SMALL TOWN THERAPIST ON HOW WE CAN DO BETTER

 

Photographer: Alex Mittelstaedt

 I'm going to state that even though we are currently saddled with a con man and his corrupt and disgraceful crew, we can do better. Hope is on the horizon. Midterms 2026.

October 17th, the No Kings event went global! There were massive protests all over our country and the world. The press was slow, seemingly hesitant, to report on these state wide and worldwide protests. Why are the people of the press and our local television stations hesitant to tell the truth? The people in the U.S. and the world are fed up with the current administration and all cruel oligarchies. Another class of people, who we are disgusted by are the billionaires. They could use their vast sums for good, but no, they calmly stand by while millions starve and others are thrown off their medical insurance. 

People are demanding democracy and not just in the U.S.  Many people, the world over are worried with good reason, for our and their democracies. Hence the protests. Hear us! See us!

I'm fairly sure that one of the stupider ideas being touted, especially by young people, is a desire for a third party for our country. They'd prefer party that has no flaws with perfect people. Some are hypercritical of the Democrats and justify throwing in the towel, they claim that voting is not important. There has been some weakness with the Democrats, insisting they could work across the aisle. My hope is the Democrats can now clearly see there's no hope for "working across the aisle," with tons of conciliations. That proved to be impossible with the frightened Republicans who didn't once stand up and say No! to the nonsense constantly streaming from the White House. There was no hope for collaboration. The Republicans caved every time. That's why we have the ridiculous tax cuts for the billionaires, then R's agreeing to throw most of the poorest of the poor and sickest of the sick off health care. They mistakenly thought Elon musk was adorable, instead of deplorable, for tossing tens of thousand of federal officials out of their jobs. The bloat that I witnessed was Elon jumping up and down displaying a pouchy belly. Republicans are still supporting a convicted felon and Elon Musk who defund our important programs and science and research. The R's are apparently fine with our President busily tearing apart our country with hate rhetoric, racist policies and grifting for himself and his family--- billions grifted. You can check my math. 

No question there were frightened politicians selling their souls. Ironically many of them claim to be Christians. Feed the hungry, give comfort to the sick, welcome the stranger---be damned. Most probably, they experienced what Elissa Slotkin, Senator from Michigan, had  experienced after Trump threatened her. He wanted her investigated by Department of Justice and then said she should be hanged for sedition. Later that month Slotkin and her home received a bomb threat. Sadly, the crazies started coming for her entire family, banging on their doors and threatening them. I believe this might have been done to many of the Republicans who wanted to deny Trump's ridiculous demands. You realize that threatening people to control them is a crime. Right? Ah, but that's what bullies do.

Are the Democrats perfect? Far from it. However, please read the two platforms of the parties. If the young people, and many of us older folks, would read the platforms they would discover where the Democrats want this country to be. This is a far cry and big contrast with where the Republicans want to take us.  I believe anyone who read the platforms would see a 90% agreement with the D's and a 10% disagreement with what the Democrats want. This would be dramatically different split for and against with the Republican's platform. Democrats are all for: following the Constitution; Respect for Women's Rights; concern about the environment; feeding the hungry; taking care of all our citizens and educating and protecting the children of this nation. The Republicans? Not so much. 

Because many of these young people were toddlers, teens or very young adults in the 2000 election, they don't know the history of that race. Al Gore, who had been a Vice President under Bill Clinton was a stellar candidate. Gore was the man who tried to educate the U.S. about the danger of climate change.  He labeled it 'Global Warming', which of course we know is accurate, but the ignorant Republicans made fun of him and it. One Republican congressman even brought a snowball into congress to prove that the earth wasn't warming. Now, twenty years later we are saddled with out of control weather---hurricanes in states that never had them before, flooding with catastrophic results and incredible destruction and loss of lives and property. We could have had Al Gore all those years ago. Instead we got George Bush and an unnecessary war. Why do we continue to put inadequate and incompetent people in office? T wins the the prize for the most corrupt and incompetent of all our Presidents. Look it up, historians voted that he's the worst president we have ever had.

Here's some of the reasons we have elected less than good people to be president.. 

1. People choose not to vote. In the last election 93 million people did not vote.
2. People choose to vote for a third party candidate. The third party candidate in the 2000 election was Ralph Nader, who had only one issue important to him: car safety.
3. People choose not to read the platforms of the Republicans vs the Democrats.
4. People believed that both parties are the same.
5. People were angry this last election, with some justification, at the Democrats for sending arms to Israel.
6. People were reactive to Kamala Harris as not being liberal enough.
7. People were angry that Democrats protected Biden who was apparently failing with age.
8. People were afraid of a liberal, intelligent, brown skinned woman leading the country.
9. People believed that Trump was a stronger person and, being male, had better answers.
10. People believed what Trump promised, lower gas prices, food prices, and an improved economy.
11. People didn't realize that even though they agreed with 90% of the Democrats platform, they decided not to vote for the Democrats, the anger was really only about the 10% disagreement. 
12. People all over the country were subjected to gerrymandering and suppression of their legally cast votes.
13. People trusted that Trump was telling the truth and was going to make things more efficient in his government, never realizing that Elon Musk was going to fire qualified people.
14. People want the perfect which is the enemy of the good.
15. People listened to right wing pod casts and television and believed lie after lie.

Here's the frustration many of us feel--- why can't people listen to real threats? Why would they believe that oligarchy is a good alternative to democracy? Once our democracy is gone do they really believe that things will be better? This country was founded on the belief that all men/women were created equally. We all deserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Can any of us really want the .001% of our population to have all the power and control? Is it right to turn our democracy into a corporation of the rich, by the rich, for the rich, so help us god?

 

Save Democracy, vote blue!

susansmagicfeather 2026 Susan R. Grout