Coffee Club

“Every Four Years”

   You pull into your driveway and the thought that your yard is due to be mowed waifs across your mind, but you already have a full agenda for the weekend and you let the grass slide, because really it doesn’t look that bad.  Mostly dry weather is in the forecast and as long as your lazy neighbor doesn’t mow his yard you should be OK to let it slide.  And then a few days later you realize Wow what happened?  Your yard looks like a scene from the Walking Dead.

   Well that’s how I feel about this year’s Presidential Election.  I have never been very active in politics of any kind, except for a short stint as Vice President and then President of the Iowa Student Nurses Association.  The head of the nursing school “requested” that I run for an office on the Board, at the convention.  Since they were paying my way I thought that it’s the least I could do.  I looked over the job descriptions and of the eight positions, the Vice President was the shortest and each sentence started with the word “Assist.” I could handle that.  There was only one other candidate running and he was attending the University of Iowa.

   A few of my classmates and I arrived a day early and that night we went to local establishment where I befriended the owner.  I explained to him that a whole bunch of nursing students would be in town in the next few days.  He gave me a handful of “Free Dink” cards.  My opponent on the other hand was busy campaigning, he had posters, flyers a staff of six students out pressing the flesh and touting his platform and all of his ideas for leading the student nurses of Iowa to great things.  I wanted to vote for him because his ideas were actually very good.  Since I am competitive by nature I wanted to win more.  So I gave the people what they wanted, (see Donald you were not the first to do this).

   My campaign consisted of handing out free drink cards and asking for their vote.  At the dinner that night every candidate was allowed 5 mins for a campaign speech, my opponent went over his time by two mins.  I once again gave the people what they wanted, I stood before them and raised a free drink ticket and said Vote for me…. See ya at the bar.  Standing Ovation!

   Needless to say I won in a landslide, I was able to coast as the VP for 3 months until the treasurer found that the President elect was stealing funds, so much for assisting.  When they say that politicians make strange bedfellows it is so true, why do we elect the people we do?

   I think this years elections highlight that saying to a tee.  Donald Trump started out like my yard, and then almost without warning he was the GOP nominee.  How did this happen?  Trump is giving us what we want.

   We want a candidate that has the answers, Donald does.  He keeps it “Simple” no explanation or plans he just says he is going to “Do It” couple that with his Reality TV charisma and he resonates with people.  He has tapped into the raw nerve of immigration, again a simple answer, “Build a Wall!” 

   People have always been dishearten by politicians and government but no one has given the people what they want like Trump has.  He proclaims to be Anti-Elite Establishment, he is the common man’s champion to fight the “System,” again giving the people what they want, they really don’t care that he is; and has bragged about being the Elite of the Elite.

   I am not endorsing any presidential candidate, nor will I share who I am going to vote for.  I was merely pointing out my views of why we let the grass get to high.  I sit here at my desk drinking a cup of coffee and try to make sense of things.  Sometimes it helps to put things on paper, or in this case a computer screen. 

   How is it that four years ago Mitt Romney made one comment “Off Mic” about low income people and their unimportance in the grand scheme of things and it basically cost him the election?  But Donald Trump has ridiculed every segment of the world’s population except for Middle aged white men and he is 270 electoral votes from becoming the most powerful man in the world.  I think Mr. Trump is shocked by that as well, heck he even said in many stump speeches that he could kill someone in broad day light and his poll numbers would go up.

   I personally do not think that it much matters who is elected president.  Because the President of the United States is really not all that powerful, and thank God for that. Our fore fathers had, had some experience being governed by dictators and kings and built in a system of check and balances.  If POTUS was the most powerful man on the planet then why do we still have a lot of really bad stuff going on around the world and more importantly here in our own country?   I do not think either of the candidates align with my own set of values or ethics.

  I like Michelle Obama to tell you the truth.  But on to more important things like mowing my yard.

Owen Burgin