It Ain’t Rocket Science

This is one of my rare forays into the world of politics but as always, I am not picking sides or promoting a party or issue.

       With the extremes on both sides garnering most of the press coverage, and internet algorithms pushing ever-narrower ranges of information to viewers, those extremes keep moving farther away from the views of the majority of this country. Sadly, more people stay stuck in their bottomless bucket of carefully crafted “news” and drift farther and farther from reality. Taking the easy way out is not the answer. Nothing is black and white, and it takes time and energy to sift through various sources to get an idea of the truth. Sorry, there are no alternative facts, only factual facts.

It’s sad (and astonishing) to me that the democrats still have no idea why they lost the last election. For 10% of what their high-paid consultants will feed them, I’ll provide advice that will make them palatable to voters again. Here are a few things that won’t help them win the votes of the majority in the middle: Electing a woman who wants to abolish the police completely and says that all military veterans are war criminals, among many other outrageous things that have left her mouth. She makes that nazi tattoo in Maine look like a butterfly tramp stamp. When the hell did a nazi tattoo become OK to the democrats? Yeah, he withdrew - due to another issue which likely would not have derailed a republican candidate - but he won a primary election. Nonsensical, extreme socialist proposals are also gaining traction within the party. Seriously, replacing a democratic republic with a socialist regime is your solution? And to all those protesting things you don’t like (which you have every right to do, peacefully). You realize that when you get violent or burn an American flag, you play right into the hands of your opposition, right?

On the republican side: Mike Johnson is trying to stir up fear – something used to great effect by that party – with calls for people to vote republican in the mid-terms because if “they” (democrats) win Congress, “they” will impeach president Trump. Funny how it hasn’t seemed to dawn an anyone that a president can’t be impeached unless he has committed an impeachable offense, no matter how much Congress or the American people disagree with him. Let that sink in for a few seconds. The leader of the republican party is basically admitting that our current president has committed impeachable offenses. Not whacked enough, well, virtually the entirety of republicans in Congress have become puppets in the cult; focused only on doing the bidding of their exalted leader and pandering to the MAGA minions who are not the core of the party, they are only the core of the cult. Oh, and there’s the warped version of Christianity espoused by the far right.

       Both parties need to grow spines and move back toward the center, make it OK, and even preferrable, to work with the other side, and focus on the real issues confronting our county instead of the fluff and fodder they prefer. It is far easier to pander and blame than to govern but without such a now-seismic shift in politics, we will continue to spiral into an abyss that even those on the most extreme ends of the spectrum likely don’t want. Though their blindness to reality won’t allow them to acknowledge it.

       Phew, that was a lot. I had to let it out, and I hope you see it for what it is. A call to action to stand up for your beliefs and vote for the candidate(s) that align with them - and then hold those elected officials accountable to work in the best interest of the country as a whole. America didn’t make it to 250 years without hard work and sacrifice, and we need to be willing to continue to do both – and to work together - if America is going to be around for its 300^th anniversary.

www.RetiredandInspiredat55.com  07-13-2026