A thought, a theory, a guess, and a rant.

(I still don’t know who I’m voting for, so please bear that in mind.)

A Thought:

Likely Hillary supporters are a noisy lot. Likely Trump supporters are quiet, mostly (I think) because voicing Trump support subjects you to ridicule, and that’s bad for careers, friendships, marriages, neighborhoods, etc.

A Theory:

A vote for Hillary is a protest against misogynistic husbands, boyfriends, bosses, coworkers, lecherous airplane passengers, and 500,000 years of gender role evolution (about the time we started wearing clothes and cooking our food).

We don’t like who we are and what mutating genes and collateral attributes have made us, so we blame our parents, God, church, each other, and anything else that’s tightly molded over our most indelible selves.

Hillary reminds me of a smug and prescriptive grammar teacher I once had. I can’t shake that unpleasant connection anymore than I can return to that ancient classroom to appreciate Silas Marner.  

A Guess:

The election will be very close and the loser will contest the results. The winner will be the subject of impeachment or legal inquiry within the first year.

(10/30/2016: An observation:

When someone remarks how crazy this election is, Hillary supporters often laugh. Trump supporters don’t.)

A Rant:

We tend to conflate ideas because it’s easier to support or condemn wide swaths of people (religion and decency; civil rights and abortion; marijuana and opiates; racism and color; etc).

But protection is protection, and it’s pretty meaningless if, instead of coexisting peacefully, we force everyone to share the same protected beliefs.

And it should apply to beliefs most of us hold (freedom of speech, association, worship) and those most of us don’t (freedom to hate, ridicule, and exclude). That’s one of the things that (up until I learned of Podesta’s “Catholic Spring”) I thought would never be in doubt.

What prompted my rant? Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation) who cited the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision as an example of precisely why we need Hillary in the White House.

I like Wil Wheaton. I think he’s probably a good man. I also think he’s terribly wrong.

2016.10.26

c0

For those keeping, track: My book is at 92,446 words. Still expecting to end at 100,000 or thereabouts.

There's probably a special place in Hell for...

There's probably a special place in Hell for dirty old men that grope beauty contestants, but it's not as deep a hole as the one where persecutors go, the ones that trick or compel or subjugate, who judge others by how the neurons in their heads are wired.

Story: More Podesta: Hey, who’s up for a Catholic Spring to reject church’s "middle ages dictatorship"?

"There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church."--Sandy Newman, president of Voices for Progress, 2011 email

What doesn't bother me about the Podesta/Newman idea:

1. The Church (Roman, Orthodox, Reformed, and their thousands of heirs) will survive. It doesn't yield to threats like human institutions do, because it isn't one.

(And persecution moves outliers toward the center and strengthens ideology. If you want to make someone stubborn, just try forcing them to change their mind.)

What does bother me:

1. That an idea like this could germinate within a constitutional democracy that protects freedom of thought.
2. Than anyone outside a belief community would presume to change what's inside it.
3. That anyone would think subverting opposing ideas is better than tolerating them.
4. That so few care.

Some principles are so fragile, once they're rent, there'll be no mending them.

Leaders exhibit psychopathic behavior at 3 times the rest of the population (Forbes: The Disturbing Link Between Psychopathy And Leadership >) As others have noted, we're not voting for Pastor-in-Chief. Let's stop wishing Hillary's and Donald's flaws were fewer or lesser, and vote based on the likelihood a candidate will sustain the laws that guarantee our right to make a choice in the first place, choices some may deem misogynistic, misandristic, or medieval.

And who we choose may not be Hillary or Donald. I personally wish I had a good third choice. My hopes for Libertarian were dimmed ("What's Aleppo?"), so as I write this, I still don't know who I'm voting for.

Obama said today while campaigning for Hillary, "Democracy is on the ballot right now."

He's absolutely right.

2016.10.14

c0

My book is now at at 90,865 words. I edited out 2,000 in the last couple weeks and am now in the middle of moving some chapters around and adjusting details to retain continuity. The rest of it is roughly outlined. I'm just writing my way through to the end now. I've already written some final chapters and a postlog, which is a habit I have. I always have a strong sense of how a story will begin and end.

I'm lucky to get an hour a day on it. Most days it's 30 minutes.