PASSION FOR POLITICS

I discovered my passion for politics when I helped my parents try to get Barry Goldwater elected.*

I was a Libertarian until I saw my first ghetto. It was wrenching to become a Democrat. Especially since I was then unable to discuss some political issues with my parents.

I was a government major** in college.

I learned that passion was much less important than a strongly held pragmatic belief that progress on social issues is often slower than us Democrats would like, but we could slowly make social progress happen.

I followed Hillary Clinton's career since Bill started running for President. I watched her be trolled*** again and again.

For newbies, it seems like the office of President is the only important office. What a Party does is elect a President AND senators, representatives, governors, prosecutors, etc. Very little progress on social issues can happen without ALL the members of a Party cooperating.

Unfortunately, Bernie is a brand new Democrat, who may not be willing to campaign for other Democrats.

Bernie is also behind the curve on big banks. Legislation to curb the activities of big banks has already been passed. It is one of the laws that Republicans seem to really hate.

But the financial crises was caused by an insurance company insuring all the toxic loans. The banks believed that no insurance company would be so stupid as to insure loans that would not be repaid.

The reason we need specific and complex regulations is that these huge organizations have really good attorneys. Greed seems to be a very powerful vice.

The problem with newbies is that it is really easy to convince them that a simple solution will solve everything. Often that simple solution helps the greedy and hurts the poor.

* I did such a good job that I was gifted with a a pin of a gold elephant head, wearing black glasses. I held on to this pin until I showed it to my children. Somehow after that the pin disappeared.

** The Dean of the Government Department at the University of South Dakota was not willing to accept the new-fangled term, 'political science.'

*** Back then, we did not have 'trolls', but we had men who were determined to cut down any woman who had any power. We still have these people in my generation. It is sad that so many millennials are trolls.