The Old Man On The Mountain

A View From the Backwoods of NH

Election 2016 Update

Well, with the Democratic Convention coming to an end, America now needs to decide – do you want a businessman that has no sense of political correctness, speaks “off the cuff” (often having to either retract or clarify his statements) and scares the hell out of the rest of the world? Or would you prefer a known liar, criminal and, to me at least, the scariest megalomaniac since Richard Nixon, who will crush anyone or anything that gets in her way to win the Presidency, all while hiding behind the guise of “equality for women”.

Now I’m sure I’ll get it from both sides – first you’re going to tell me that Trump is a racist and a misogynist. Or you’re going to tell me that Hillary is an honest, hard working woman that’s the best choice to move America forward. And on each of those counts I’d just have to call “bullshit”. You know, I think the only truly honest person that ran this time around was Bernie Sanders. He told you right up front that he believed in socialism as the way to save America – and if that doesn’t take a big set of cojones, I don’t know what does (oh, yes I do – Mrs. Trump’s speech).

Now Bernie’s biggest supporters are young America – the “Millennials” as they’re referred to. And I can totally understand why. Bernie’s programs rang true to them because of nostalgia. He spoke of all the things they loved growing up – having a home, food and anything else they wanted, all without having to worry about paying for it. Once “Grandpa Bernie” was in charge, America could go back to sitting around, chatting online, playing video games, just living life without a care and being comfortable again.

And who can blame them? Lenin used this same ploy to motivate the Russian masses into accepting Communism – by touting that everyone would share in everything equally – the truest form of Marxism. Unfortunately it went horribly wrong and, in the end, the “gold mine” that was to be Communism turned out to be a two part deal – the party got the gold, the people got the shaft. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Bernie’s like Lenin. I’m just saying that while socialism “sounds” good on the outside, as long as people are involved in running it, it’ll never work.

Which brings us back to our two party system – Republican and Democrat. Now to me, the Democrats (or “liberals” as they used to be called) have what, in a Bernie Sanders utopia would be considered good ideas. What I mean by this is that the ideas of programs to assist ALL people to achieve freedom and a prosperous lifestyle “sounds” good on the outside, but again, as long as people are involved in running it, it’ll never work. And the only thing Hillary will accomplish is to create an America where people NEED to depend on the Government to survive. It’s a vicious circle that, in the end, only leads to destruction. That’s all I’ll say on Hillary – if you don’t get it by now, you never will.

As for the Republicans (or old-fart conservatives), well, they’re just about as confused as a cat trying to cover crap on a marble floor. Their old time values and ways of doing business are no longer acceptable to the American people, which is why Trump won the nomination. It’s not like they didn’t try to beat this “renegade”. It’s that they continued in their self-destructive ways (what’s that saying about doing the same thing while expecting different results?), whereas Donald’s approach has been to get back to the basics that once made the Republican Party a winner.

From what I’ve seen, Donald wants to make America great again by bringing back the core values the party used to exhibit (before #43 and Cheney blew it up).. He’s not talking about social programs – he’s talking about bringing back jobs (and the pride that goes with them), decreasing the overhead by removing guests that have overstayed their welcome (and putting a lock on the door so that more don’t replace them), about leading the world, not apologizing to it, and applying business knowledge to fix a country that’s trying it’s damnedest to run itself into the ground.

Is he suave and sophisticated – well, not to me. I don’t think he always ensures that his “brain is running before engaging mouth”. As for the bigotry and misogyny – well, I haven’t looked through the fine print, but I’ve never felt that he’s been either. As I said earlier, he’s not really sharp on political correctness. But I’ve known other great people (friends and family) that have that problem too. I just listen to WHAT they say, not HOW they say it. As for Hillary – she’s been way too close to way too many objectionable acts in her life. You know, the “where there’s smoke there’s fire” principle. And her nervous laugh – well, it just scares the hell out of me…