Was it Worth it?

On the radio, they were talking about the post-mortem of this election, and what needs to be done going forward. One thing that was mentioned was something I've spent some time thinking about, and that is how we vote our priorities. One woman was saying exactly what I've experienced. Things that are absolute show stoppers for some people, such as being undoubtedly racist, are not show stoppers for others. In essence they are willing to tolerate certain shortcomings for other benefits. For example, when I mentioned Trump is absolutely a racist, after some dodging, my CEO began to counter with tax benefits for business... so trading civil rights for tax breaks. In my mind that doesn't compute, and I think framed in that way, it probably wouldn't compute to most independents either.

Yesterday, I listened as the mayor of a small town in Pennsylvania was talking about Trump. He supported Trump, even though he knew he was blowing smoke, and couldn't revive the town through steel manufacturing again. He said the mill used to employ 8000 people, but with modern technology can now produce the same amount of steel with only 400 people, and there just isn't a market for 20x as much steel without crashing the price. But he argued that trump could bring other manufacturing into the town, for example have some of the suits and ties Trump manufactures in Mexico manufactured in his town... So he is voting to elect this person who has been an active and willing participant in outsourcing American manufacturing, under hollow promises of the unachievable, in order to maybe get manufacturing contracts that certainly do not require the authority of the Oval Office to be had. Trump the business man could make that happen immediately if he wanted to. Why would he need to be president to make that happen? In exchange for what is readily attainable from any civic-minded businessman, he is ready to risk the rest of the US economy.

These tradeoffs don't make sense, and it's not just those who voted for Trump. My fellow wannabe revolutionaries who voted third party are not going to get a vibrant third party from this. The DNC who pushed their candidate to the front clearly didn't win from this. Anyway, to get back to the title of this post, what I think is important, regardless of who's in office, is the measurement of success. In a perfect world, candidates would make promises, tell you how success of that promise ought to be judged, and the next time they're running, they should be judged based on that success or failure. That is WAY too boring to be impactful, but I was thinking it's time to plan ahead for an ad campaign along those lines. What I envision is a documenting of the state of the country before and after Trump's first term. Show me how many of these little rust-belt towns look like before and after. Show me agriculture towns, show me energy towns, show me border towns, show me the border, show me homeless encampments, show me highways and infrastructure, show me Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburg, etc. Then juxtapose the promises with the realities. Show me the statistics of our debt/deficit, unemployment, median income, stocks, value of the dollar, credit rating, health care coverage/costs, terrorist attacks, police shootings, prison populations, foreign relations, foreign trade. Maybe some things go right, and some things don't, but before we wait and see, let's start documenting, and knowing what to look for. And who knows, maybe everyone will be pleasantly surprised, and all we will have given up in exchange was the dignity of the POTUS twitter account.