Are You Listening?

I was thinking of this the other day, last week.  The Establishment folks are once again asking for voters' support.  "Trust us," they say one more time.  Why in the world would we trust them?  They haven't listened to us in, what?, more than two decades, likely longer.  "Trust us.  We'll listen this time."  Yeah, right......

An interesting piece opposing Trump called into question the wisdom of allowing him access to the nuclear arsenal/codes.  Isn't that frightening?  It recalls the late US Senator from Michigan Phil Hart.  Sen. Hart (Note I use his title!) was known as "the conscience of the Senate" because of his unquestioned integrity.  (As an aside, that some later referred to Carl Levin with the same sobriquet always unnerved me.  A "conscience" would have spoken out against Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial, not voted to keep him in office.  "Conscience" involves morals and stretches far beyond partisanship.)  In the '60s, a Mississippi Senator was in line to become the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, third in the line of succession to the Presidency.  This Senator was a personal friend of Sen. Hart's; they and their wives socialized.  Yet, the Michigan Senator took to the floor of the US Senate to oppose his friend's candidacy, citing the segregationist philosophy and policies of the Mississippian.  This was the right thing to do.  This was Sen. Philip A. Hart.

What does this, that history stuff, have to do with anything?  Two things, I think.  One, it's time for the Establishment to do the right thing.  To go along to get along isn't working, except to perpetuate the power of the Establishment.  Does the Establishment really think things are better than they were in the past?  (Of course some things are, but c'mon......)  And it's time for it to start looking in the mirror for reasons.  Two, no doubt the Trumpsters are going to blame the rest of us for a Trump defeat or, if by some miracle he does win, for opposing him in the first place.  As I've said in the past, with Trump or with any Establishment candidate (and, in reality, as much as the Establishment wants to deny it, Trump is the Establishment), it's not my fault for voting against him/her.  No, it's not my fault if that leads to a Clinton win (as repulsive as that is).  Is that what my entire voting life (or at least much of it) has come down to--holding my nose and voting for the least terrible of the terrible?  No more!!!!!!  (Actually, I have stopped "holding my nose" for more than 20 years.  And, I have been accused of helping to elect, Obama, among others.  No!  Give me an opposing candidate worth voting for, not one who is "less rotten" than the other.  It's not my fault.  It's the Establishment's fault!)

Enough for one dismal (rainy) Monday AM.