Judge Not

It’s almost election day.  One week and one day after Halloween, we’re all either going to be tricked or treated.

I used to get really worked up about elections, because I felt that the results could affect my life for decades.  Now, I don’t have decades left.  My Dad lived into his 90s, but he was always an outlier.  At 74, I take 14 different pills a day just to keep me going, a few for the heart, a bunch for my hip, and some just for the head.  I don’t have decades to go.  So, I don’t get as worked up about elections, anymore.

I still care.  The results may not affect me for decades, but, realistically, they will probably affect me for the rest of my life.

In Pennsylvania, I’m voting for John Fedderman.  I first heard of his campaign back in April, when I got an e-mail just before National Pot Day (April 20th) asking me to contribute $4.20 on 4-20-2022 to support the senate campaign of John Fedderman, who wanted to legalize pot.  So, I got out my credit card.

That’s the only political contribution I made this year.  I think that Money has taken over politics, and the only way to curb the problem is to defund politicians.  So, I don’t usually contribute to political campaigns.  However, I’m a Democrat.  John’s a Democrat.  He wants to legalize weed.  I’ve been arguing for the legalization of pot for more than 50 years.  It was worth $4.20.

Five months ago, though, John had a stroke.  He is steadily recovering, but still has some problems with words.  His opponent is the Famous TV Doctor, Dr. Oz.  They met in a TV debate.

The balance of power in both houses of Congress is so tenuous, that both sides are fighting tooth and nail in every swing state to see that their candidate gets elected, no matter who the candidate is or what their problems are.

The Republicans clamor that John Fedderman is not mentally competent for the Senate, because he had a stroke 5 months ago, while they circle the red wagons around Georgian Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who Democrats claim has had more concussions than I’ve had girlfriends, and, quite obviously, more girlfriends than I had, too, as they keep showing up with Morey Povitch type stories about abortions they had for him.

Isn’t it weird that we can forgive the mental problems of our own candidates, while so viciously attacking the mental problems of the other party’s candidates?

Me, I think the mental condition of the voters is actually way more important than the mental condition of the candidate, and, right now, I honestly believe that the knowledge level and intelligence of today’s average voter is at an all-time low.  We live in an age when instant information is available at our fingertips, but most of us only ever listen to one side of the story, the side we’re on.  Our decisions are made strictly by Party loyalty, not by any great reasoning process.

That finally gets me to my point.  The worst case of decisions being made by Party loyalty, not by any great reasoning process is in the Supreme Court, where every decision does truly affect many of us for the rest of our lives.  How can we the people make sure that Supreme Court Judges, judge fairly?  We can’t.  Ginni Thomas is working feverishly to overthrow the last election, and her Supreme Court husband Clarence just says he knows nothing about it because they don’t discuss politics at home.  I don’t think I can trust him, but there’s nothing I can do about it.  He has a job for life.  He doesn’t care what I think.

I think this is wrong.  Even the President is limited to just two four-year terms.  The Supreme Court Judges should also be subject to term limits, ten years, or twenty years at the most, not forever.  Amend the Constitution.  Only Dictators want to rule for life.

Peace & Love, and all of the above,

Earl