Political Post, late July, 2019

While listening to NPR this morning I heard an interview with an Englishman talking about Brexit.  He wants to proceed, get on with it, and he mentioned the “nanny state”.  I immediately thought about myself and my state of retirement, wondering if I am doing enough, or anything, to contribute or at this point am I just basking, taking in the fruits of my many lucky breaks.  This seems to relate to my writing, which I struggle with constantly, not really knowing if I can do it.  This is what I do as I exist in my self-contained vessel of negative self-regard.  Whatever the topic (medical practice, bicycling, volunteering at the shop, owning an airstream, writing, reading…come to think of it, EVERYTHING!), I consider as activities that I do inferiorly.  So just now, I am thinking that this has got to be false, because that just cannot be true.  So I’m calling bullshit on myself, and just now plan to continue writing. 

Yesterday, I re-read an article in the New York Times magazine by Michael Steinberger, a regular writer for the magazine who last wrote about George Soros.  In the current piece on the presidential campaign, he references the much-discussed controversy about what strategy democrats should embrace to win the presidency.  Should our goal be winning over moderates who could conceivably vote for either Trump or the democrat, or should the goal be energizing and mobilizing our diverse and generally left of center base with bold progressive policy platforms.  I am an advocate for evolving the state into much more of a force for justice, which would include a very serious consideration  and likely implementation of a Universal Basic Income, access to essential health care services for all persons without a financial penalty, and significant specific help for those who are wealth-deficient due to historical catastrophes of prejudicial policy that has resulted in passive, persistent structural inequality.

So with that, I would love to vote for someone like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Roarke, Julian Castro, Marianne Williamson, for Christ’s sake.  But maybe, just maybe, those huge cohorts of low-turnout voters that would benefit from policies such as these would continue to vote in low percentages.  And faced with a threat of “impending communism” and the end of life as they know it, the other side would mobilize aggressively as they have been known to do, win another 4 years, and perhaps convert the country into something equally radical, and painfully damaging.

So, I hope to watch the “debates” this evening, July 30. God damn it, this is important;  are these the last days?  Get active, get ready, here we are. Or, am I just now thinking “oh, the general welfare, maybe I should pay attention and divert my energies from my own very specific local shit…  “.  I know, it’s a challenge.  But wow, the consequences.  No, nothing is guaranteed.  You could lose it all.   Come on, we  are not immune.  And the Japanese and German people of the 30’s are not that different than us.  Think about it.