Why be political?

Why be political in the USA?

1. Global warming: I have a smart friend who at one time provocatively said that he wasn't sure humans had an influence. He now says he's glad he doesn't have children, so he doesn't have to worry beyond his lifetime. He sounds cold but he's a warm vegan. It's a political stance to say "I don't care about global warming" because you don't want your "freedoms" to be curbed. I'd like the freedom for my children to deal with less global warming problems. Let's do some smart things for the future.

2. Democracy: One party's strategy actually is to curb participation. While New Zealand wants to lower the age of voting, Republicans want to raise the age for voting. The spurious claims of stolen elections undermine democracy. Just like illocutionary prejudice leads to violence against people, so does anti-democratic words. 

3. It’s not the Autonomous States of America. I get it that people don’t want things done, that is the first question: do something? Fiscal responsibility would be a good plan for Republicans if they were not the most irresponsible. They run up the debt more than Democrats who work it down. Being against taxation is a profoundly nihilistic thing to want in my opinion. Trump isn't smart for not paying taxes. He's an asshole. The whole try to get away with whatever you can get away with is more than annoying to me, it's murderous. Republicans can't impress their Christian nationalism on the nation, so they want some states. I could go on and on about how anti-federalism harms us, but one example is education where poor school districts have terrible schools. Basically the poor get shitty schools. That's not America to me. 

From HCR, a historian of the restoration in the USA, "Southern leaders wanted to destroy the United States of America and create their own country, based not in the traditional American idea that “all men are created equal,” but rather in its opposite: that some men were better than others and had the right to enslave their neighbors. In the 1850s, convinced that society worked best if a few wealthy men ran it, southern leaders had bent the laws of the United States to their benefit, using it to protect enslavement above all."

4. Some political rhetoric increases violence. The politicians don't say go out and kill gay people, but they create an environment where it becomes more permissible. Both the political setting and the availability of arms creates an environment that is complicit with terrible mass murders. One party gets a lot of money from gun manufacturers and their proxy. Pick your party carefully.  

5. What if there were consequences for citizens for the lack of gun safety? What if corporation couldn't donate to candidates? Here are the candidates that took money from the NRA:

$104,456 Rand Paul
$176,274 Ted Cruz
$226,007 Chuck Grassley
$1,267,139 Mitch McConnell
$1,269,486 Ron Johnson
$1,306,130 Marsha Blackburn
$1,391,548 Josh Hawley
$3,303,355 Marco Rubio
$13,647,676 Mitt Romney

What it if became unacceptable to vote those politicians in.

6. The right of women to choose to terminate fetus that are not viable, meaning they won't live once they are born, is curbed based on confusion and control issues. One party is in favor of that. One party has narrowly viewed issues to control women. The historical context of that alarming. 

Tuning out helps global warming, undermines democracy, literally kills people. 

Paying attention and voting is the hope.