As I've discussed recently, venom in political (and other) dialog in the U.S. has caught my attention.
Here's my friend Bill Bonner with some thoughts which make an excellent sequel to my recent comments
here, and
here.
As Bill points out, here are a couple of examples of what blocs of voters have, or have not, accomplished:
- Black people in Baltimore "raised hell" over the death of Freddie Gray, a black man, while he was in police custody. When that occurred, Baltimore's mayor, police chief, and the majority of the Town Council were all black. How much good did it do Freddie Gray to have black "representatives" in high office?
- Jewish and Asian immigrants to America in the last century or two have focused mostly on their own families and businesses, while Irish immigrants were able to get many of their numbers elected to high offices. Who's prospered? How much good did political "success" do the average Irish voter?
Everywhere you look, politicians get elected to an office which pays a salary of, in most cases, less than $200,000 per year. After a few years they turn up with personal worth of millions of dollars more than when they were elected.
You can do the math and draw your own conclusions from those facts. Who benefits from political activity? It seems it's not most of the voters who elect these people.
So it's my belief that it matters little whether we elect a Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian, a liberal or conservative, a man or woman, or a black, white, red or yellow person. The result is pretty much the same. The politicians, and those who bribe them, get rich at the expense of the man in the street.
(Note:
It seems that national- and state-level elections command more of the voters' attention than local races.
It's my suggestion that voters would benefit from de-centralizing politics as much as possible. Local politicians feel more obligation to their constituents than those in high national offices.)
The biggest difference among high-level candidates is usually who's paying them to do what. The salary paid from public coffers is often the smallest portion of their income.
I hope you appreciate
Bill's comments and perhaps consider whether a heated argument about politics is a good use of your time and energy.
For that matter, why should the discussion of any difference of opinion be other than respectful? Those who try to "shout down" others' opinions mostly show their own insecurity.
Care to discuss anything I've written here, or something else?
Let's do it
.
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