Why Kamala Should Win the Election, and Why She Might Not

I judge no one, and I realize everyone is doing the best they can with the information they have.   Perhaps that is why I find it exhilarating to entertain different points of view.  Here’s what I’ve been thinking lately…a conversation anyone?  😊

 

I match the Fox News confession when I acknowledge the following is purely entertainment and not news, although in my case, I did not have to pay $787 million for gaslighting the public and not admitting to it upfront.

 

Why Kamala Should Win the Election, and Why She Might Not

Given the close race, veterans and families of veterans would likely be enough to give Kamala the victory alone.  (Why would they vote for someone who sees them as ‘suckers and losers’?)

 

Given so many are struggling financially, the poor and the middle class should alone assure Kamala’s victory since his opponent last time gave 83% of his tax breaks to the wealthy, and intends to again intensify increased financial burden on the middle class (those making less than $150,000) while giving more tax breaks to those making more than $150,000/yr.  And that's just talking about direct tax, not the additional estimated 20% in product inflation costs that would be generated by Trump's intended tariffs. 

Trump’s tax and economic proposals would, in 2026, cut taxes for the richest 5% of Americans and increase them for everyone else, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).

On the other hand, as ITEP announced Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposals would do just the opposite.

If her tax proposals are in effect in 2026, the richest 1% would pay an average of 4.1% of their income more in taxes while those in all other income groups would ­receive tax cuts. That includes an average tax cut of 2.7% for middle class families and an average tax cut of 7% for the poorest Americans.

 - AFSCME

  

Given the court has acknowledged her opponent’s raping of E. Jean Carol and finding him liable for sexual abuse, and that he has bragged on tape about sexually assaulting women - this alone should stimulate enough women’s votes to hand Kamala the victory.  Kamala does not support rape or sexual assault, and in fact, has prosecuted those who abuse others.

Since her opponent has a history of racism (they have “bad genes”), the black and Latino vote alone should hand Kamala the victory, providing their votes are not disallowed (as they have in the past in Florida and Georgia). Meanwhile, Kamala’s mixed race herself and ethical positions support racial equality for those who think that’s a good thing.

 

Those who lost family members and friends to COVID it seems would alone put Kamala over the top given her opponent stuck his head in the sand about the disease and sacrificed more than 1 million American lives in his poor judgement and ignorance.  Those with long-term effects due to COVID would also vote for Kamala since her opponent plans to take away insurance coverage for pre-conditions previously secured under Obamacare.  

Are you better off now than 4 years ago?   

In October of 2020, 24,930 died of COVID

“It’s going to disappear. It is disappearing.

- Donald Trump, October 10, 2020

Indeed, COVID did not go away until the Biden-Harris administration invested billions of dollars to save and support American families (part of what contributed to the temporary rise in inflation that has turned around and been falling over the last 2 1/2 years.)

Those in their 60’s or older should alone put Kamala over the top as her opponent and his party threaten to cut or eliminate Social Security and Medicare benefits to retirees (Project 2025).

The reversal of Roe vs. Wade should be enough to give Kamala the victory all by itself.   Stripping women’s rights to their own body (something not done to men), should ignite women votes that would tip the balance.  I understand the passion of many who would like to see zygotes and embryos as human beings, yet lose the logic when these cells later become alive females whose lives are no longer their own, with their freedom being sacrificed as early as puberty by the same people who claim to care about them. 

Those tired of gun violence alone should put Kamala over the top because she and her running mate have listened to the 64% of Americans who want increased and enforced regulations for gun safety, while her opponent and his party ignore them.

 

Jews could account for as many as 6 million votes for Kamala, as many of them pride themselves about never forgetting the Holocaust, and realize a Trump-Putin partnership could set us up for unstoppable racial profiling going way beyond what is already happening.  His admiration of and publicly stating he's wanting to be like Hitler should get their attention.

 

Those who understand the reality of Climate Change should alone put Kamala over the top, as her opponent’s “drill baby drill” intentions would accelerate the planet’s death into the fast lane.  (Remember, the US has been shown to be twice as responsible as the second greatest offending country of green-house gas emissions – China - for pushing us toward extinction.). 

"The rate earth is warming at an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year's surprising record-shattering heat cause by humans, top scientists calculated."

                                                   -  US News and World Report 

Kamala takes Climate Change seriously, along with 194 other countries around the world, and is committed to working toward a carbon-neutral America, which would continue to generate about 2 1/2 million new jobs per year in the United States. 

Border issue?  Well, that's an obvious one...Kamala and her administration worked with Congress to get to a decade-sweeping comprehensive bi-partisan solution that would have resolved this problem.  Trump killed it.  Americans who want to solve this problem would reinstate Kamala in the administration to re-establish this bill, not support someone who willfully and intentionally keeps the problem going.

Even though there are many ways for Kamala to come out on top, none of these may suffice for several possible important reasons.

 

Here’s the rub:

(1) Democrats have always been at a disadvantage in promoting strategies for fairness and equality and supporting the struggling, because they usually need several million more votes to beat republicans.  (Trump lost by 3 million votes in 2016, but won the presidency, and lost by 7 million votes in 2020, yet is still able to stir up controversy that he won among those who don’t know how to find out if something is true).   In short, the electoral college gives the minority the advantage over the majority.  It is likely Kamala will need 8 - 10 million more votes than her opponent to win, given her electoral disadvantage.  

(2) Major efforts are being made to restrict voting that threatens Kamala’s votes (like the 450,000 voters that were recently eliminated in Oklahoma or the hundreds of voting sites closed in Texas to make it difficult for people to vote).  Preventing select groups from voting is another factor that tilts the election away from the majority.

(3) Despite the preponderance of evidence to the contrary, almost 1/3 of Americans still believe the election was stolen in 2020, and do not seem to have the critical thinking skills to separate truth from fiction.  This makes logic a less powerful influencer on the voting public, making reality of little value over fantasy on the minds of those for whom truth is irrelevant.

4) Trump is a master at manipulation.  (This is not a judgment of him as being a bad person.  It is recognition of a well-honed talent.)  His base consists of the undereducated and economically challenged, who are especially vulnerable to misinformation, or the wealthy, for whom the benefits are obvious and guaranteed.  And he knows the power of fear. Fear can disconnect people from their ability to think (a stimulated amygdala short-circuits the frontal cortex), and it seems only the emotionally aware survive his frequent fantasy stories and disrespectful slanderings.  You’re not exactly thinking of evaluating economic plans when you think you may be about to be crushed by a King Kong.  Unless people have been trained how to evaluate truth, or even care about truth, the consequences can be translated into self-defeating behavior at the ballot box.

I have voted to keep the democracy alive that my dad fought in two wars to protect.  At the same time, I am setting my intentions on how to respond to the millions that will suffer if our freedom is not protected on November 5^th.  One way or another, my mission will not change:  I will continue to love the hurting.  I do not have any enemies.  I am on the side of everyone.   😊.  And it is everyone I will continue to love, regardless of their intellectual ability, their moral/emotional maturity, or their vote.  And I will look for everyone else who is capable of it to hold me in love as well.  😉

My Once-A-Year-Political Assessment

  

Those interested in a psychologist’s point of view watching our current political situation may be interested in the following. I am an independent, neither republican nor democrat, but refer to myself as a supporter of the “lover” party. Whichever politicians are doing what is most loving to the most human beings is who I support, regardless of party affiliation.

Anyone with average intelligence or higher, or of average emotional intelligence or higher will be interested in the following. I welcome factual and respectful discussion, as other points of view are valid as well. 😊

People who care about freedom for all will want to vote blue because blues have a history of seeking freedom for the majority, not for the few.  Closing voting sites, prohibiting what people read, and forcing people to be parents before they are ready or choose to, are restrictions to freedom that have been demonstrated and promoted by conservatives who want to control people, not give them freedom.  If someone wants freedom for themselves, but gains it by taking it away from others, they are thinking red.

                       

 

Most people who care about women will vote blue because they have a chance to regain some of the autonomy women lost under the last administration’s influence.  Those who don’t think women should be enslaved into motherhood against their will, those who wish to be allowed have children without interference, as well as those who do not want to be abused and those who want to be respected by men and society will want to reclaim their power from which they’ve been recently stripped.  

 

Those who are concerned about the economy and inflation would be wise to vote blue this fall because of the large-scale Recovery Act instituted by the current administration, which is repairing roads and bridges, bringing the internet to rural areas, and giving back millions of people jobs taken away from them by Trump.  Anyone who cashed those stimulus checks issued by our government to save some families and ease the pain of millions of others after the pandemic will probably be strong blues because of the generous actions that helped them.  Small businesses, families, and those who realize the measures taken by the current administration to bring down inflation are now working (after the investment spike in spending necessary to recover from Trump’s recession) will rationally vote blue.  Inflation has been coming down since fall of ’22.

 

 

Those who are wealthy (making more than $150,000 a year) can vote red with the expectation of tax breaks from Mr. Trump, as described in Project 2025, similar to what he did last time as president.  Those making under $150,000 may want to vote blue, as their taxes are projected to go up if Trump wins.  Remember, Trump's last policy of tax breaks sent 83% of the money to the richest people, leaving common Americans left to pay for those benefits to the super-wealthy.

 

Those who value access to medical care, especially seniors, would be wise to vote blue because of the tremendous gains made in the last few years helping Americans handle their medical expenses (like reducing insulin costs by hundreds of dollars a month for those affected) and the promise reds in their presidential candidate and Congressional republicans have made to reduce or eliminate Medicare and Social Security.

 

 

Veteran and veteran families may want to vote blue because of the frequent cuts to veteran benefits by reds, and the degrading and attacking comments  (referring to them as "losers"and "suckers") on those who have faithfully served in our military by former president Trump, who cannot find a way to respect those who gave and preserved his freedom.

 

                                

                                

 

Families of the more than 1 million Americans who died of COVID, along with others who have permanent damage from partial recovery from COVID will wisely vote blue because they realize Trump had a 4 month warning of the coming disaster, denied it (“it will magically disappear”) and put many others in grave danger (“injecting bleach will take care of it”). Those that survived now have pre-existing conditions which will eliminate them from care as Trump seeks to destroy the Affordable Care Act as promised. It took the Biden-Harris administration more than 6 months to get on top of that COVID disaster once Trump was out.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Those who are concerned about our immigrants and our borders will smartly vote blue, because those who cooperated in a bipartisan effort to create the most aggressive bill in history that would seriously address the border issue, was toileted by Mr. Trump and his conservative red followers, who clearly demonstrated they did not want to solve the border problem.  Blues want to solve this issue with caring and sensitivity to human beings.  Reds seem to just want to keep people out, believing there are more bad ones than good ones coming in, and ignoring the reality that crimes committed by immigrants are significantly less common proportionally than those committed by resident Americans.

 

Those familiar with history of fiscal responsibility will remember that blues traditionally fix the devastating economy damage left by reds (Clinton saving us from the Bush 101% national debt increase and changing the national deficit to a positive surplus), Obama rescuing us from the Bush Jr. Great Recession, and Biden saving from the devastation of the Trump economy, who had increased the national debt by $6.7 trillion. Biden’s debt increase is ½ of Trump’s, even with the American Rescue Plan and Recovery Act that put us back on our feet.  Not sure why some miss the obvious fact that Trump’s financial acumen is stunningly poor, with 6 bankruptcies relieving him of 100’s of millions of dollars of debt due to his poor management.  

 

 

                                

 

 

Christians who follow a Jesus of compassion, respect, and love, would likely vote blue, while Christians who are more hate oriented, punishing, and fearful of those who believe differently from themselves may be more comfortable voting red, where prejudice and fearing those different from themselves is encouraged.

 

Those who want peace are prone to vote blue because peace lovers do not want to be forced to live under the control of those who abuse women, increase the power of the rich over the middle class, and authorize and encourage law-breaking at the expense of the innocent.  They will not choose a president or a Congress that cozies up to dictators like Putin, Kim, and Xi.  Peace lovers know the value of honoring all human beings and do not seek to put them under a dictatorship promised by Trump on ‘day one’.  

 

Those who are on the conservative side of the abortion issue will likely vote red, thinking that zygotes, embryos, and fetuses are human beings, rather than following what God declared in Genesis 2:7, that life begins at breath, not conception.  Those who are anti-abortion on the more liberal side will vote blue, knowing that historically blue administrations reduce abortions, (usually because of supporting birth control), while abortions increase under conservative policies, as has happened with the red Supreme Court recently.

 

It’s clear that several patterns emerge in analyzing our current affairs in politics:

Trump’s base remains the rural and less educated, who do not have the research skills or critical thinking skills (or the interest) to separate truth from fiction.  Trump has been able to tap into the repressed anger of those whose emotional intelligence is hampered to effectively deal with their feelings (particularly fear and anger).  He can play the emotionally damaged and non-thinkers to his advantage, showing us that what he proclaimed in his book, The Art of the Deal,  that if you tell a lie enough times with confidence, you can get many people to believe you.  Those who are susceptible to believe lies and have poor emotional boundaries are the most vulnerable to his influence.

Stepping Back to Look at What's Real

I’m noticing some of our leaders in Congress don’t think there’s enough money to go around.  

 

It reminds me of how Larry Norman used to sing, “You can’t see nothin’ when you close your eyes.” 

 

Of course we will never find what we’re looking for if we’re looking where it isn’t.

 

Consider this:

 

The top 1% have enough money to wipe out the entire national debt and STILL BE IN THE TOP 1%!   Most 1%ers have more money than they can spend in a lifetime.  It’s just sitting there, unused.  (or reproducing itself, unused).  IN FACT, THE TOP 1% CONTROL MORE MONEY THAN THE OTHER 99% COMBINED.

 

Now, when you add the wealth of the top 2%ers, 3%ers, 4%ers and 5%ers, we’re really rolling in dough!

 

I have nothing against making money or having lots of it.  I have spent a big chunk of my professional career helping people get more of it.

 

What does give me a raised eyebrow are those around us who worry there’s not enough money to meet everyone’s needs, when in reality, it’s quite plentiful.  Some of us are like fish that don’t know we’re surrounded by water.  The issue is not that there’s not enough money.  It’s that those who have much less cannot foot the bill for those who have much more. 

 

We don’t have a money problem.  We have a moral problem.  It takes caring, awareness, and gratitude to reach an emotional maturity level that can comprehend the point of view, “I’m blessed to be a blessing.”

 

Yes, it may be true that many who are wealthy worked hard for it.  And yes, much wealth has also been handed down and gifted from previous generations.

 

But it doesn’t make sense in my mind that if I live in a country that allowed me to have more dollars than I could ever spend, I should let others suffer while I enjoy my blessings.

 

Research shows that in general, the more we have, the less generous we are in sharing it. I think many on Capitol Hill have forgotten why they are there.  And it’s not to give more privilege to the privileged.  It’s to make sure the privileged help the less fortunate.

 

Of course, if we were all willing to look at the truth, we’d have to give up a lot of the drama that helps us feel alive, and instead the peace of shared abundance would rule.

Although many of our leaders endorse skipping out on paying our bills, the time to decide what to spend on what is during the formation of the budget, not when some want to hurt people they made promises to.

 

Tricking ourselves is unflattering.  Tricking others is cruel.  Let’s acknowledge the abundance and move on.

 

As always, I’m open to feedback and discussion. 

How to Understand Those Who Seem Impossible to Understand

Psychology is "the study of the human mind, and how it influences behavior."

This is how I discovered judgement is folly.

When studying the background of Osama Bin Laden (who grew up in extraordinary violence and saw this as his only choice to be a major influencer to please his god), his future behavior was quite predictable, and a reflection of what any of us may have chosen under the same unbearable conditions.

Once one understands Adolf Hitler's upbringing (ex: Hitler ran away from home at age 5 to escape the abuse he later repeated inflicting on others), it becomes clear he could not become anything else than he was, as would any of us being subjected to the same challenges.

For those who have studied Donald Trump's history, it is clear that his choices in behavior could not be anything else from what we see, again, as would be the case for any of us raised under those conditions. (Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp_Ew98D4OM )

Those of us who act strangely, as well as those who cannot even recognize abusive or disrespectful behavior, are all products of our environment.

If you grew up being taught compassion, empathy, integrity and honesty, it is likely reflected in your behavior now. Those who were not as fortunate as you require we use that compassion, empathy, integrity and honesty to understand, not reject or attack, someone who could not be anyone else.

It is sometimes these radical differences in how our environment shapes us that make it difficult to understand someone who thinks or acts so differently from us.

Most decisions are not made rationally, but emotionally. Many of us try to understand someone through logic, but we get a lot further ahead in understanding someone when we focus on the emotional basis for their thinking. Most of us miss understanding others because of this.  

Understanding other people requires emotional intelligence more than intellectual intelligence. If we do not understand someone's emotions, we will not likely understand their thinking or their behavior.

So instead of becoming enraged by people who act out with manipulative or unlawful/abusive behavior, find ways to understand what motivates them to do so.

And keep in mind, that those people who judge you suffer from the same dilemma that challenges you - they have not taken the time to understand you emotionally. Many of us do not have patience to do this work, which is why humans often miss each other like ships in the night.

What this means is that everybody deserves our grace. (Even you deserve your own grace.) When we have doused our lives, and the lives of others, with enough grace, we will stop judging/attacking, and finally experience the inner peace we are seeking.

Understanding Gun Violence

It’s difficult to follow the logic of many in the United States who make decisions based on repressed fears and misinformation fed to them over many years.  Prejudice does not seek out facts, because staying the dark feels safe, especially when being informed threatens one’s self esteem.  None-the-less, this seems odd to many of us who find more relief in facts than in the delusion of fantasy.

Gun enthusiasts often maintain that guns are not a serious factor in shooting deaths.  I have even heard some say they believe more guns will protect us.  Statistics do not bear out this fantasy.  Documented evidence shows 98.3% of the time guns are used offensively, not defensively (FBI).  That means the hope of being saved by a good person with a gun is an historically unlikely event.  Only 1.7% of the time are guns actually fired as defense against an attack. We are 50 times more likely to be hurt by a gun than saved by one.  

 

Unless you are a gun owner.  Because a gun owner is 3 times more likely to die from a gun, those in possession are 150 times more likely to be hurt by a gun than saved by it.  Note: for every 111 Americans killed daily in the US, only 1 is attributed to law enforcement gun use (bradyunited.org).  While over 40,000 people are killed each year by gun violence in the US, only about 300 of them are killed in defense for safety (FBI).

 

I have found that non-thinkers will also often ignore more than 50 years of research showing whenever gun safety protocols are enacted, shooting deaths go down.  Note records of Canada (by 50%), Australia (by 95%), or Japan, the country with the fewest gun deaths per capita.  

Japan, which has strict laws for obtaining firearms, seldom has more than 10 shooting deaths a year in a population of 127 million people.  In other words, The United States has as many gun deaths per capita every 2 hours that Japan has in a year.  In fact, more children are killed by firearms in the US every day than in all of Japan in 6 months.

If Japanese civilians want to own a gun, they must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and achieve at least 95% accuracy during a shooting-range test.  They have to pass a mental-health evaluation, as well as a background check.

By contrast, 40% of guns are sold in the US without a background check, easily obtainable by the mentally ill, and there is no training required.

Norway has 1/10 the gun deaths per capita as the US.  Australia and the United Kingdom reduced gun deaths through buy-back programs.  Canada cut theirs in half simply by requiring registration.  Other countries, such as Norway and Thailand, attribute fewer gun deaths to a cultural attitude of respect for each other as citizens.

Although most shooting deaths in the US are from handguns, automatic rifles are the weapon of choice for most mass killings.  Since 85% of killings in mass shootings are executed with assault rifles, it is no wonder that mass shooting deaths went down when such weapons were banned from 1994 to 2004. (Gifford Law Center).

There are lots of real-world successes in managing gun-deaths.  The United States has historically enjoyed respect from many nations for a number of reasons, but seems quite satisfied to be leader of the world in allowing the shooting of its own citizens, adults and children, without employing proven methods to stop it.

My Adventure In Denial

 I was recently referred for a prostate biopsy.  I was told I would have the results in "3 - 5 days."

Since it was beyond the 3 days of the biopsy procedure, and I had not yet heard from my doctor, I was asked by a friend if I planned to call to get the results.  I responded that I was in no hurry to hear, and planned to simply wait until the doctor reached out to me with a report.  My friend was surprised by this, saying her approach would be to be proactive in getting the information, so if something needed to be done, the process could begin as soon as possible.  That makes a lot of sense.  I had a different motive for my choice, however.

 

I replied that was rather enjoying not knowing the result of my test, and appreciated the opportunity to consciously choose the denial of not knowing a few more days.  

 

Most of us spend time in denial from an unconscious place.  I realized I had the opportunity to choose denial from a conscious place – so I could observe the benefits of denial, not from a clinical point of view, but from the vantage point of watching from the “inside out”.  I wanted to understand more about what it is that leads us into our fantasies and why we stay there.

I became aware of the following:

 

I felt at peace, realizing that guarding myself against bad news in this way gave me a chance to stay distant from the truth, in case it was an unsavory truth.  If I don’t know there’s a problem, I don’t have to face doing anything about it.

 

I felt the power of excusing myself of responsibility of changing my life in some way to cope with the truth of my diagnosis.  Not knowing meant I didn’t have feel uncomfortable about what was really going on, and I was not required to do anything different, or even think anything different that would upset my status quo.

 

My life was not threatened immediately, and denying knowledge would not hurt me or my family for quite some time down the road.

 

This gave me expanded insight into why I believe some people assume what’s comfortable rather than choose to learn about what causes problems.  It allows me not to care about those less fortunate than myself so I can ignore: 

 

·      sick people who can’t afford health care,

·      immigrants in need of safety, a place to live, and a job, 

·      the effective ways to prevent abortions rather than insisting on methods that have proven again and again not to work, 

·      how I can maintain comfort believing the myth that everyone has an equal chance to get ahead because I was able to do it, 

·      the droughts, the floods, the fires, the melting glaciers, the decades of data that show if we don’t change our direction we’re headed for an early demise,

·      my safety in staying with my own kind and not risking the unknown of associating with people different from me racially, socio-economically, educationally, etc.,

·      how my denial can allow me to create in my imagination the outcome of an election without evidence, rather than supporting an outcome supported by evidence,

·      disturbing the comfort of simply judging those I don’t understand because learning can sometimes be hard (the LBGT community, racism, how my prejudice hurts people, etc.), 

·      that denying history means I don’t have to think about injustice to those around me, 

·      that it’s OK to steal what belongs to someone else regardless of how it affects others,

·      that banning books deepens my ignorance and that of others, and that I am not helping others by drawing them into my own fear,

 

and so on …

 

In short, I understood there’s a lot of payoffs to entertain and remain in denial, and it helps me understand why people do so, as I did, to maintain a comfort level not knowing what the truth is, so I don’t have to adjust my life in light of it.

 

With my new realizations, I can now choose whether to hide my head in the sand about things that make me uncomfortable, or choose to deal with them asap to make my life and the world a better place.