Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt wrote an article with the above title that was published in the New York Times, 2106-12-16 at
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/sunday/is-donald-trump-a-threat-to-democracy.html

I was surprised that a day later it was still open for comments with 1667.  I just had to put in my two cents with my the following comment.

"Let's stop blaming the system for the embarrassing low turnout, among the worst in the world, especially for a nation that regards itself as the greatest democracy in the world.

"Sure, many blocks to voting have been put up by corrupt, self-serving politicians. Sure, the "media" has spread many distorted stories that have discouraged many potential voters. But too many people willingly choose not to vote.

"What would the result have been if half the no- shows had actually voted? We really don't know. Maybe Clinton would have won. Maybe Trump might have done better than third to a defacto none of the above.

"Whatever elections come up next where you live, remind your friends and neighbors 'The only way You throw your vote away Is to stay away!'”

After I posted the above, I searched for “The only way You throw your vote away.  One of the top hits was https://justinegraykin.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/be-subversive-vote.  Justine posted a lot of right-on comments:

“If you fail to vote, you have only yourself to blame."
“Bad politicians are elected by Good People who don’t vote”
"If 99% of America showed up to vote, it wouldn’t matter what the 1% wanted.”
“Vote as if the future depends on it.  It does.”

She had a link to “HP Lovecraft Historical Society — Why settle for the lesser evil?”  As I had recently listened to a “To the best of our knowledge” podcast on HP Lovecraft http://www.ttbook.org/book/hp-lovecraft.  I thought I would check the link out.  Unfortunately, it was broken.  But I did find https://cthulhuforamerica.com/.  Among the pictures is hooded figures holding signs for “Cthulhu for President 2016, Vote best evil”.  Cthulhu was a deep sea monster in one or more of Lovecraft’s stories.

What would have happened if there had been a massive vote for Cthulhu?  If Cthulhu won, the election would have to go to the runner-up because Cthulhu doesn’t exist?  But what if somebody had adopted that name?

I think this kind of tomfoolery indicates that we should have far better candidates running: people who truly want to make the U.S. a country for all of us rather than stoke their own egos or be in the pockets of the 1%.

The party of pluck and luck versus the parties of cluck

I started to read a tribute to Andrew Breitbart, ("Andrew Breitbart's final message to the left" by Star Parker, Scripps Howard News Service, 2012-03-02) a severe critic of the "left", and couldn't read any further.  Like so much writing nowadays, no matter the source, it gives sweeping praise to "our side" and sweeping castigation to "the other side".

We have those who have financial resources claiming that they earned their wealth, and those who feel that many have been left behind have been put there through no fault of their own by those with excessive wealth.

Parker claims that the wealthy have more stable families, et cetera, et cetera; and that the poor have out-of-wedlock births and single parent families, et cetera, et cetera.  Could it be that the more wealthy have more resources to hide their dysfunctional families?  Could it be that the less wealthy have these problems because they are less wealthy?

Parker blames the left for creating all these problems, including the sexual revolution which increased poverty.

I got news for Parker and others who blame those who are trying to solve certain problems for creating those problems.  They have been around for centuries.

I was born in March 1938, supposedly six weeks premature at 8+ pounds.  My parents were divorced in 1943.  When I was in college, my mother showed me her marriage certificate; she was married in September 1937.  You do the math.

Many years later I found out that my great-grandfather left his family in 1904 because he loved women and wine.  Even later I found out that his likely father, born in 1818, probably had a "girl in every port" - one in Brooklyn, New York, one in Baltimore, Maryland, and one in Liverpool, England.  The person with my surname married in Liverpool gave his father's name as Vincent Magree.  Vincent Magree was listed in the 1840 census in Baltimore with a male between 10 and 15 years old.

Well, some of the descendants became college-educated and well-paid, some continued to struggle, and some just muddled.

I can't speak for all my relatives as to how they arrived where they did, but I know my own life has been a crazy stew of pluck and luck.  I had a family that expected me to do well in school.  But many were the times I could have blown it with some stupid act.  I had a teacher who encouraged us to go to a highly-rated engineering school.  I had an assistant principal who found a full-scholarship for me to that school.  I blew that by being unsure of what I wanted to do.  I had a registrar in another college accept me and encourage me to study mathematics.  That got me into graduate school in the school I flunked out of.  That school happened to be buying a new computer.  The manufacturer of that computer was hiring and hired me.  And on and on with ups and downs.  Some of these because I kept trying, some because somebody helped me, some because I kept screwing up.  Pluck and luck, over and over again.

Right now we have two parties of "cluck".  One claims that the wealthy are solely responsible for their wealth without recognizing all the clerks, laborers, and government institutions that supported them.  The other claims that the wealthy are solely responsible for the problems of the poor without recognizing that that some of those problems (not all) are self-inflicted.  These are the factions that James Madison warned about in Federalist No. 10

We really need a party of "pluck and luck".  One that recognizes that problems go beyond blame, that many of these problems have been with our country since before the Revolution, and that we have to keep trying to provide some means of increasing the opportunities for both pluck and luck.  We need a party that truly recognizes the problem of balancing "public good and private rights" - James Madison, Federalist No. 10.

Where's the praise for Obama on gas prices?

Here in Duluth, gas prices have been falling bit by bit from near four dollars last spring. Today I've seen $3.39/gallon. So, if President Obama was blamed by some for the high prices, where is the praise for the lower prices? See "Bachmann: I'll bring back $2 gas", Charles Riley, CNN Money, 2011-08-18

Actually, there are many factors outside the President's control for prices of anything. Would we want it otherwise? If the President could have such control over our economy, wouldn't we be getting into a dictatorship?

One of those factors is where fuel is sold, and I don't' mean within the U.S. According to today's Star Tribune, fuel prices might be lower if diesel oil and gasoline weren't exported to other countries.
"Fuel exports hit record, keeping gas prices high", Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times, 2011-11-12.  See either http://www.startribune.com/business/133720623.html or http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fuel-exports-20111112,0,7229614.story

Where's Michele Bachmann now on these exports? My searches on her name, fuel exports, and November dates didn't find anything obviously her opinion on these exports. However, her web site seems to be only drill, drill without any considerations of the consequences and without any mention that some fuel is exported.