Why Do You Hate Your Neighbor?

I recently posted an article on Facebook about the Secret Service being strapped after the travel associated with protecting large family Trump. The President has the prerogative to travel domestically as well as overseas, so frankly Donald Trump’s travels to golf every weekend is simply the way it is. On the other hand, his son’s travel extensively on vacations and around the world business deals that the Trump organization should not be involved in the first place while their leader is President. It goes against all ethic rules for any of them to traipse all over the world selling Donald Trump brands. Alas however the Republican led congress and Senate are still stuck on defeating Hillary (no one told them Trump won?) and have not done a thing to stop him even though it can and perhaps will come back to bite all of us.

The ethics issues, while gross in themselves was not what the article was pointing out so much as stating that the large family coupled with frequent flyer miles, dozens of properties he visits and golf courses he plays had broken the fiscal bank for the Secret Service. There was no attached comment to my posting the article and I had seen a report on it on Fox just minutes before, so you can imagine my shock to be “disowned” for my supposed hatred of Trump by one of the people on my “friends” list. The misplaced reference to hate is amazing to me since Donald Trump has done everything he can to froth up hate at his rally’s and placed a premium on division to keep his base from looking at his overwhelming short comings, lousy business skills and past legal issues. Not to mention 10 years and counting of the nation listening to how terrible Obama was and is, right down to his birth in HI.

However, to blame Trump entirely for the division is missing what has gone on for the last twenty years and something Bush addressed during his Presidency. The blame primarily rests with redistricting or Gerrymandering as it is properly called. The concept of Gerrymandering set out to horde as many voters favorable to one party candidate or the other to make winning congressional seats easier for said parties. https://apgovernmentchs.wikispaces.com/Redistricting+and+Gerrymandering Gunnison County, Colorado for instance was recently split in half over a redistricting move by the Democrats in Denver to keep an Independent candidate who did not always do their bidding from being elected; they drew the line right behind her house. In recent years Republican’s particularly have redrawn many boundaries across the country to lock out minorities and gather voters favorable to their causes.

If the truth be known, a solid, concise message by either party would suffice to win the hearts and minds of the voters, but there is another very important part of party politics, and that is the money. With the winning of a Supreme Court decision by the group “Citizens United” establishing that corporations are “people” and they can give freely to candidates, a whole new world has opened up in dirty, pay to play politics. The same people who unleashed the dogs are now trying to ram through not only corporate giving, but totally unlimited funding. Since congressional legislators must re-enter the campaign mode every two years they spend an average of four hours every day dialing for dollars from small calling centers “off campus”. If they don’t raise the money or solidify the backing they will likely not be re-elected. Of course, it is expected of them to do the bidding of those corporations or organizations or they will advertise against them in favor of someone who will do what they want. The legislators are trapped between the corporations and the voters and for the most part they cannot win both.

Since Obama’s campaign appeared to be on track for the nomination in the 2008 election the Republicans on the Hill began to push back with advertising against him, but not in the conventional way. They began to use email forwards and social media that was just emerging as a possible tool to sway voters planting seeds of doubt. Their early attempts were unsuccessful, but as time went on people like Karl Rove and Grover Norquist perfected it and we see the results of that today…there are still congressmen repeating what Trump worked hard on; the idea that Obama wasn’t born here. It is a lie of course, but why let go of a good thing when so many people believe it? Of course, the Democrats rack up political discrediting mileage too, but the misinformation show of the last ten years is second to none and is proudly carried forward by some including Trump when he tells his supporters that the media is to blame for his problems. I for one find it distasteful to win at anything by lying or cheating, but greed (another story of our politics) wins at least in the short term.

All of this left the door wide open to the Russians who not only had the luxury of Americans being trained and gullible, but they had the model for a program of disinformation. The Russians have taken all they learned to muddy their hands in elections all over the free world and to divide the minds of people enough to move in economically. Putin is the richest man in the world and rigs with the power of money his own election every time it comes up. His greed is incredible and with him influencing the US or other democratic nations you can be sure it will be you who loses.

There are good reasons you hate your neighbor, but there is nothing reasonable or good that will come from it. To the contrary, if we are divided by the liars out there telling us bullshit we not only will fall, but we will fall hard. Hate is consuming and not a game I will ever play because it is a waste of energy. I will always stand up for what is right and respecting my family, friends and neighbors is part of that.