The Democratic and Republican National Conventions are over. Each party has picked its nominee to move forward and face-off with the other in the November general election.
People are passionate about their candidate of choice. Or they are passionate about who they don’t want in the White House.
No matter who takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2017, does it really matter?
Borrowing from a post on Facebook that a friend of mine made:
“Political spoiler alert: Hillary chooses Bernie. Hillary wins.
She only does 4 years. There is a terrorist attack. Trump gets enough steam. Trump wins 4 years from now.
In conclusion Hillary supporters, Bernie supporters, Trump supporters. You all get your wish.
Now turn off politics, and go create your life and stop expecting the government to do a thing.
Because when has the government ever built your future? You build your future. You create your dreams.”
And to quote financial guru and money expert Dave Ramsey in a tweet, “Presidential Election Cycle: Where a group of people tell you they will fix your life. Bad news. They can’t. Good news: YOU can!”
The powers-that-be in Washington, D.C. move at a snail’s pace. After you’ve cast your vote and let your voice be heard (in my opinion, if you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain), then you sit around and hope your candidate wins, and you wait for that candidate to fix your personal life — you’re going to be waiting a long time.
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Taking care of your own life, fixing your own messes? When did we become such an entitled society? The government owes you nothing. Your boss owes you nothing except a fair wage for a fair day’s work. Your family owes you nothing. Life doesn’t owe you a thing. It doesn’t owe you health, happiness, abundance, success, comfort, or immunity from pain and problems. It doesn’t owe you a job, a house, a bed, or a single meal. No one owes you kindness, love, recognition, empathy, apologies, or understanding. You aren’t entitled to a single thing.
Borrowing again from Ramsey, in regards to finances, “You’ve got to make your own personal economy better, then you’ll be able to stand tall no matter what’s going on in Washington.”
The downside to this is — you have no one to blame but yourself.
The upside is — you get all the credit when things go right.
While some find that this is a difficult concept to grasp, it is actually very empowering.
You have the power to improve your life in any way you want. And you can do it now. You don’t have to wait for an election cycle.
How many of you are willing to look in the mirror and see the problem and solution for what it really is?
I was both surprised and a bit irritated to read the editorial “Does it matter who’s in the White House?” – it argued, convincingly, that it will not really effect our own personal lives who is elected President. However, many people, including myself, do not vote merely for our own self-interest. We vote based on our values and morals and because the responsibility for what our country does overseas rests, in part, on whom voters choose. The pedantic tone of the editorial insults those who spend time to educate themselves politically and form an opinion. Those of us who care whom is elected are not merely people needing to look in the mirror and work on our own lives – we are not all voting because we are expecting personal gain from one person or the other.
A President Trump versus a President Clinton will, assuredly, treat matters such as involvement with Russia and Syria differently. They will have different policies towards Muslims and Mexicans, health care and the poor. They will have different opinions about whom to select for the Supreme Court. Some candidates are educated, others are not. Some candidates speak with the vocabulary of a 14 year old, others speak more dignified. This may not effect my own life – but that is not why I vote. In fact if I merely acted in a selfish and self-centered manner – the way this editorial assumes I would – then I would not even vote – because one vote certainly will not matter – we vote from a sense of civic duty and responsibility and for our beliefs. Yes perhaps our society is becoming more and more full of narcissists and selfish people – but I think your editorial misses the mark in assuming we all vote for our own selfish expectations – and that our concern for politics is based on a “lack of personal responsibility” – that’s not true at all and surprisingly short-sighted for journalists to espouse. By the way just above this online version of the editorial is a link to an editorial from August 12th, 2009 entitled “The Primaries are not a reason to slack in civic duty” – now that’s more like it!
Thanks so much for this response, George. We love your well thought out response and will share it with the rest of our editorial team.