Daniel Plowman

I am going to do something different with this post. I am going to take a deep look into how I feel about what is happening in our country. This look will be my opinion of both parties. There will be no one-sided view. I know this will upset some, entertain others, and influence still others. Please know that I am okay with whatever the outcome may be.

I would like to begin by addressing the boasting of all politicians. This starts at the top, the president, and continues down through Congress to state leaders to local leaders. The first thing that comes to mind is the economy. Every president touts their economic agenda and how well they have performed. The problem is, the voters don’t fully understand what is happening. Not that the voters are not intelligent, but rather, they just believe everything a politician says. I would like to provide an example: the stock market is often used as an economic indicator. If the DOW closes at 48,000 and then falls for three days only to recover and close at 48,001, a president will say the stock market hit a record high. This is the way of business. Stocks fluctuate, rising and falling. Prices adjust based on inflation and other economic situations. The markets fluctuate constantly. Think about how many record highs we have had since the Great Depression. We need to understand the president’s actual role in economic movements. Tariffs are one way that has become popular today. In the past, it has been proposed that regulations.

I like to look at the housing crisis of 2008 and 2009. The democrats blame Bush, and the republicans blame Obama. The truth is, neither one had anything to do with it. The crisis began under Bush and was created by greed and a desire to achieve the goal of home ownership. The crisis was fueled by mortgage brokers offering adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) and no-income-verification loans. Someone who wanted to get out of renting and buy a home would see the lower payments of an ARM and not pay attention to the fine print. Mortgage brokers are even more guilty because they did not make the terms understandable or did not disclose what actually happens after a few years. People were buying their first homes or second and third homes. When the rates adjusted and the balloon payments were due, people could not afford to pay, and foreclosures began. The issue lies in how Wall Street handled mortgages. They took mortgages and converted them into bonds, then sold those bonds. When the foreclosures began, the banks started to lose money. The banks that did not have enough cash to handle bad loans and halos, and instead invested in these bonds, took the biggest hit. They became takeover targets or just went bankrupt. What did President Bush have to do with the beginning of the crash? Nothing! What did President Obama have to do with the end of the crisis? Nothing! The Treasury Secretary and the President of the New York Fed worked to solve the problem by allocating money from Congress. This is where our national division began.

As a country, we have always had some kind of divide. That is what the two-party system brings. Since our founding, we have been divided along political lines. Today, it seems to be worse than it was before the Civil War. It is difficult to determine when this new division occurred, though. On September 11, 2001, we were all united. Over time, schools stopped teaching about 9/11, and kids today don’t know much, if anything, about it. This does not sound political, but it is. Teachers’ Unions have always been left-leaning, and the teachers who are part of these unions teach in that manner. It has been said that Iraq 2.0 started the divide, while others say that it was the election of President Obama. I don’t think it was either. I feel like the divide began with Trump’s first term. Not that he did or proposed anything wrong or harmful to the country, but because he was not part of the establishment. I ran on ending corruption and making the country profitable. People forget that he was a large democrat donor before running, though. He would attend democrat fundraisers and pose for pictures with the same democrats that hate him now. The divide deepened with the election of Biden. That began with all the talk of a stolen election and the ensuing court battles. Then we must consider the Biden presidency as a whole. It is evident that he was having issues with his health and was essentially a puppet. That being said, it is difficult to determine whose policies were being implemented. However, immigration and inflation were based on his executive orders. The pandering that came with it was at the direction of his advisors. There is also the COVID shot. The shot was developed under Trump and administered under Biden. Trump was not going to make it mandatory, while the Biden administration did make it mandatory in many sectors. The Biden administration even discharged military members who refused to get the shot. Now, even though I voted for Trump, I was absolutely not going to get the shot. It did not matter to me who was in office. Shots take years to develop and be deemed safe. But the COVID shot was rushed without proper testing. Then there was the new rule that the drug companies that produced those shots could not be held responsible for adverse effects. This was a no-go for me, personally. As the Biden administration’s term drew to a close, the divide widened.

The main issue that developed with the appointment of Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee. The Constitution says that the nominee must win a primary. She never ran in a primary. Then we had the violent speech from some Democratic members. Constantly calling Trump Hitler is a significant issue. Why is it a major issue? Let’s go back to COVID. People were locked down and isolated. This isolation began to create mental health issues. So when you start to call someone Hitler or a Nazi, you are creating an atmosphere that people feel they need to stop the evil before it begins. We have seen riots and attacks on police rise since 2020. We have even seen attacks on federal buildings and cities destroyed. The rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement started many of these riots. The BLM movement is one that I never fully understood. I thought that all lives mattered. There was also an attempt to alter the history taught in schools. The problem with that is that we cannot learn from our mistakes. If we delete history, we also delete the opportunity to educate and change minds. We will continue to make these mistakes if we don’t know the history behind them. As a country, we have become racially divided again. The left says everything is racist and blames white men for everything. The same party that nominated a white man as president. The same party that elects white men to Congress. I don’t know how everyone can be racist if you are electing people to office that you are blaming for all the problems we are facing as a country. However, today we have a Republican Party that is going after its political opponents. The republicans are constantly talking about how the democrats spent taxpayer money freely. Still, they have proposed a bill that would allow them to sue any democrat who went after them under Biden. Wouldn’t that be gaining taxpayer money in your own pocket? I think it is.

Now, we need to examine the government today. Everything that is being done, good or bad, is being legislated in the court system. The left files suits in districts with judges who were appointed by Democratic presidents, while the right files suits in districts with judges who Republican presidents appointed. What this has accomplished is politicizing the law. The judiciary should never legislate in our country, no matter who is in office. We have tied the courts up with arguments over political policies to the extent that regular cases cannot be heard in some instances. At what point do we return to debating instead of suing? I don’t think we can.
Congress will always do whatever it can to pass laws that are in its best interest, and the republicans will always do the same. The problem here is that the government is no longer of the people, for the people. It is now of the politician for the politician. No one in Congress votes or proposes legislation that will benefit their constituents. They promote bills and laws that pad their pockets. Would you please not believe me? Look at how all members of Congress have either increased their wealth or gotten rich within their first year. I personally don’t see how you can make $173,000 a year and become a millionaire in a year. No matter the party, corruption is rampant. Congress is investing in companies that will benefit from their policies, or they are taking kickbacks. Once elected, you become sold out.

We have also seen an attack on free speech. Both parties are guilty of this. The left used social media to stop particular speech, and the right is going after the press, which is protected under the First Amendment. With this, where are we heading as a country? Could you take a look at Britain? They are putting people in jail for social media posts that the government deems illegal. We could be headed that direction if we don’t get back to our roots. I am not talking about the origins in our founding; I am talking about our roots when jokes were funny, and people did not get triggered or offended by something they saw on TV. Shows were canceled because a few people perceived something as offensive. Not too long ago, people would have just changed the channel. Could we possibly do that now? I have no idea. We also have people upset over songs. That is an easy fix, don’t listen to them. Disney has begun remaking classic movies, transforming the cinema experience to make it more social. They are using LGBTQ plots and CGI to replace actors who, they feel, will be degraded by playing a role. I don’t have a problem with putting minorities into shows and movies, but when you make it overly obvious that you are doing so, it is wrong.
Disney also took a financial hit from it. The democrats have pushed trans on everyone. They are pushing trans on our kids and making it legal for them to have gender affirming surgery. These kids are not old enough to fully understand what they are doing. They are teaching our kids about trans and gay lifestyles, as young as kindergarten. I feel like if you are going to teach kids, you need to ensure they are mature enough. I would say, like middle school. I don’t agree with any of the trans push that we have seen. Just let people live their lives instead of trying to push an ideology on them at a young age.

We have also seen other pushes. We heard for years to listen to the science. The problem with that is that science is taught based on party affiliation. The left says there is a climate crisis, while the right says we have nothing to worry about. What are we supposed to do? Simple, you can just pick up your trash and keep areas clean. Don’t build wind and solar farms because they take out trees. It has been proven that trees are nature’s natural carbon filters; yet, we continue to push for carbon capture and credits. Please don’t lecture me on climate and carbon emissions when the politicians are taking private jets everywhere they go or driving in large convoys. Push electric cars while you only travel in gas-powered vehicles.
None of this has ever made sense to me. I don’t care which party said these things; it does not make sense. Electric vehicle sales suggest that people are not interested in the new technology. Why, you might ask? Because there is no infrastructure for it, and the cost to replace a battery is astronomical. A new battery in an electric vehicle costs nearly as much as a new car, while a new engine costs significantly less. But now, Trump has been pushing for the sale of public hunting lands so that we can drill for more oil. I understand the benefits of drilling, but you cannot take away land that people use for sports and recreation. It is not just hunters that use this land; families use it as well. Camping and family activities take place on these public lands. Why get rid of them? It all comes back to greed. Who is heavily invested in oil companies and drilling companies? You guessed it, politicians.

In short, I feel that both parties spend too much taxpayer money, introduce new taxes frequently, and do whatever is popular with the people, even if it completely contradicts their beliefs. They will be fighting for years to come, and it is we, the taxpayers and citizens, who will pay the price. Our tax dollars are going to projects that we don’t agree with or are sent to another country. There is no end in sight for the division that we see today. It will take a new group of people who want to make a change. It will take a social shift and a mutual understanding for our next generations to move us out of this mess we have found ourselves in.