[FRIAM] election eve

[Steve Smith]

I appreciate this point of view.  In 2016 it seems like there was a lot
of rhetoric about "vote in your own best self-interest" as a way to try
to increase turnout or focus on why any individual should take voting
seriously.

Working at LANL for 27 years I heard *way* too many people there voting
for War Hawks because it was "good for (nuclear weapons) interest" which
was good for the lab's/county's budget... etc.   

I've never voted for my specific self-interest (supporting school bonds
because my kids were of school age or against them because I had none or
they were done with that) but with an idea toward a larger self-interest
of "what kind of world do I want to live in?"...   which has progressed
with age from one where perhaps there was a lot of scrappy scrapping
going on where I could "get ahead" to one where "as few people are under
acute stress and misery as possible such that everyone (human and
non-human everyones) rises to be their best selves".   I know this is
very Pollyanna at some level...   But I so much prefer to ignore my
baser instincts of "greed and fear" in deference to something a little
more "enlightened".  

I have always been appalled by the admonition "If you are not liberal
while young and conservative when old, there is something wrong with
you".   I refactored it to "idealistic while young and practical when
old".   My *practicality* says that my life is improved by the lives of
my family, friends, neighbors, and beyond being improved, and as Marcus
reflects here, that works mainly/only/best for those of us NOT living
under dire threat of privation of abuse, but I would claim that the bulk
of that "threat" is an illusion in the first world.   We all have spare
capacity to "rise above" if we choose to.

- Steve

On 11/4/20 11:54 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> Nick wrote:
>
> < I know two trump supporters quite well.  Mind you, we don't talk politics that much.  Both are owners of small businesses who have led the highly regulated lives that folks must lead if they are going to make money in a politically diverse community.  Both [thought they] saw gains from the Tax Cuts.  I think both think the economic policies have been good for them and they find the crazy stuff kinda fun.  >
>
> Let me just give you my visceral response:   If one is doing ok -- not having your neck crushed under the knee of a cop or starving -- then I have the expectation that a person persuade on the basis on what is good for everyone, not what is good for them.    I don't care how they make money.   That is their problem.   I did fine under Bush, Obama, and even Trump.   I'm a lucky one.   It would never occur to me to use minor trends up or down in my income for a reason why someone should run the most powerful democracy in the world.  I find it petty and appalling that people do think of making this connection.   Yes, I would cancel them if I had subscribed to them, but I never did subscribe to them. 
>
> Marcus
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