Who Iām voting for and why
As far as election years go, 2016 feels different, to say the least. But the bulk of what I read in the papers and online is sensationalist and not that useful to anyone. Sure, a presidential election is important, but the reams of paper and servers of āinformationā devoted to it are not commensurate. Twenty-four hour news is a pox. We donāt need or deserve twenty-four hours of news. We certainly donāt know what to do with it. And I donāt know if things are worse now than in previous eras, but confirmation bias is as encouraged as ever these days and most ānewsā or (vomit) ācontentā is aimed to make you feel what you already feel, just harder. Plus you choose what news or analysis to consume, from a wide array of choices, and if youāre like me, you choose to get it from places that congratulate you on feeling the thing you already feel.
A side point on whether things are worse today than they were on the yesterday or yesteryear of your choice: I tend to think things are not worse as Iām not optimistic or pessimistic about mankindās journey; I donāt think weāre āgoing to hell in a handbasket.ā I think hell is already here on earth, as is heaven, and things will always be both wonderful and terrible, and to a large part our experience is determined by which we choose to focus on.
Thereās my preface for delving into how Iāll vote in the US presidential election in November, and why Iāll vote that way. I wrote that preface to warm up my own brain and to hopefully offer some insight into my decision making process. My hope is that if Iām as honest and as clear as I can be, you can decide whether to think further about what Iāve written or dismiss it out of hand as the scribbling of a moron. Or maybe some combination of the two. Itās up to you.
Iāll also say that Iām almost a single-issue voter. Iām not, but my thinking about government and elected officials and what their purposes are begins and ends with how they approach health care. My thinking certainly visits all the other issues along the way (or a few of them anyway; I donāt have to have an opinion on everything as Iām not running and never will run for president) but number one among all the issues for me is health care. My reason for that is that I believe that you canāt really effect positive change in any other area if your body (or your childās body, or your partnerās body) is sick or not working. Nor can you effect change if youāre struggling to pay for - or even get ā vital medicine for yourself or a family member. Nor, again, can you effect change in areas you care about if youāre in significant debt for medical care youāve already received. You can even have a hard time effecting change in the political issues you care about if you merely live with the specter of not being able to access or pay for medical care for yourself or your family. I, and so many millions of Americans, speak from experience. Your health sits near the bottom of the pyramid of your hierarchy of needs, according to psychologist Abraham Maslow. Air, water, food, clothing and shelter are the only things below it, but we needed those things before we ever invented government, so physical health is where I start thinking politically. I wouldnāt fault anyone for starting lower on the pyramid with things like the climate, or housing for those who donāt have it, but I believe that itās difficult for a society to care about those things for others when they are not physically healthy themselves. You put on your own oxygen mask first, so to speak.
For some time now, there have been two major political parties in the United States. You donāt have to like it (I donāt) but thatās how it is. You can try to change it (I do) but thatās how it is, right now. Iām not saying you have to vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in November; you donāt. You can vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson or you can write in Channing Tatum. Some people will tell you a vote for Jill Stein would be a vote for Donald Trump. It isnāt; itās a vote for Jill Stein. Same with Johnson and Trump. Who am I to tell you how to vote? Who is anybody? The best I can do is tell you how Iām voting and why. It so happens Iāll vote for Hillary Clinton in November. Iāll do so because I consider her plans for health care superior to those of Donald Trump. Almost certainly due to pressure from Bernie Sanders, the guy I voted for in the primary, Hillary says sheāll reintroduce the āpublic option,ā a government-run health insurance agency that would compete with other private health insurance companies within the United States. Sheād also reduce the Medicare enrollment age to 55, which is good becauseā¦ most people live well past 55. Sheād also āincentivizeā the states that havenāt yet to expand Medicaid. Thatās vague but she can either fill in the details at some point or not; the states that didnāt initially expand Medicaid when the Affordable Care Act rolled out have been doing so one by one anyway. Even Louisiana just expanded Medicaid. Poor people deserve quality health care, do they not? Clintonās plan would appear to acknowledge this.
Trumpās health care proposals, on the other hand, literally include HSAs or āhealth savings accounts.ā In 2016. He says he isnāt a fan of George W. Bush, but thatās a sweet nod to him right there. Fun fact: Bush signed Health Savings Accounts into law in 2003, the same year he invaded Iraq. (āHmm, rather than save for my kidsā college, or retirement, Iāll take advantage of tax incentives to save for theā¦ dialysis I might one day need?ā) Ā Man, Bush was not a good President in at least 75 different ways.
To wrap up my thoughts on health care: weāre all born rotting. Our bodies will fail, by design, at one point or another. Thatās not something to be ashamed of and itās not something to be penalized for, especially in the United States of America, in 2016. Even if youāre a greedy captain of industry, you can make more widgets and be in business for longer if your workers are healthy. And if youāre an aspiring entrepreneur, you can have the freedom to invent the new Google or Tesla or whatever if youāre not bound to work for the above widget maker via an employer-provided health care plan.
And to put a final, finer point on it, Americans kill themselves because of medical debt. When I tell that to people in the UK where Iāve lived for work for the last two years, they are understandably aghast.
None of this changes the fact that a single-payer health care system, a la Britainās NHS, would be vastly superior to Obamacare, even with Clintonās proposals. But thatās not what this particular piece is about. Itās about who Iām voting for and why. And Clintonās plans for healthcare are much better than Trumpās.
One other thing Iād like to remind people is that the next president could nominate up to four Supreme Court Justices. I know thatās not a sexy issue and it doesnāt tend to dominate the headlines, but it really, really should. Whatever issues youāre passionate about (voting rights, access to abortion, campaign finance, health care, etc.) the Supreme Court wreaks massive influence on them all. The Court is composed of a mere (usually) nine people who together decide things like whether you should be able to vote in Alabama if youāre black or if you should have to drive 300 miles to get an abortion if youāve been raped. So in the coming weeks and months you have to decide if youād like Hillary Clinton to nominate the people who make those decisions for you or if youād prefer Donald Trump to do that. To illustrate, Donald Trump could substantively influence critical decisions your granddaughter has to make about her reproductive health care, long after youāre dead. And thatās not a silly thought exercise, thatās an elementary understanding of how the Supreme Court, whose Justices are appointed for life, shapes American lives through law.
So my hope in writing all this is that somebody might read it and move past the cult of personality nonsense that makes up the bulk of election ānewsā and think about what matters to them, on an issue-by-issue basis and vote based on that.
Finally, Iām massively encouraged by Sanders supporters across the U.S. To them I say āKeep on truckin.āā I am utterly blown away by the number of people in this country who want single payer health care, affordable housing, college without debt, Wall Street reform, and everything else. I only want all that stuff more the older I get and Iāll continue to vote for it and volunteer for campaigns that are working towards it. And weāll need energized citizens young and old to counter and defeat whatever it is Trump is brewing. Because although he wonāt win the election, his support and his fans wonāt magically evaporate when he loses. What will they do? Iām guessing theyāll serve as the victims of the next multi-level marketing scheme he cooks up with Roger Ailes. Ā Thatās what his campaign seems to me to be; a rehearsal of sorts, that or he views the Americans who support him as āGlengarry leadsā heās grooming or paving a deeper access path to for some godless purpose. He doesnāt seem to want to be President anyway. I guess thatās one thing he and I have in common.
1. Consider that peopleās health affects their ability to make any/all other changes. Maybe look at the issues you care most about through that lens for a minute.
2. Think about who youād like to nominate four Supreme Court justices. Remember that youāll live with the consequences for longer than two presidential terms.
3. Donāt be discouraged; stay engaged and involved, especially on the local level.
4. Tell me to stick this incredibly long postĀ up my ass.
