Are There Reasons To Be Positive About America's Future?

YES!

In my 40+ years as an adult, I cannot recall a presidential campaign between two more unpopular and divisive candidates. Nor could their views have been more diametrically opposed about which direction the country should or will go.

But now, that this embarrassing and vitriolic charade is finally over, we have to get down to the business of dealing with the negatives, (which are sure to come) and begin hoping for some positives to emerge from this morass.

To be honest, I don’t believe very many voters were passionately in favor of either candidate. Most people voted to keep “the other candidate” from stepping into the White House. That hardly represents a mandate. In fact, it would appear that Hilary won the popular vote, but that Trump gained more electors, thanks to the Electoral College system. Should that be abolished? That will be a discussion for another day.

As a self described moderate, I can see positives and negative in both platforms.

Let’s set partisan politics aside for a minute and take a pragmatic and realistic look at the positions of each candidate. Perhaps a little hope might emerge from that process.

HILLARY

Raise up the middle class - Easier said than done. Honestly, there are many factors which are effecting the declining living standard of the average American. The reality is, Americans have an appetite for cheap goods and they cannot be produced in the U.S,. with labor costs being so high. Those jobs are not coming back. Additionally, farming and manufacturing jobs have diminished due to the consolidation of the farming industry into large conglomerates and the automation of many manufacturing jobs, which requires far fewer workers. CONCLUSION: How she would have actually done that is unclear.

Keep Obama Care - As much as I recognize there needs to be a reform of our healthcare system, I am not sure that Obama Care (The Affordable Care Act), is or has been the answer. I agree with the Republican stance that it undermines individual rights by forcing people to buy health insurance or fining them if they don’t. That is regulation run amok. Furthermore, the anticipated number of young, healthy inductees have not signed up, opting instead to pay the fine, rather than to pay the exorbitant and rising rates in the system. This has caused the cost of insurance to remain high, due to the disproportionate number of older sick people who have signed up. Also, not everyone qualifies for subsidy. So an unfair, tiered system remains in place. CONCLUSION: Obama Care is not the answer.

Maintaining our NATO alliances - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has served our European brethren well, but has not been such a great deal for America. Smaller countries have relied on the organization to come to their aid in a crisis, rather than footing the expense to build and maintain their own military. Furthermore, they have not maintained their obligation to pay into the system, falling back on an article written into the charter that obligates the U.S. to come to their defense regardless of their financial participation in the system. This is not right. CONCLUSION: Our participation in NATO needs to be maintained, but other nations need to do more to build up their own defenses and maintain their financial commitment to the system.

TRUMP

Build a Wall Along the Mexican Border - This is an ill-conceived and knee jerk reaction to changes in our demographics and economy. However, as has been proven over and over throughout history, established citizens are inclined to point to one particular immigrant group and blame them for a perceived change or decline in their standard of living. This is not a phenomenon unique to the United States. This “Nationalist” ideology is surging all over the world and causing people, (whose ancestors most likely were immigrants themselves) to reject and protest against those fleeing economic or security challenges in their own countries. CONCLUSION: Mexicans are not responsible for the decline in our standard of living. Other factors such as manufacturing jobs leaving for China and Indonesia as well as the aging of our population and industrial automation have a much greater impact.

I predict the wall will not get built, because it was just a ploy to get poorly educated, disgruntled white men to align with the Trump message. Immigration will continue and ultimately, our economy will be better for it. Who will replace the aging workforce if white families are not producing a sufficient number of new workers? You’ve got it. Immigrants from Mexico and the Middle East.

Have you ever eaten Mediterranean food? Delicious!

Reduce government regulation - In our city and probably many cities throughout the U.S. there are nerds sitting at computers, searching the internet and looking for people making a few dollars selling their vegetables or hand made goods. These nerds then set up a “sting”, posing as customers and offering to buy a box of artichokes or a pair of knitted gloves. Once the transaction has been made, the seller is then arrested and convicted of tax evasion and engaging in business without a local business license and then threatened with a prison term, a fine or both. This type of government over-regulation that has become a toxic cancer on our society. CONCLUSION: Government regulation is necessary, when it protects the innocent and reigns in the excesses of corporations, profiting from the deception and manipulation of consumers. But when average citizens begin to fear prosecution by their own government for attempting to pay their bills through grass roots creativity and neighborhood enterprise, this is a system that seeks to justify its existence by punishing those who it is charged with serving and protecting.

It is very possible that only corporate America will benefit from a reduction in regulation. That has certainly been proven to be the case in previous Republican administrations. But Trump is not a typical Republican or Conservative. Let’s be hopeful.

Withdraw from Iraq - At this point, I can see this as the only logical position. Thousand of American lives have been lost and the civil war continues. ISIS, is an ideology as much as it is a military force. And whether on the battle field or in cyber space it will continue to be a black hole drawing in disenfranchised and disgruntled men and women to become fodder in their futile vision of a Caliphate in the Middle East.

CONCLUSION: Through our involvement in Iraq and Syria, we only embolden and inspire extremists to point their evil attacks against Western values of freedom and the pursuit of happiness. I support our retreat from the Middle East.

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I have covered only a few of the many issues our country and world will need to grapple with over the coming 4 years of the Trump administration. But I hope you can see that neither the Republican or Democratic platform is either all good or all bad.

MY BEST HOPE FOR A WAY FORWARD

Many of us, (myself included), had high hopes for an Obama presidency. And I think he has done as good of a job as he could, considering the hateful opposition he has encountered from his Republican rivals in Congress. But as with our economy, the state of our healthcare system, the immigration question, the continuation of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are still many areas of our local, national and global society that are in crisis.

Right or wrong, our electorate has spoken and we have a new leader. We have no choice now but to hope for the best, continue to talk about and work on the issues that matter and most of all, to shore up the safety, security and prosperity of our own lives and those of our family and friends.

“May the wind be at our back”