as possible no matter what. What happens when the Second Amendment protected gun owners sitting at home pose a greater threat to society than the criminal in the street?
I mean, c’mon, how many of these school shootings are done by career criminals? And on this issue, the Democrats have countless gun owners in their ranks, so while they want to put an end to myriad guns made for the express purpose of doing as much damage to human being as possible in the shortest amount of time, they waffle and waver and get nowhere. I’ll vote for any candidate or law that curbs this situation, while I wait to hear about the next kids who will surely die.
Issue No. 2: Republicans must endure Trumpism until the man behind it all is pushing up daisies. That is unfortunate for Ronna because she can’t, or won’t, put up strong opposition to right-wing media’s constant attention to voter fraud, Covid conspiracies and other nonsense issues instead of health care, rising costs, foreign policy or anything really meaningful to the American people.
And, again, the Democrats are on the defensive, mired in the bog of countering the media onslaught of one man’s influence and all the while knowing any efforts on their part will end up at the Supreme Court, which that man packed. Weak, to say the least. I will vote for any person other than that person and vote against any person or law proposed by that person. But, I just might vote for any person of that man’s party who denounces him.
Issue No. 3: Abortion. One of the hottest of the sociopolitical hot buttons. I once held the belief that no man can hold valid opinion on abortion because it is just plain impossible for men to understand what a woman feels about pregnancy and child birth. It was a blatant attempt at doing what most politicians do, which is dodge the issue.
But the recent attacks nationally and in some states on a woman’s right to determine what is best for her regarding pregnancy and the fact that I have three granddaughters, and by virtue of some of my activities I have many associates who are teenaged girls, it seems I need to take a position on the issue. I will vote for any candidate or law that allows a woman to make the decision regarding her pregnancy — period. And if you have a religious belief that disallows unfettered abortion while supporting gun ownership rights, I will not listen to your hypocrisy.
Issue No. 4: Global Warming. We all know it is a fact and if we are intelligent enough, we know the causes. The internal combustion engine is dinosaur in its death throes and the future of our children depend upon drastic moves away from gas-burning devices and other such polluters. Some seek to engineer electric automobiles; there is a billionaire out there making big claims about his vehicles, but to date 342 people have died in Tesla fires all caused by bad engineering, so this rich man’s claims don’t hold much water with me.
But there are other alternatives out there and they must be found. I will vote for any candidate or law that will move us away from the mass destruction to the planet caused by present day use of polluting machinery and practices.
OK, Ronna and Jaime, now you know what will get my vote, convince me your side is right.
Take care. Peace.
