Response to Tyler S. Clark

The following is in response to Tyler S. Clark’s recent post about the two Democratic candidates for U.S. president.  Tyler, do you remember the old popularity contest in high school (maybe your high school was different if you don’t) where the two most popular students would stand in front of the class and promise all kinds of crazy changes in order to get elected as class president?  They’d promise vending machines, early dismissal, better food in the cafeteria, and other things kids might be interested in.  And then, once they were elected, they’d realize that they weren’t allowed to make some of those changes.  From my viewpoint, it never seemed to matter who the class president was because they were ineffectual in making any meaningful changes to my life.

The two Democratic candidates are the two most popular Democrats.  They’re promising so many changes that anyone who’s familiar with government knows they’ll never be able to make them all.  They’ll not be able to make even a fraction of them.  My point is, instead of focusing on which one of these corporation-backed candidates gets elected for the Democratic candidate for president, and then instead of focusing on which corporation-backed candidate gets elected President, why not focus more on the local elections and candidates and issues where people in your area are going to be most affected?

It doesn’t matter which of the popular (and wealthy) candidates become president because our lives will only be changed minimally.
When Bush stole his way into the presidency, eight years ago, everyone was saying things were going to get crazy, our lives would be ruined.  Some things have changed, new war, housing market collapse, potential economic recession, global warming getting worse, gas prices up, etc…  But overall, people’s lives are generally the same as they were prior to Bush being elected.  And in the rare cases where lives have been disrupted (say in the case where a family member died in Iraq or where someone lost their home due to foreclosure) those people often blame the circumstances, not the president, implying that any president would’ve had to put their family member in danger.

By putting our focus on the U.S. presidential election, we remove our focus from the real life problems around us.  The suffering that takes place due to capitalism.  The oppression that exists because of capitalism.  The exploitation that we’re forced into because of capitalism.  The domination over our lives because of capitalism.  And by capitalism, I don’t mean business or an indidivual’s ability to make money.  I mean an economic system that allows for some to be wealthy and comfortable while others are poor and living on the street.  If the goal of an economic system is to distribute resources to the people within that economic system, then the U.S. economy is failing because it allows for such differences between the rich and poor.  It’s making sure some people get many more resources while many others are getting very little to none at all.

All of this does, of course, only make sense unless you’ve completely bought into the Ayn Rand libertarian “I don’t need anyone else and anyone who does is weak” mentality.  If you believe that each individual has the “freedom” to “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps” and get what they need to survive so if they haven’t, they’re weak/stupid/mentally unstable/etc…, then what I’ve written above probably doesn’t ring true.  If you think someone who’s poor is poor because of their own choices or the choices of their family, then not only do you think I’m full of shit, but you’re completely unaware of how the economic system in the U.S. actually works.

Don’t get me wrong, Tyler.  I think you have some great ideas on your blog.  I think you’re trying hard to make everyone happy.  I think you believe that you’ve found the way, through growing local businesses and focusing on the next U.S. president.  And because you’re writing about it, I respect and love you.  However, I don’t agree that your ‘way’ is the right way.  Rather, as writers and bloggers with some amount of reach to others, it is our duty to point out where someone might be getting conned.  So, let me point it out: You might be getting conned (or conning others) by following the hype that focuses on the U.S. presidential election.