Disaffection Stalks Around Us

Today, I am going to focus on a quote by Dolley Madison (May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849) that is perfect for the way things are in this nation – this world today. “Disaffection stalks around us.” To be disaffected means to be dissatisfied with the people in authority and no longer willing to support them.

I am sure that you have seen that meme of the Trump, Cruz, and pine straw bandit signs. It is a prime example of what can happen when people become disaffected by the people in authority (or in this case, people campaigning for the Presidency). To be honest, back when this meme was first introduced, I would have voted for pine straw as well, but not because of the other choices. I’d have chosen pine straw, because, quite frankly, Democrat or Republican – both campaigns have been nothing but a circus act this year.

I am the daughter of two Democrats who only registered and stayed Democrats because their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were Democrats. No one ever researched any other ideology, they just voted straight down the Democratic party line because their parents did before them. In fact, my maternal grandfather always boasted that his paternal grandfather (1856-1939) told all ten of his children and all of their children that the Democratic party was the only political party that anyone should join. That, to me, didn’t make any sense at all, especially after August 9, 1974, when an older friend of mine explained the reason why Nixon had decided to resign. Even though we were six and ten-years-old at the time, that conversation alone has forever made me think about both sides of the political spectrum.

In college, while registered as an Independent, I saw Whoopie Goldberg on (I think it was) a “Rock the Vote” special, and she said that “We don’t vote for the man we like. We vote for the man we least less like.” Back then, I loved it, and even though I now think that Whoopie has gone completely out of her mind, I still continue to share her words with others, because they absolutely do ring true. But none of that even matters anyway.

Every four years, voters tell their state electors which of the candidates they like the most, and every four years, the Electoral College decides who wins. While I am proud of the fact that the Constitutional Convention took place just twenty-five miles southeast of my birthplace (of Bucks County, Pennsylvania), and I do understand and appreciate our forefathers’ reasoning for establishing it, I am not a big fan of what the Electoral College did to us after the 2008 and 2012 state elections. Don’t get me wrong. Although I didn’t like Al Gore in the least, I can understand why people were upset that he (the man who got the most votes) lost. However, for the life of me, I will never understand how or why Barak Obama, who actually did make promises that would and definitely have unfairly benefited particular areas and groups of people, ever got elected into office.

I believe that Obama is a usurper, who used Cultural Marxism, and the tactics of Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Mao Tse-tung, Pol Pot and Saul Alinsky to outwit the American people and strong-arm our electors. But, that doesn’t mean that I am happy about today’s candidates either. I’m not. I voted for Bill Clinton twice (the second time, only because I didn’t like the alternative), but I do not like his wife at all. So, I won’t touch her with a 39½-foot pole, but I am not too sure about Donald Trump either. None of us ever knows which candidate is right. The scales could tip either way. So, we really do vote for the candidate that we least less like, and any one of us could be pleasantly surprised by the unexpected outcome once the one who is elected finally takes office.

I have voted in every Presidential since 1988, and although two of my candidates took office twice, I have ended up disaffected with the Federal Government during every term. But, I have never been as disaffected with the members of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of our government as I have been since 2008, and will never understand how Obama could have ever been elected into a second term of office (unless it was through doing what I have suggested above – which is also how I believe Hillary Clinton has gotten this far, but I digress).

Each of us has a right to support and vote for whomever we choose, so none of us should be spewing hatred toward others just because they happen to disagree. But, that is exactly what has been happening lately. So, it isn't any wonder that "disaffection stalks around us."