With the debate today between Joe Biden and Donald Trump one thing is for sure. Trump has a BIG advantage. When one candidate believes his statements must be tethered to the truth and one candidate can say whatever he thinks his audience wants to hear and the truth does not matter it is pretty obvious who has the advantage. Lies told over and over again start to stick. That’s why Trump always adds “crooked” or “sleepy” in front of his opponent’s name. The Democrats need to fight fire with fire and always refer to Trump with “nutty Trump”. Or to really confuse the base “socialist Donald Trump”. Trump has given away so much money due to the virus he easily can be called a socialist. Even better how about “looser Donald Trump”. Bankruptcy, overwhelming debt, and jail might well be his future.

So whatever he is now, in the end he will be a looser. And if there is anything he hates it is being called a “looser”. What’s worse is in the end he will make the American people the loosers.

The reality of much voting in a Democracy is voting for the lesser of two evils. Most people like parts of a candidate’s platform but not all of it. Some people vote on a single issue that is such a big deal for them that they will forget about faults no matter how many there are. That had a lot to do with Trump’s win. Elections are won by a majority of those that vote. If there are 100 eligible voters and all show up to vote it takes 51 to win the election. If only 50 show up to vote it takes only 26 to win. Therefore those that don’t vote actually ARE voting. That makes voter suppression exactly as important as voter turn out. For every Democrat that does not vote means one less Republican needs to vote – and visa versa.

How the Government has dealt with the virus should have thrown a monkey wrench into the capitalism vs socialism discussion. A pure capitalistic society would NOT have pumped a penny into any sort of stimulus program. No rent deferrals, no money to workers not getting paid, no unemployment checks. In a pure capitalist system if you don’t have money tough luck. Perhaps that’s the way it should be. Meanwhile Government stepping in to solve a societies pain is exactly the concept behind the idea of socialism. So the US response has proved that IN FACT the socialist ideal is very relevant in the US Government structure and it is generally accepted by BOTH Republicans AND Democrats that the Government has a responsibility to help the disadvantaged.

SO the argument is really how much the Government is responsible for and how much it is not. Republicans say the Government should step up but not too much. The Democrats say it should step up more then the Republicans. The fight is between the two positions. Labeling one view socialist and the other not is ridiculous and totally incorrect. Are the Democrats more socialist than the Republicans? Yes but BOTH are socialists. At the same time Democrats are not are communist any more than Republicans are pure capitalists. So for all those people marching with anti “socialist” banners should understand the two points of view AND I hope they do not take one penny of employment, stimulus or whatever else is given to them from the Government. I found it very interesting that Donald Trump insisted that his name be on the bottom of the checks that were sent out to all those that lost work. Money that increased the debt to levels never seen or imagined before. That makes him probably the most socialist of Presidents ever.

When I look at the political landscape today I can’t help but be depressed. Both Right and Left are confused and the commentators have lost control of the language to the point the public now relies on the internet where everything goes and you can choose to be indoctrinated by whatever you want and never hear opposing views. Even the owners of the internet platforms have lost control – the beast has been let loose and stopping it will be impossible in any “free society”. The most misused word in the political world today is “socialism”. Good to some, evil to others. “Capitalism” comes a good second and the reality is that BOTH in their extreme forms do not work.

The best way to understand the idea of socialism is to look at how Insurance works. Insurance is actually pure socialism in that all the clients pay in money and only the ones that need it take money out. Add capitalism into the mix and the deal becomes everyone pays in and only the ones that need take out AND the money paid in exceeds the expected pay out so the Insurance company pockets the difference as profit. Capitalism is based on the market – ie the “people” deciding what they want and are willing to pay and the market supplies those wants.

The problem is that we have learned that all people are not equal nor are they all moral so the temptation to exaggerate the benefits of a product or service so as to gain more clients can easily overshadow ones desire to be honest. Also the weak can loose to the strong so Capitalism left free of encumbrance soon turns to monopolism which by definition means the market no longer drives supply and demand so it is no longer capitalism. To correct this weakness in capitalism regulation has been used. Truth in advertising, truth in labeling, anti trust laws, building codes, safety laws etc etc have entered the equation to prevent capitalism from destroying itself.

The right – left argument has come to focus on how much regulation is needed or desired. Prevent greed from getting out of hand while still maintaining personal incentive. Socialism in the extreme becomes Communism which is based on the idea that no one owns anything specifically but everything generally. In small terms the kubutz is the best example. Problem is this extreme idea never solved the idea of personal incentive so it failed. However, socialism is not a fixed concept any more than capitalism is. It goes from light gray to black – black is communism which is NOT the current meaning of socialism as much as Sean Hannity wants to describe it. So the best societies have combined elements of socialism and capitalism to meet somewhere in the middle and the left/right argument becomes as simple as how much is left to the individual and how much the government should be responsible for.

Sean Hannity argued on Fox the other day that socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried but then listed only communist countries. Communism and Socialism are NOT automatically the same thing. Actually, the most successful societies such as Norway, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Singapore. Australia, New Zeeland etc are more on the left (ie more socialist) than societies more in the right like the USA. The USA also has socialist elements such as Social Security and quite a few laws and programs that would fit a socialist political model. The flies in the ointment in all political formulas are racism, nationalism and religion – or simply tribalism. These flies have perverted both left and right.

The Republicans were originally small government, more individualistic, low debt, separation of church and state and generally “smart” realistic views of the world. Immigration was not originally part of the thinking. Religion is now a big player in the party, the debt issue has been forgotten and things like global warming and other “smart” thinking is shunned. Immigration (racism) has become part of the party platform. Meanwhile the Democrats have not escaped stupid ideas either. The Black Lives Matter movement identified a social injustice then pushed the idea to the brink of stupidity with ideas like “defund the police”. Anti-racism comes across as wanting no restrictions to immigration. National Health care comes across as anti capitalistic.

The truth is that the end result is that the average person is not sure exactly what the Democrats stand for. That makes it easy for the right wing to label them negatively. Trump does this every day tweet after tweet, speech after speech which both right and left leaning media broadcast. The truth is, tell a lie often enough and it becomes accepted as true. Of course there is another word misused: “liberal”. Very strange in a country like the USA which is defined as a “liberal democracy”. The Constitution is liberal. The Bill of Rights is liberal. Yet listening to places like Fox one would think “liberal” is something bad. In the end I come down to this. The left right argument will go back and forth and both have good and bad points so we will probably never all agree on what is best.

Personally I don’t see health care as a good area for capitalism to operate and government would be a better place – not perfect by any means but still more cost effective and better over all for the most people. Europe and many other countries make that plain to see. Meanwhile the biggest problem is the widening gap between the general public – two tribes talking past each other and no longer one people as one hoped the US would become. The internet/ media is a culprit and a big part of why this is happening. But it is also the leadership who can manipulate the media either purposely or inadvertently. I don’t know if Trump is actually an autocrat but what is obvious is that he has added to the problem by fanning the flames that were already there.

We can deal with a small fire, but he has made it a big one and for that reason alone Trump is a danger to the very idea of the United States. His fans choose to not want to recognize this. In the end they will come to realize the danger and what it leads to. The fear is that it will be too late.

Bernie Madoff showed that even smart people can believe stupid things, Donald Trump is the Madoff of politics today.

The unfortunate truth about the supposed peace between the Gulf states and Israel is that both will change their minds when they get what they want – the Gulf more US arms and Israel when the settlers pressure the government for more territory on the west bank. Peace? bullshit!

China would like to back a candidate that is bad for the US but good for China but sees neither in Biden or Trump. Instead they see Trump as bad for China AND bad for the US and Biden as good for the US and at least not bad for China so prefer Biden to Trump for that reason. Russia likes Trump because he is bad for the US and bad for China which is also why North Korea is for Trump. Iran is under no illusion that either will be good for Iran but hate Trump no matter what. The Europeans think Trump is an idiot. The Asians are of mixed feelings as they worry about China.