Letter: Elections Have Consequences

By Howard Lange, San Clemente

This is in response to the letter by Sandra Weaver in the Sept. 1-7 issue of the San Clemente Times. Although Ms. Weaver considers herself to be an unbiased independent, her letter reads like a strongly biased hit piece coming from a Democrat point of view. She states that Donald Trump has made “outrageous claims” and “ridiculous promises,” yet does not specify which of his claims or promises she finds to be outrageous or ridiculous. Is it the idea of returning to the rule of law with regard to immigration? Is it the idea that we should re-negotiate our far-too-generous trade treaties that have driven virtually all our manufacturing jobs off shore? Is it the idea of bringing our tax policy into line with competing nations in order to attract our rich corporations back home where we can tax them? Is it the idea of taking decisive action against terrorist armies that daily slaughter countless innocent people and openly threaten us with the same? Is it the idea of replacing Obamacare, which is so obviously flawed (only the government could come up with insurance that you only have to buy when you need it), with something that might actually work? I could go on, but which of just these few, Ms. Weaver, do you find to be outrageous or ridiculous? What really concerns me is that, like Ms. Weaver, far too many voters seem to find common-sense ideas to be outrageous or ridiculous. How has our societal thought process become so distorted?

What clearly IS outrageous and ridiculous is that our next president may very well be a virtual criminal and proven serial liar who has made it painfully evident that she cannot even be entrusted with sensitive information let alone with acting as Commander-in-Chief and setting the course for our nation. That, Ms. Weaver, is something that is quite plainly on its face both outrageous and ridiculous. Yet we as a society do not seem to recognize this. We now contemplate a choice between a strong leader with a proven record of success in the business world and with rock-solid ideas that definitely address our most important problems versus a career politician with a long history of operating at the edge of the law and repeatedly lying to us, who is owned by her donor corporations, has no significant accomplishments other than maneuvering herself into high government positions and, in the face of impending disasters on many fronts, offers no significant new policy ideas. This should be a no-brainer, and yet we are on the brink of getting it wrong. What has happened to us?

Ms. Weaver goes on to fault Donald Trump for being egotistical, vulgar and rude. I totally agree. Score three points for Hillary. However, I think it is becoming increasingly important that Americans stop taking the media’s bait and seeing elections as sporting events or popularity contests. Now more than ever we must begin realizing that an election needs to be a contest of ideas. When we vote based on political skill or likeability without clearly contrasting the ideas of the candidates, either we get lucky or there will be a price to pay; and it will be paid mostly by our descendants. As our current president once crowed to us, “elections have consequences.”