Publictakeover's Weblog

Election Reflections

Fall 2016 Winter 2017

Everybody’s stupefied.  Even President Obama seems to have fallen off a cliff.  Besides, Trump is essentially such a bully and unstable megalomaniac, that none of us can really believe so many Americans voted for him for President.  Is it a nightmare?

To top it off, he’s a Republican, just like the House and Senate, and soon to be, the Supreme Court.  Ever been hit over the head with a tuna?

What happened

They said it was just a populist wave, but Trump suspiciously won FL, NC, PA, and WI each by 1%.  These are four states where Clinton was comfortably up in the polls before November 8th, then surprisingly lost the tally on election day.

I haven’t sorted out the Exit Polls yet, but the usual rumors abound–that the difference between the vote tally and exit polls are outside the margin of error in those four states.  Oh, and Clinton won only in counties in Wisconsin that use paper ballots only.  She only lost in counties with touch screens.

There was a petition going around to audit the election results, but we know how those things go:  usually squeezed to death between rock-hard political pressures.  The important thing is, Trump is a minority president-elect.  His percentages are worse than W’s, so he’s going to have an even harder time getting anywhere with the public, even with a slam-dunk Congress.

What To Do

So, there’s another scenario for a weak president to start a war in order to gain some “political  capital.”  Russia seems to be off the table.  China?  Unlikely.  I’m guessing predominantly Muslim country with strategic location and natural resources.  It has to be a country that can’t fight back, too, because those are the only ones we pick on.  Indonesia?  Somalia?  Nigeria?

Once the Juggernaut is rolling, it’s hard to stop, so we have to get out there ahead of the propaganda machine and silence the war drums before everybody starts dancing to them.

We could organize phone banks or something where we give citizens scripts to call their Reps and Senators.  We can also hold vigils and demonstrations.

But the thing that we really need to focus on is the television medium.  Our media are censored.  The radio, newspapers and television do not cover the details of the daily struggle of poor and middle class Americans.  There is very little news and viewpoint on the finer workings of Congress, not to mention state and local governments.

Democracy depends on this news coverage.

In terms of the military, most citizens have no idea who’s running things, how much money they’re spending, where and on what they’re spending it, and how does that affect the average voter.

We really want to find a way to embarrass or compel these media companies to serve the public interest.