On Donald Trump

I was going to write about how bitching about Donald Trump was a waste of breath. About how we have plenty of local issues that we can really do something about, and complaining about national politics was an unnecessary distraction.

But . . .

I’m not sure our local politics can survive four years of this guy.

Rational discourse is difficult.

The problem is that we’re living in a time of identity politics. Where people can’t separate the issues from who they are. Republicans can’t divorce themselves from a Republican president, and Democrats blame Republicans.

Have you lately said something critical about President Trump, and been met with a response critical of President Obama? What’s that about?

We need to divorce ourselves from those political parties. I mean, really. They’ve both been morally bankrupted by a corrupt system.

You know the criticisms. Republicans only look after the rich, and Democrats like big government. But the truth is that either side will do what it takes to help their campaign donors.

But if you slice through the generalizations to actually policy decisions, there’s not much difference between the two parties except for some distracting social issues which are usually the result of reductive policies upstream.

Abortion, for instance. Nobody thinks abortions are good. But if you eliminate contraception and sex education, unwanted pregnancies will result. And then you’re in a quandary about a woman’s future, because a man can just walk away. And it’s all complicated by the over-sexualization of our nation’s youth by advertisers and media. Those primal urges are easy buttons for advertisers to push.

See, life is complicated. And if you reduce life to decisions on brand loyalty, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you miss the nuances. You miss the big picture. And demonizing the other side is no way to reach a conciliation.

We need to take self-identification out of our politics, because people fight for their identities. We need to bring the focus back to policy.