It's Time For A New Choice!

So, I was thinking today…now that I feel I have diverged pretty significantly from the Grand Ol’ Party and many of its high-ranking officials who refuse to join the fight to keep “that woman” Hillar-ious Rodham out of the White House, should I consider myself to be an Independent? If I decided to seek office, would there be an (I) next to my name now instead of an (R)? I know that despite how muddled the party lines are right now, if I ran for office today, I’d have to choose either a (D), an (I), or an (R), right? And yes, I know there are a host of third-party designations out there to choose from, too, but we all know how their runs for office turn out. I’d truly love to call third-party candidates more than a novelty at this point, but here we are.

There is definitely one thing I can tell you for sure, and it’s that there won’t be a (D) after my name any time soon, if ever. I believe in small government, personal responsibility, personal accountability, immigration laws, tightly controlled borders, and not only no new taxes, but repealing existing ones. I don’t believe in wasteful government spending, the minimum wage, socialism, mandated insurance, and Ponzi schemes like Social Security. I believe in completely eliminating fraud from government spending. I believe in work for welfare, right to work laws, capitalism, free markets, restrictions on abortions, and the right of religious organizations to choose which forms of birth control they offer, or none at all, if they so choose. I believe in saluting the flag, that most police officers are good folks trying to do their best with the difficult circumstances our lax society has created, the right to protect your family with firearms, and above all, that it should be the responsibility of each one of us who is capable of working to go to work and handle our own shit instead of relying on the government and taxpayers to keep us sheltered, clothed and fed. I am entirely against affirmative action and other reparations for things that happened in the past that had absolutely nothing to do with me. I do not believe in the notion of “privilege”, but actually believe that every single human being of sound mind and body on this planet has the same exact abilities as every other human being, and should be treated exactly the same, regardless of skin color, birthplace, views on religion, etc. And no, I am sorry if you think so, but that is not what (D)s believe. I don’t believe anything is, nor should it be free of cost. And I believe that we should all have to pay the same percentage of taxes, regardless if we make one dollar or one billion dollars a year. So, yeah, no question there about the party to which I DON’T belong!

For the most part, all of my beliefs and disbeliefs would automatically qualify me for that (R) after my name, but here are some of the things with which I have a problem; an (R)-controlled congress that passed a budget with MORE spending in it than the previous (D)-controlled congress, (R) politicians that pass special interest- and personally-driven pork projects like they were a (D), a political party that cannot produce a decent presidential candidate any longer and whose leadership refuses to support the nominee its members have chosen to run for President, a party that is so mired in socially conservative issues that it is continually losing ground at any chance of appealing to anyone other than the most staunch social conservatives. Contrary to many (R)s, I do believe we are having a negative impact on our environment, especially our oceans and the planet’s water system. I believe the government should play a role in protecting the environment, but I also believe our government, especially when in the hands of (D)s, goes about it in a completely inefficient and misguided manner.

So, what letter do you choose to describe yourself if you’re not a particularly religious person, but believe people definitely have a right to be one, yet at the same time, do not have a right to force their religious views on others? What letter do you choose if you don’t care what consenting adults do to each other in the privacy of their own homes, think there should be a separation between a religious marriage and a legal marriage, that legal marriages should be between whoever anyone wants, yet have no problem with a football team praying before a game or newly arrived students being taught English before anything else? What letter do you choose if you understand that most people in the world who practice religion are good people, but that there are some who commit horrible acts in the name of their religion? What letter do you choose if you think it is a horrible mistake to not factor those people’s religious beliefs into understanding why they are committing those horrible acts? What letter do you choose if you believe we are fighting a large number of radical Islamist terrorists, yet understand that not all Muslims are terrorists, nor are all the terrorists we are fighting Muslim? What letter do you choose if you understand that sometimes the government needs to listen in on people’s conversations to try to find the bad guys and have no problem with them listening to yours, yet still will be upset because they are wasting tax money in doing so?

Then, while dealing with all of these questions, I also have to keep in mind something that is a huge flaw with our existing primary system, in particular the Taxifornia (R) primary. If I don’t register as an (R), I lose the chance to vote in the (R) primaries here in the grand state of Taxifornia, and will only have the option to vote in the (D) primary. Me voting in the (D) primary is about as stupid an idea as me having to choose between Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez to be my new Senator. Then again, since I live in such a (D) state, our primary seems to always land so late in the cycle that our (R) primary votes are mostly symbolic anyway. By the time the damned (R) primary rolled around this time, Taco Bowls was the only person still running. I waited two years to vote for Ben Carson, and I never got the chance.

So, with no chance of considering myself a (D) because of where that party stands on just about everything, and a growing number of issues that I seem to be parting ways with the (R)s on, is it time for me to consider myself an (I)? I took a little time to research exactly what the common perception and understanding of an (I) voter is these days, and it didn’t necessarily provide me with a cut and dry answer.

Wikipedia describes an (I) as “a voter who does not align themselves with a political party. An independent is variously defined as a voter who votes for candidates and issues rather than on the basis of a political ideology or partisanship; a voter who does not have long-standing loyalty to, or identification with, a political party; a voter who does not usually vote for the same political party from election to election; or a voter who self-describes as an independent.”

Well, while I don’t always align completely with the (R), I definitely am more closely aligned to that letter than either of the other two. But, at the same time, I vote more on my conscience and my fiscally conservative views than anything else, regardless of what political party seems to be blowing that way at the time. Then, again, I definitely have more of a long-standing loyalty to the (R) than the other two. Over time, I have identified far more often with the (R). When I look back, I do usually vote for the same political party in election after election, though when there has been a better (I) choice, I have gone that way – case in point, Ross Perot.

Yet, as for that last point, I am definitely having a harder time self-describing as an (R) these days, but realistically, I wonder if that is because the party’s presidential primary and general election strategy was so lacking this time around. I think, too, that a good deal of the problem I have with blatantly slapping that (R) at the end of my name is due to the fantastically-successful campaign the (D)s have conducted in this country since 2006 to create a social stigma around that (R).

Meanwhile, I feel that the (I) means you vote with the (D)s about as often as you vote with the (R)s, but other than a few propositions here and there for which I might align more with the (D)s based on fiscal principle, I hardly ever vote with the (D)s, especially when it comes to any politician with that (D) after their name. The only time I EVER voted for a person with a (D) after their name was for Willy Jeff in 1992, and have I regretted the shit out of that ever since, especially now, since that vote helped play a role in enabling the crooked monster to rear her head today!

And thus, after contemplating and researching, I find myself in the same quandary now as I was in the beginning of this letter-based party alignment self-analysis. If you divide the political spectrum into just a (D) and an (R), then I would have to choose (R). But, if you provide the third option of an (I), I fit a little less into that (R), especially on some key social issues. And when I weigh all of this, no matter how I look at choosing a letter for myself, I really feel like I need a new choice.

And wanting a new choice brings me back around to what I like to call my core beliefs and wanting my new choice to be based upon those beliefs. My core beliefs are in fiscal conservatism. That means I believe in small government, less spending, lower taxes, strong capitalism, personal responsibility, work for welfare, controlled immigration, and the bottom line as the top priority, including government staying out of social issues to help reduce the cost to taxpayers. If I look at the person running, or the measure being decided, each and every time, I vote for the person or measure that is going to make the most financial sense, first for me, then, for the country. And this tells me that even though the (I) was created to give us an alternative to the (D) and the (R), I still am not comfortable slapping any one of the three at the end of my name right now.

So, in conclusion, the rules and politics can all be damned! It’s time for a new choice! To misquote Uncle Moe, “I was born a fiscal conservative (anyone who knows my grandfather can attest to that), and I will die a fiscal conservative”, regardless of what party or non-party seems to most closely align with those views at the time. So, for now, I will refuse to adhere to one of those pre-existing letters and go with my own choice, (FC) for Fiscal Conservative.

William L. Savastano (FC-TA). Done, and done.

Oh, and yes, the TA stands for Taxifornia, the state in which I was born and pay through the nose for the privilege of living.

Image created by William L. Savastano

It's Unwinding...Can Mr. Taco Bowls Re-Wind It?

In March 2016, Rob Dreher reported the following in his article, “You Can See It All Over. It’s Unwinding”: “There is no way a man like Donald Trump has any business being president,” the man told me. “You can’t talk like he does and expect people to give you the authority to run the country. The problem is that there is nobody to vote for. Look at all the rest of them running. This is the first time in my life that I don’t feel confident voting for anybody for president.” And later, with a look of pained resignation on his face: “I tell you, people who don’t think this country is in serious trouble don’t know what they’re talking about. You can see it all over. It’s unwinding.”

I feel the 2016 primary season, especially the Republican side, is quite accurately summarized in this single quote from a self-professed Louisiana conservative. The sentiments were provided to Dreher in March, long before Mr. Donald Trump would find himself as the presumptive Republican nominee for the office of President of the United States.

And while I might not disagree entirely that an overly-emotional, reactionary, former reality TV star who doesn’t always think before he speaks has no business being president, I do tend to agree with the notion that perhaps what this country might actually need right now is someone who has no business being president. I guess I’d also argue that if you are a Hillary Clinton supporter, then you and I must be in agreement on something – you too must believe that someone who has no business being president should be our next president.

“The problem is that there is nobody to vote for. Look at all the rest of them running. This is the first time in my life that I don’t feel confident voting for anybody for president.”  While I might not have agreed entirely with this statement when it was made back in March, I will readily admit that as the Republican primary field dwindled down, I too, for the first time in my life, felt fairly uncertain of whom to vote for when the June California primary was going to finally arrive. Whether fortunately, or unfortunately, by the time it was our time to vote, the primary winner had already been presumptively crowned. Any vote other than a vote for Mr. Trump in the California primary would have been a symbolic gesture.

In 1992, I voted for William Jefferson Clinton. That often comes as a big surprise to those who know me, but I had just turned 18 years old, was in my first year of college, and worried H.W. was going to send me off to war in Iraq, plus at the time, Clinton represented youth and rejuvenation in America, so I overlooked the scandals, shady rendezvous, alleged forced encounters, and usual political stories that fascinate me now, and still voted for him for purely selfish reasons.

By 1996, I was heavily disappointed in the morally weak man Clinton turned out to be (though I really should have known that already when I voted for him in 1992), and I was disappointed in the fact that a man who claimed to be a lawyer still lied under oath, even if he was doing it to try to cover up an affair with an intern that occurred in the Oval Office. And while I liked Bob Dole and how he referred to himself in third person, which William L. Savastano tends to do quite often, I was so fascinated at the prospect of a businessman serving as our president – someone who actually stood a chance of being a fiscal conservative – that Ross Perot got my vote. As you know, according to the final vote count that year, Clinton’s affair and lying under oath still did not keep the man from getting re-elected.

Then in 2000, how could I not vote for Dubya over boring ass environmentalist and creator of the Internet Al Gore? And then in 2004, how could I not vote for Dubya over boring ass John Heinz Kerry? Granted, there was more to my decision than that, but long story short, in 2000, the conservative in me voted pretty solidly along party lines, and in 2004, because we had not seen another large-scale terrorist attack on U.S. soil and things were going well for me personally, four more years of Dubya just made sense. Plus, I did love how much he pissed off and befuddled all of the liberals out there who hated him so much! And let me make one thing clear about the 2000 election, though I am not as much of a fan now, had Colin Powell run for president in 2000, he would have had my vote hands down! I was really disappointed when the general decided not to run.

Then, 2008 rolled around. Is everyone still as disappointed in that one as me? Not because we lost, but because even in the face of an inexperienced young Senator who obviously was not seasoned enough to serve as commander in chief, the best we could muster at the time to oppose him was McCain-Palin. Don’t get me wrong, McCain is deserving of our respect and is every ounce the war hero everyone makes him out to be, but while you can make the argument it was his time and he had earned the chance to be our president, that ticket was never going to live up to what would have been needed to win in 2008, especially with a whole mess of people voting for someone simply because of the color of his skin.

In 2012, I was Romney all the way from the very earliest days of his campaign, and was a Romney supporter through to the end. I also was a big fan of Hermain Cain that election cycle.

In 2016, had Romney run again, he would have been a strong contender for my vote. I was also a strong supporter of Dr. Ben Carson, long before he actually decide to run, back when he was still wearing glasses during TV appearances. And Scott Walker was someone I could have seen myself voting for as well. But, with Romney not in at all, and Walker out early, I was all set to vote for Dr. Carson in the primary for 2016, but we all know now how that turned out.

This all leads me to where we are today…mid-2016, just before the conventions that will finalize the results of the groundbreaking primary competition between the outsiders and the establishment…if you can consider a socialist career politician and a billionaire who built his wealth on a gift from his daddy to be outsiders.

Make no bones about it, I understand the difference between establishment and outsider in this election, but we’re not talking about a complete outsider, grassroots candidate who will be leaving his or her job at the tire shop to become president.

I do still see this election as a crossroads for our country, though. I know we say that about every election, but it is definitely the case this time as well. On the left, you can feel the socialists trying very hard to pull the established party even further to the left than our president has done over the past seven years. Social agendas are more important than security and financial responsibility at all costs on the left. On the right, you can feel the anti-establishment movement standing with a candidate that is already a little further to the right, or at least seems to be today, than the GOP’s previous presidential and candidate offerings. Are we actually really talking about banning entire religious or ethnic groups again in this country?

Either way, I doubt we will see a coming together on common ground for either side any time soon. And as much as I believe my fiscally conservative views are correct and don’t like to compromise those views very often, I also recognize that our country’s inability to find common ground these days is not a good thing.

This election is going to determine if the country continues its steep slide to the left, or if there is a steep pullback to the right. I personally believe there is nothing in the world Trump or any of his supporters can do to defeat the Clinton juggernaut that is propped up by the Democrat establishment, the liberal elites, and all that campaign money. The Trump campaign’s only chance would be a complete 180 degree turn to a more reasonable stance on a number of issues, which I don’t see happening. Plus, add in all the folks that are going to vote Clinton because of the chromosomes she possesses, and all the independent and centrist folks who are going to choose her as the lesser of two evils, and there will be enough votes to rocket her to the presidency she has been dreaming about since she first met Bill, or perhaps since she decided to stick by his lying, cheating ass for her own personal gain.

So, unless something new and groundbreaking happens at either of the two major party conventions, Hillar-ious and I Love Taco Bowls are going to be the choice I am faced with in the general election. Yes, there are all of those third party candidates out there, and my Perot precedence aside, unless there is a huge surge from someone like Gary Johnson to actually give him a real chance at electability, I’d hate to waste my vote as a symbolic gesture of defiance for Clinton and Trump being the best America has to offer as presidential candidates this time around.

So, with the primaries pretty much finalized, it appears all that remains for me now is to decide if I like Trump enough to vote for him, or if I dislike Hillar-ious enough to vote for Trump. And since I have said that I would rather vote for a rock I found on the ground than for Hillar-ious, and still feel that way, short of not voting, which I will never do, it looks like my ballot in November will be cast for a former reality TV star, even though no one hates reality TV more than me.

Putting aside his former stint firing people on TV, as much as I need to fear being accosted by bands of dreamers, anarchists and socialists for saying so, I do actually agree with a future President Trump on a number of issues.

My view on the wall is that the arguments about it are somewhat symbolic. While both sides scream about whether or not it should be built, if you travel to the border, you will see that the wall is already there. Any wall construction will actually be to extend it, and if we decide to do so, either in width or in height, make no mistake about it – we, the taxpayers are the ones that are going to be paying for it. And while I understand the arguments about providing everyone in the world their chance at the American dream, I also understand the necessity for a secure border, not just here in America, but for nations around the world. We have to at least try to deter mass undocumented illegal immigration in which our enemies can hide among illegal immigrants, and despite the ground the legalization movement has made, we still have to try to keep the drug cartels from operating on our soil. Anyone who thinks we can just tear down that wall without devastating our way of life lives in a dream world. Borders have existed for thousands of years and have helped protect the sovereignty and way of life for great nations far longer than any of us have been alive.

And while a future President Trump says he is going to round up and deport everyone in the country illegally, I think we all recognize that as campaign speak which is completely impractical in the real world. Yet, at the same time, people should not simply get complete amnesty for having broken our immigration laws. There is a middle ground that we can and must find. The real problem with immigration is getting our government to make a decision and then actually implementing what has been decided. I believe neither candidate will have the ability to resolve this issue, even given their potential to spend eight years in office.

On the foreign trade front, we should be concerned about China and our other trading partners and ensuring we have the best trade deals for American companies and American workers, but damaging international trade in any form goes against my core fiscal beliefs. I do believe, however, that a lot of Trump’s tough talk on China and international trade is campaign rhetoric that will subside to a more realistic stance once he is in office. That being said, I do believe that he will fight for American businesses large and small on both the world stage and here at home. Since so much of our job growth and economic prosperity rely on the success of our business community, a President Trump would be a much more business-friendly leader than would yet another Democrat two-term president who doesn’t understand how business and the economy work. I also definitely would trust a President Trump with my tax money far more than I would a socialist President Clinton.

In regards to the War on Terror (yes, I still call it that), we need to stop pussy-footing around with Russia, Syria, Turkey and ISIS, and I see a President Trump doing that with much stronger results than a second President Clinton, especially when you take a look at her foreign policy track record, which brought us the Benghazi fiasco as well as a larger fiasco in the rest of Libya. I very much believe that we need to work closely with the local freedom fighters in the Middle East and support them in routing out these ultra extremist factions that are sponsoring and committing acts of terror around the world. We need to use our military forces in a much smarter way and listen to the military commanders in the region, two things the current president has failed to do, and two things I whole-heartedly believe the next Democrat president will fail miserably at as well.

And while I will admit I don’t disagree completely with them on every issue, I also can really use a break from having the left’s ultra-liberal change-at-any-cost because your supposedly-rich-ass-makes-too-much-money social agenda continually rammed down my throat. I am definitely going to be pissed if they start taking more money from me to pay for other people to go to college when I had to struggle to pay for that shit myself, working three jobs at once at times to cover tuition, books, and my other bills.

And while some of you libs would argue this point until your last breath, I still have some reasonability in my noggin, so I don’t think we need to ban every Muslim from coming to this country. Though I would like to see a much stronger screening process for every single person we allow in, regardless of his or her nationality, race, or religion. And, I have absolutely zero confidence that the Obama administration is capable of properly vetting refugees of any origin before allowing them to walk the streets among us.

As for his rhetoric and the left’s continual accusations of Mr. Trump’s ability to create divisiveness, I do agree somewhat that the rhetoric and divisiveness could be toned down a bit, but what I hear from White House briefings when HisHighness gets on his high horse about something is pretty damned divisive as well.

And lastly, rather than re-hashing all of typical conservative stances that go against the socialist beliefs of soon-to-be-President Clinton, let me just address the following: Of course I am all for lower taxes, more efficient and practical use of the money that both the state and the federal government steal from me, providing the unemployed with education and employment opportunities as opposed to just handing them my money, harsh sentences coupled with rehabilitation programs that actually work for criminals, a strong national defense that includes actually eliminating ISIS, as well as still allowing personal liberty for law-abiding citizens, while encouraging every immigrant to assimilate into America’s culture, and shipping you back to your ancestral homeland when you put your ancestral homeland over the country in which you live. If you fly your homeland’s flag above the stars and stripes, it’s time for you to go back to your homeland.

So, if there were a different option, would I be supporting that option? Probably…but the fact remains, there is no other option. So while I never watched his stupid TV show and have honestly never been too big of a fan, I do find myself more aligned politically and in belief with Mr. Taco Bowls than I do with the other option.

And speaking of the other option, I’ll also spare you the details of what is wrong with lying to the American people, conniving to conspire to cover your ass when you have violated the handling of top secret information, as well as the abuse of non-profit status, using your elected office for personal financial gain, and leaving American operatives hung out to dry and die instead of protecting them. I’ll also spare you the explanation of what is wrong with marching in a gay pride parade while at the same time accepting tens of millions of dollars in donations from countries who would either jail or murder the people you are marching with. I’ll just ask that if you are voting for Hillar-ious, you at least take the time to read up about things like Benghazi, our policy towards Libya, Syria, ISIS and what the email scandal is actually really about. I truly believe that only 1% of her supporters have actually read up on all of the things that people say are wrong with the idea of her being president. Don’t let your view on one or two issues completely cloud your judgment on the bigger picture. Read and watch as much you can between now and the election with an open mind. And for God’s sake, if you are only going to vote for Hillar-ious so we can finally have a female president, you truly do not understand what democracy is about at all and should do us all a favor and not vote any longer. I also find it funny that the very people who are saying that we should no longer pay attention to gender are the ones who are screaming the loudest for a person of a particular gender to be president.

Oh, and I didn’t forget to address the last part of the Louisiana conservative’s quote from way back in the beginning, I was just saving it for last. And later, with a look of pained resignation on his face: “I tell you, people who don’t think this country is in serious trouble don’t know what they’re talking about. You can see it all over. It’s unwinding.”

I read multiple articles each and every day about the current state of the economy, politics, business and many other aspects of our life here in America and I have yet to read a better summary of the plight of this country than this man’s words. The average American has either no idea how much debt our government holds, or worse, has no concept whatsoever what all of that debt actually means for the economy and each one of us. With only 66% of us working and true unemployment well into the teens when you factor in people who are working less hours than they desire or for far less pay than they should be, we are in serious trouble. With a weakening foreign policy and even weaker leadership in dealing with those who want to harm us, we are in serious trouble. You can definitely see it all over. It is most definitely unwinding.

And that, ultimately, is why we need to do something different – why we need to make a drastic change instead of eight more years of the same shit – of the steep slide to the left that has helped to dig us into this hole where everyone just puts their heads in the sand, steals more from the producers and borrows money from other countries to give away things for free. It is time to stop spending our time concentrating on everyone’s feelings and coddling the whiners and get them all back to work. It is time to put America and Americans first again. It’s time for ALL OF US to be better off four years from now than just SOME OF US. It is time for us to move on from the anchors and weights tied around our neck by this divisive administration and it’s ridiculous view of America and Americans. To misquote the Joker, “This country needs an enema!”

Doctor Hillar-ious is just going to give us the same medication that hasn’t been working and hope somehow doing the same thing yields different results – and we all know what that action defines. Doctor Taco Bowls is at least going to try something new, something different. I argue that we should give him a chance. Worst-case scenario, we vote him out in four years if he hasn’t performed. Best-case scenario, a fiscal conservative and businessman actually fixes some of our overwhelming problems.

Photo is a screen capture of Donald Trump's Twitter post