Dropping Out In 2020

CNN informs us that four in five Iowans want some of the Democrats presently running for president to drop out of the race before they caucus in February.  That’s fair enough; last I heard, there’s somewhere between 170 and 230 Democrats with active campaigns right now, and only half a dozen are polling above 1%.

And it’s reasonable from the standpoint of the average voter.  After all, who has the time to get to know even the major candidates?  Besides, it’s not as though there aren’t at least two championing every unique position.  For my own reference, I’ve been maintaining a 2020 candidate guidebook to help me keep track of the top thirty or so; I’m quite happy to share it with you. (more…)

The Case For Oligarchy

One of the many reasons Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 was the common perception that the DNC had stacked the deck, fixing the primaries against Bernie Sanders so she could win them.  Sanders wouldn’t have won anyway, but nobody seems to care; people focus on the wrongdoing.

Which is another thing; there’s nothing unethical or illegal about having SuperDelegates.  It’s ironic that the party that labels themselves “Democrats” uses an oligarchic system (more…)

Why Won’t People Admit The Truth About Russia?

Frankly, it’s because the real truth is hard to admit:

Russia didn’t cost Clinton the election and give it to Trump.

It’s possible you did.

What did Russia do? They stole information — true information — and leaked it to the voters. They did so at the most effective moment and in the most damaging way. They did it less to sway voters than to create hatred and division between the parties. Looking out there today, you can see they were successful. (more…)

Why We Aren’t Panicking About Russian Election Tampering In 2020

There’s a couple of reasons here. I think the main one is, we’re pretty much emergencied out by now.

Think about it: Al Gore gave us a decade to fix the planet, and that was twenty years ago. We were running out of oil too; that hasn’t happened either. And… anyone else remember the Y2K scare? We were going to have riots, looting, and blood in the streets. Never happened; wasn’t (more…)

The Earth Is Flat.

I’ve been wanting to post my personal Flat Earth theory for quite some time now, but I’ve been holding back because I don’t want to court mindless censure. Then I realized: Politically, I’m a moderate who believes in reasonable discussion and compromise, and I fight for those beliefs. So why not this one too?

This is a theory, by the way; it’s not an article of quasi-religious dogma for me. Facts won’t offend me; incivility will. (more…)

Does One Vote Matter?

You know, in our history of electing presidents, we’ve had some narrow wins.  In some cases, if  a very few people had voted another way, the results would have been entirely different.

I was asked which margin was narrowest in our entire history of electing presidents.  As best as I can tell, (more…)

Losing In 2020

“Forget about winning for a sec.  Who do you think will lose in 2020?”

The American people. It’s a tradition, after all.

Stop and think about it: Last time around, we were asked to choose between two of the most loathed people in the country. Our alternatives included the pot smoker and a doddering honest-to-God socialist.

(Don’t get me wrong; I’ve got nothing against Bernie Sanders or Gary Johnson (more…)

Climate Change Optimism

A certain fluffy-headed optimist posed the following question:

“What tiny change could the whole world make right now to make a huge impact on the rate of climate change in the next decade?”

I’m sure it was aimed at provoking answers like “walk to work” or “plant a tree”, maybe “use less plastic” or just “consume less”. Which would all be good things; I won’t argue that; we should do them all, absolutely. But this sort of question obscures the true (more…)

Facebook, and Freedom Of Speech

“When our founding fathers gave us freedom of speech in the 1st Amendment, it meant all speech, whether you like it or not!”  -R.H.

No complex question has a simple answer.

Generally, I agree:  If you say “I believe…” and follow that by a statement, no matter how offensive that might be, you’re protected under the law, and because of certain inalienable (more…)

Third Parties In 2020

If you’ve been reading my stuff for any amount of time, you might remember that I was a pretty fervent supporter of Gary Johnson in 2016.  Now, I’m no Libertarian; likewise, I don’t smoke pot.  I just really dislike both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either one.

(Not to worry; I voted in Maryland.  I didn’t get Trump elected.)

This time around, the most prominent Libertarian is running as a Republican.  That’s only fair, since the most prominent Socialist (more…)