People who hate democracy

In 1992 when Bill Clinton won the Presidential Election by the fewest votes possible I was re-loading quite a lot.  I received a catalog from a company called Dillion Precision and after the election the man who owns Dillion Precision blamed those of us who voted for Ross Perot.  It pissed me off.  At the time I was saving to buy a special reloading press that Dillon made and I decided not to buy it.  Mistake?  maybe, they still make one of the best reloading presses in the world.

What I realized then, and I had reaffirmed in 2000 when Ralph Nader stole a few votes from Al Gore, allowing George W. Bush to win the election, was that some people hate Democracy.

These people hate the idea of other voting for the candidate that seems best to them, voting for anyone but their candidate is evil because they hate the democratic process.

So what if people voted for a candidate from a political party other than the two primary political parties.  That is Democracy in action.

I'm reading this ridiculous book called "Making Sense of People" and the author gets off on doing psychological analysis of public figures like politicians.  Moron.  Public figures wear masks and we never see them the way they really are.  We can analyze their mask, maybe get a couple of peeks behind the mask, but, without personally knowing someone, without being with them in situations where they drop their mask we don't ever know them.

Everyone has two images, a mask they show everyone and an internal image they typically keep to themselves.  Like a book with a cover and pages.  We all know this.  To a large extent figuring out what someone will do based on their external mask works, but, not always.

People whose internal mask and external behavior are most closely aligned are supposedly called "self actuated".  Yeah, I've read a bunch of psych books, both popular and text books over the years.

So what does this have to do with Democracy?

In a Democracy we choose people based on the mask they show us and then we hope that their actions will be congruent with our beliefs.  That's why we vote for them.  We have no fricking idea if they are going to follow through on their promises or be the people we think they are when we vote for them.

Yet, these people believe their subjective assessments of a mask are so much better than the subjective assessments of others that they blame others when their desires falter.

Some morons, like the guy writing this book, want people like Ralph Nader and Ross Perot to take responsibility for the loss of the candidate they prefer.  In other words, take responsibility for participating in the Democratic process.  I would say "Yes, thank you" and the moron would probably be mystified.

The reality is that all presidents, all democratically elected leaders, fall short of their promises and their potential.  Get over it.

There are some decisions that make no credible sense, and people get mad at me for pointing out something based in facts.

One night a friend asked me to come with him and check out a truck.  I'm, or was, a pretty fair mechanic.  I went and I heard a ticking (sounded like a valve lifter issue) and I asked the seller about the ticking.  The seller got mad and shut down.  Really, all I did was ask, "what is that ticking noise?"

My buddy was angry with me for pointing out the ticking sound.  Truthfully the truck was really nice looking, but, a valve ticking usually means the oil wasn't changed regularly so the engine is screwed.  I figure it was pretty lame of him to be upset with me, but, this happens all the time.

People become focused on some idea, buying a clean looking truck or electing a candidate, and then when someone points out something wrong with the idea they become angry and blame the messenger.  I point out that Obama has no experience and idiots say something like "You don't need experience to run the largest, most powerful, most complex country in the world."

President Bush 1 wimped out on taxes and kicking Sadam's ass.  After watching Reagan pussy around for years, especially about Iran, I wasn't voting for someone who pussyed out on Iraq.  People disagree with me, and that's fine.  The world becomes better with open dialogue.

Not everyone wants open dialogue or a democracy though.  Some people hate the idea that others have different ideas or want different things, and that idea, the belief that people have different ideas and want different things is the basis of democracy.

People who get angry when others vote for a different candidate, people who censor others, people who refuse to accept that others have different beliefs and ideas hate the foundational principles of Democracy and Democracy itself.

People have different ideas, get over it.  Accept it.