Why We Shouldn’t Worry about Clinton or Trump

Why in the world would the Republican Party back Donald Trump, maybe, the most divisive presidential candidate in history? Why would anyone, especially Christians, support a candidate they would lynch if he said about them the things he has said about Hispanics and women? Supporters of Trump laugh and say it doesn’t matter that he is offensive and abrasive because he is not a politician. Holy Hogwash! The truth is he became a politician the moment he announced his intention to run for the Presidency, but politician or not, as the potential President of the United States, it matters what he says, how he says it, how he acts, and what he does! Politically, it matters because he is running for the supreme public office in the nation – an office that represents the integrity of the nation! There is no integrity in demeaning people, and I doubt seriously if the rest of the world will be as forgiving as his supporters of a President with a demeaning mouth and disposition.

On the other side of the fence sits the first serious woman candidate for the Presidency, Hillary Clinton. However, why in the world would the Democrat Party hitch their wagon behind maybe the most untrustworthy presidential candidate in history? From her numerous shifts on political positions and subsequent patented denials to her blatant lies regarding her misuse and destruction of classified emails, she has proven over and over again she cannot be trusted. Supporters can argue she has apologized all they want, but how far will apologies take a President with poor judgement? It matters that a President is trustworthy – at least above the table.

The dilemma we find ourselves in did not happen overnight. It is the result of years of voter apathy that has allowed the politicians, Democrats and Republicans, to do as they please without accountability. The only accountability is the vote, but due to lack of long term memory, by the next election, voters have forgotten the issues and 90% of what was said the first go around. Voters rarely hold politicians accountable for their promises, so why shouldn’t politicians promise the world when all they need deliver is peanuts such as Clinton and Trump? Why shouldn’t they lie as long as they keep straight who they lie to and keep a smile on their faces (i.e. Clinton and Trump)? Bottom line, the people – the voters – are as much responsible for the mess we are in as the politicians and the political parties we blindly follow.

So, how do we get out of this? We don’t, and there is little need to waste time worrying about it. Prayer may help, but I am afraid the good Lord is going to let us wallow in the bed we have made for ourselves for a while. The conservatives can blame the liberals and the liberals can blame the conservatives, but name calling and bellyaching will do nothing but hurt our ears. Regardless of how much we moan and groan, one of the two misfits will be elected in November. The only bright spot is that America has made it through tough times before, and we will most likely make it through this as well. After four years, we will be invited to the dance once again, and hopefully, the next dance card will be a little more balanced in favor of sanity.

Until we dance that dance, “We are stuck with the ugly duckling,” as Trump might say. The Presidency will not change Clinton or Trump for the better; they are who they are, and those two old dogs are not about to change for anybody or anything. So, we might as well suck it up and have a hardy laugh. The rest of the world is certainly laughing, so why not join in and save our concerns and worries for a later day when it might matter. Unfortunately for America, the train has left the station, and all tickets have been punched for the next four years.

JL

©Jack Linton, October 8, 2016

Three Kinds of Facts

“Just the facts, mam,” Joe Friday, Dragnet.

There are three kinds of facts – my facts, your facts, and their facts – and somewhere in between lies the truth.  In today’s society, people embrace the facts that come easiest or the facts they want to believe.  Therefore, truth does not exist outside my facts, your facts, or their facts, and that, my friend, is a fact that results in a factiction.

Today’s Factictions

1. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in cahoots to ensure she wins the Presidency;
2. In 2016, the Mississippi Legislature passed House Bill 1523, which protected certain religious freedoms and banned Dirt Devil and Rainbow vacuum cleaners;
3. Bill Clinton says Hillary likes it rough; their breakfast table is made of rough-hewed planks;
4. In Washington D.C., Republicans are only permitted to use elevators that go up, and Democrats can only use elevators that go down;
5. After over twenty years, a research team sponsored by Republican Conservatives for the Purification of America (RCPA) concluded Jesus was Jewish;
6. Supreme Court Justices are required to be blind or at least sight impaired;
7. Hillary Clinton’s issues with her health are an attempt to get the sympathy vote;
8. Donald Trump has backed off making Mexico pay for his border wall. He now plans to import The Great Wall of China to the Mexico/USA border and have the Chinese pay for it;
9. The reason Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton despise each other is because they dated in college; and
10. The 2016 Presidential campaign is actually a Saturday Night Live skit.

My facts, your facts, and their facts, and somewhere in between lies a truth we are blind to or choose to ignore.  Unfortunately, the resulting factiction is the present foundation of politics and civil unrest in America.

JL

©Jack Linton, October 3, 2016

Abandoned by God or Common Sense?

The 2016 campaign for the presidency has turned this nation into a swarming hive of publicity seekers, doomsday enthusiasts, and impetuous and reckless lunatics stirring the pot of chaos.  Seldom has a day gone by without somebody new jumping on the lunacy bandwagon so shamelessly driven by both political parties.  However, the madness goes beyond politics.  As a nation, thinking and emotions have become so compromised that it is clear many Americans have lost touch with reality.  Every day, the nation is confronted by people entangled in delusional aberrations.  They inject the reality of what they see and hear with what they want to see and hear, thereby creating a sense of warped personal authenticity.

America has lost touch with common sense!  People are quick to embrace hearsay, Facebook dribble, and biased news, especially if it supports what they “want to” believe – to heck with truth and reality.  Americans have developed a passion for morphing little things into big things or nothing into something.  They love to create mountains out of molehills.  As a result, they resemble Chicken Little running around crying the world is ending, and moaning and groaning that God has abandoned America.

If God has abandoned America, which is doubtful, it is because he is embarrassed at the lack of common sense currently on display.  People point to the lack of prayer in schools, lack of attention to the Bible, and sinful lifestyles as the reasons for America’s decline when the sad truth is this country’s problems lie in the hearts of the American people.  God has not abandoned America! The people, due to their reckless disregard for the American pursuit of liberty and happiness for all people as well as their neglect of the Biblical commandment to love their neighbor, have abandoned America.  As a nation, too many Americans no longer embrace diversity as a virtue in their politics, in their society, or in their personal lives, which means they have abandoned what made America great.  As a consequence of this indifference to liberty and happiness for all and love of neighbor, the nation stands helpless in the shadows of mountains built from molehills and righteousness built from convenience.

Common sense is the mountain Americans must reclaim before the nation can regain its sanity and move forward.  Until people begin to filter life, media, and hearsay through the lens of common sense, America will continue to resemble a quagmire of lunacy.  It is time we stop building molehills into mountains, stop pandering and giving credibility to stupidity, stop assuming we are more righteous than the other person, and return to practicing common sense and treating one another with respect.  That is the only way America will regain its sanity.  Once we have a grip on common sense and can again converse respectfully as adults without shouting down those who disagree with us, we will find America is still the greatest nation on earth, and throughout the insanity, God has never been more than a prayer away.

JL

©Jack Linton      May 22, 2016