What a political week this has been! This has been a rough primary season after
seventeen candidates ran and the last candidate is now standing. Not based on money or influence in the
current hierarchy, not based on prior ‘political’ experience, and not based on
what the media wants, or who the media employs, or who owns the media. The handpicked candidates were knocked off
early, leaving three renegades.
All I want to say about Senator Ted Cruz is that if he had
campaigned like he quit the primary run by speaking to the hearts and minds of
the people, he might still be in the race.
Governor Kasich’s withdrawal speech
brought tears to my eyes. I have great
respect for both for a valiant run and their courage.
This election was pure populism in action and the thrilling
spectacle of the voters actually making up their own minds unfettered by the
traditional methods of control used by the media and the DNC and the RNC, which
is to limit the actual information available to the voters. And of course, whomever poured the most money
into the traditional advertising and the hiring of party ‘consultants’, and the
hosting of ‘high level’ events for party honchos, and all the other hangers on
who profit from campaigns feared a change of emphasis due to Donald Trump’s
success without their assistance.
I am a lifelong educator and I know that people are being
taught to read and the new impetus to learn to read is no longer books and
newspapers: the new impetus to learn to
read, follow directions and discern patterns is coming from electronics and
computers and in many cases is already surpassing that of their elders as they
gleefully experiment with the games and devices. This wave of new literacy is surfed by those
of us in the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs generation who have remained intensely
interested in any new technology. The
Techie Trekkie Generation, maybe.
This newly educated population is not necessarily academically
credentialed, but are self-educated through electronic media, plus whatever
they learned in school and on the street and from their family and peer group. These people watch TV and they watch such as
Game of Thrones and Justified and other happier shows as well, but these are
not naïve rubes tuning in for the first time when they hear about stacked
elections or they find out that the delegates elected in their state don’t
match the will of the people as expressed in an election, and that ethics are
secondary to ambition. We knows it when
we sees it.
As Mr. Trump pointed out, the policies of the last sixteen
years have resulted in relentless wars and it’s time for a real change, not a
mere changing of the guard on old policies that have resulted in failure, no
matter who is collecting the profit from it.
It is time for a new foreign policy focus, one that ensures the
interests of the United States of America.
