The Republicans are Draining the Swamp by Making it More Toxic

Draining the Swamp has made Capitol Hill look even worse

There may be only a few days left in Barack Obama's presidency. but the new empowered Republican controlled congress has been governing for a few weeks. We have learned a lot about the newly installed 115th Congress in these few short weeks. People who do not believe in government are now in charge. Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have spent their entire careers obstructing anything and everything. They have crafted a dream ideology of no oversight, and the will of the individual. Now they have a blank check and can actually govern. How have the done in these few short weeks?

The first issue the Republican government attempted to “fix” was to eliminate ethical rules for members of Congress. This was the GOP’s very first step in draining the swamp, less ethical oversight. Many of the typical Republican defenders, Brit Hume and the brainless ones at Fox News, tried to defend the House Republicans by saying the ethics office under fire was not necessary. Maybe Brit is right, but it does not really matter. The news media, rightfully so, pointed out that the first action of the House Republicans was to create less ethical oversight. These idiots spent the summer railing against how unethical the Democratic Party Presidential nominee is, and their first concern is to make oversight weaker. Good job republicans, you exposed your hypocrisy in the first minutes of the new congress.

The next step for Speaker Ryan, and Leader McConnell was to “advise and consent” on President Elect Donald Trump’s cabinet selections. There’s Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, recently the CEO of a company who relies on fossil fuel and makes money by taking valuable resources from despotic governments and polluting the planet. We also have a person who was denied a judgeship because of his racism being vetted as the Attorney General. People like Ben Carson and Rick Perry, who have no experience or curiosity in their given departments, are being given a free pass by the morons on Capitol Hill. Somehow none of these jamokes hold a candle to the farce that is Secretary of Education pick Betsy DeVos.

The pick of Michigan activist Betsy DeVos to Secretary of Education is proves that the GOP has no plans to help the middle and lower economic classes of America. The fact that Congressional Republicans have no problem rushing her confirmation hearing, even if all of her ethics background checks have yet to be completed, shows that people like Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell have no idea how to govern. DeVos is anti-public education, how in the hell is she qualified to run the Department of Education? Betsy DeVos does not want to fix the education system, she wants to take all the federal money and move it into school choice, aka public funded religious schools. The concept of school choice has been a disaster everywhere, but the so called fiscal conservatives have no problem using tax dollars to prop up this failure of an idea. Betsy DeVos is a school choice champion, and Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell are excited to use tax dollars to push her broken ideals. There is no concern for accountability, just pure political opportunism. I heard Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell rail against the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee over her political opportunism. It is nice to see with the DeVos hearings they accept being the hypocrites we always knew they were.

The next big agenda item for the GOP congress is to weaken the rules on endangered species. The original Endangered Species Act was passed unanimously in the 1970’s, but the current GOP fell like it needs to be repealed. This is one of the most important items facing our new government in the feeble minds of Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell. The needs of a few rich businessmen is more important than the future of America.

The last big thing that Congressional Republicans feel the need to attack is the Affordable Care Act, also known as the devil named Obamacare. With numerous show votes to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, and wasting millions of tax payer dollars, the GOP has revealed itself as a petulant child who has no idea what they really want. The Affordable Care Act helped people get insurance, and at the same time made sure the insurance companies were well compensated. The actions of Congressional Republicans prove GOP only cares about giving federal dollars to private insurance executives. The repeal process has secured these federal subsidies, but has made sure to move the neediest of American citizens off the protected list. The inhumanity of the GOP has been on full display in just a few short weeks.

This week will mark the beginning of the Donald Trump Presidency. Even though the incoming President lost the popular vote by nearly three million people, Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell believe they have a mandate to govern as they choose. President Elect Trump has shown no vision to help the supposed middle America white voters who launched him to victory, and the GOP Congress is working to make these angry voters lives even worse. To the Republicans, ethics, education, and the environment are the true demons haunting the American dream.

Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp, but all we have gotten in return is a cuckhold Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell to make the President Elect and his buddies even more wealthy and disconnected. In a few short weeks, the Congressional Republicans have moved fast to protect the coastal business elites, and leave the middle of America behind. There is no corruption to awful for this group of hypocrites Good thing we did not elect a career civil servant who was bad at e-mail.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is camping out waiting for the next Benghazi hearing. The Republicans do care more about American lives than political showmanship, right? 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing

The SeedSing 2016 Year in Politics and Society: The Top Political Stories

Happy 2017 all.

Sorry to say, but we need to look back at 2016 one last time. The upcoming year is going to be quite different in politics than any year within many of our readers lifetimes. With that in mind, we here at SeedSing want to count down the five most important political stories of 2016. There are many important things that happened globally when it comes to politics, but our stories mostly look at the United States. What happened in the US will have massive global implications in the years to come. These events were crucial in creating the uncertain future that will begin in 2017.

We are going to start with the most overhyped political story of 2016. The endless coverage of Hillary Clinton being the first woman to be at the top of a major party ticket for President is the most inconsequential story of 2016. The Clinton campaign barely used this angle when the Secretary Clinton was on the campaign trail. It was widely accepted that Hillary Clinton was going to be the Democratic Party nominee, and the media decided not to cover the historic angle. It is a shame, because what Hillary Clinton did, by winning the election by a margin of nearly three million votes, is historic. It is an overrated story because no one talked about like they should have.

The fifth most important political story is the insanity that was the Republican Presidential Primary. Many, including us, thought that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush would easily win the nomination. If there was going to be a Barrack Obama like upset, it would maybe come from Florida Senator Marco Rubio. As the weeks went by, and New York businessman Donald Trump kept getting just enough of the plurality in primary states to win, things started to get strange. The endless debates started to focus on penis size, the attractiveness of spouses, and whose father helped to get JFK assassinated. There was no substance, no vision, just a comedy of errors. This chaos led to Donald Trump finally securing the nomination in June.

The fourth most important political story is the fact that the British people voted to leave the European Union, or Brexit if you want. Brexit is a bad, bad, idea, and the voters knew this. In what was soon to be a trend, the middle and lower class voters of Britain did not care about the consequences and wanted to send a message. No one in the press got it right. The stats gurus who set betting lines on public opinion got it wrong. Brexit sent a shockwave out that saw British Prime Minister David Cameron resigning, and most of the Conservative leaders actively running away from being the new leader of the British government. Theresa May stepped up to the plate and has actively delayed Brexit, even looking for her own exit to Brexit.

The third most important political story is the failure and incompetence of the professional media. During most of 2016 many media outlets, including SeedSing, treated Donald Trump as a joke. Many media outlets, mainly NBC, were treating Trump with kid gloves. Clinton was questioned for every small detail, but Trump's glaring problems were glossed over so the news networks could get better ratings.The stats gurus at Princeton, 538, The New Times, and many others were giving Hillary Clinton a huge advantage to win the presidency. They were all wrong. Once the election was over, these newspeople spent their time covering their own rear ends. It was never their fault. The only people taking actual responsibility were comedians like Stephen Colbert and John Oliver. People like Nate Silver and the clowns at Morning Joe were busy throwing fire in every direction. The need the media has for fame and profit outweighed the safety and future of America.

The second most important political story is the death of the Democratic Party. Since Bill Clinton was elected as President in 1992, the Democratic Party has almost entirely given up on trying to win any competitive election outside of the President. In the early part of the 21st century, then DNC chairman Howard Dean started to reverse this trend, but once Barrack Obama was elected, Dean’s plan was scrapped so the Obama campaign could demand all the money and resources. 2016 proved to be the Waterloo of the DNC’s President or bust strategy. The so-called “safe” Senate map did not give the Democratic Party a majority. Republicans took control of more state legislators, Governor mansions, and the White House. The Democratic Party responded to these humiliating setbacks by maintaining the status quo. California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi was once again elected to the position of Minority Leader. The same old talking heads the party has been keeping around far too long on the news networks all kept their jobs. The Democratic Party’s choice to keep the same failed leaders shows that personal glory for a few is more important than a more secure America for all.

The number one most important political story of 2016 is the ascension of Donald Trump. From the first rally, where Trump had to pay people to attend, to election night, Donald Trump is a political candidate like one not experienced in our lifetimes. He used juvenile insults on his opponents, threatened to jail Hillary Clinton, bragged about sexually assaulting women, claimed his use of bankruptcy law makes him a good businessman, and put the reputation of Russia ahead of the safety of the United States. All of these issues still caused the Republican nominee to lose the popular vote by nearly 3 million, but he did gain the needed electoral votes to be the next President of the United States. Since his popular defeat, but electoral victory, Donald Trump has spent his transition time insulting CIA intelligence professionals, media outlets, and his opponents. His cabinet is mostly made up of wealth seekers who actively want to make America less welcoming to anyone that is chasing the American dream. The rise of Donald Trump to the highest office in the land has not humbled the thin skinned tabloid mainstay. Over half the country does not want him to be President, but he is, and America needs to be ready.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Are you part of the minority that voted for Donald Trump? Tell us why. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing

Let's Talk about the Electoral College

You have probably seen this map.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/2012-election-county-by-county/

For those who do not know, this a map of every county in the United States and how they voted in the 2012 Presidential Election. The red portions are for Republican Mitt Romney, and the blue are for Democrat Barack Obama. We do not have a very good map to reflect the 2016 election, but it will look very similar to the one above. When presented with this map, the initial reaction is to think that most of the United States voted for Mitt Romney. Unless you live under rock, we all know Barack Obama won the 2012 Presidential Election. The incumbent beat Romney in the popular vote 51.1% to 47.2%, a margin of five million votes. Obama also handily won the Electoral College vote 332 to 206. President Obama even carried all of the electoral votes from Nevada, Oregon, and Washington even if this map looks like all those states went strong for Romney. 

The fact is that the county election map is useless. Many pundits will use this visual as an argument for America being a center right country. In 2004, the county election map was used by strategists in the George W Bush administration to show the media that the newly reelected President had a mandate from most of America. Never mind that Bush won with just over 50% of the popular vote, the county map showed over two thirds of the nation was all in on the President. The county election map is nothing but a propaganda tool to try and fool the masses. It works every single time.

How do we break the spell of the county electoral map? Here is another way to look at the popular vote map from the 2012 election.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2012-Electoral-Map-Population-Adjusted1-570x305.png

This map comes from University Michigan professor Mark Newman. The map distorts the states to show how valuable they are based on the population. Yes it does only show the states as a whole and not broken down into counties. If we could distort the map to show the population numbers of the counties, most of the red at the top map would completely disappear. The blue area would be way more dominant, and even look as big in red states like Arizona. Compared to the traditional ways we are presented with an electoral map in Presidential elections, Professor Newman actually has the one that comes closest to truly reflecting the support Barack Obama had in his reelection bid. That is the map the media should be using.

The recent election of Donald Trump has upset a lot of people. The opposition to Trump points out that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, and therefore a larger portion of Americans would prefer her as President. The supporters of Trump point to the non-disputed fact that their candidate won over the requisite amount of states to put Trump over the 270 needed Electoral College votes. Both sides are correct, but the rules state that the winner of the Electoral College gets to be President. That winner is Donald J Trump. That is not up for debate.

Similar to our recent situation, the 2000 election between Bush and Democrat Al Gore ended with the Electoral College loser having the most popular votes. After the election, Democrats were claiming that the Electoral College should be eliminated. Nothing ever happened, the Democrats gave up pretty quick. Now for the second time in five elections, the Democratic candidate gained more popular votes, and lost the Presidency. Renewed cries to eliminate the Electoral College have started. California Senator Barbara Boxer has floated the idea of putting forth legislation to do away with the system. Why should people care this time, if the Democratic Party gave up the fight 16 years ago?

What is the purpose Electoral College?

To understand why the Electoral College should be eliminated, we need to know why it exists. Vox.com writer Sean Illing says it was created to protect slave states, and he is probably right. Founding Father, and current Broadway darling, Alexander Hamilton said we need the electoral college so “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”(Federalist #68). James Madison was afraid that a dangerous, passionate, faction could elect a bad person. Has the Electoral College stopped any of these things from happening? The idea the founders were trying to put forward is that the President of the United States needed to be an honorable, qualified, and politically professional person. The President should not be elected by current whims of an angry population.

The true nature of the Electoral College does not exist today. The founders intent has been lost because all states, except Maine and Nebraska, allocate all their electors to whoever wins a plurality of the vote. Twenty six states, and the District of Columbia, make it against the law for the electors to vote against the will of the plurality. The Electoral College has been altered so much, that it does not even act as intended. That alone should call for its dismissal.

In our current political climate. many people defend the Electoral College as a method that allow all American interests to be represented. The single rural farmer should have as much say as the large concentration of similar thinking urban dwellers. Without the Electoral College, the Presidential candidates would only focus on the big cities. These are the people who use the county electoral map as a true snapshot of America. Unfortunately these ideas are incredible wrong and dangerously naive.

The Electoral College is a system set up to fail it's true intent. In fact, it has failed the country four times, twice in the last sixteen years. The uneven representation of small states has thwarted the progress of the United States since the founding. Slavery went on because of this uneven representation. States wage economic warfare on each other because blue states like New York and California pay for the economic disasters in Kansas and Louisiana. Places like Puerto Rico have a 0% chance to be admitted as a state because Republicans fear it would give the Democrats more representation, and more electoral votes. The Electoral College system rewards small state fear, and incompetence. Does that represent a bright shining city on a hill? The real failure of the Electoral College lies in the idea of population disbursement.

As directed by the US Constitution, each state gets an Electoral College vote for each member of Congress. Every state has two Senators, and then any number of Representatives based on population. The highest number of Electoral College votes currently is California with fifty-five, the lowest electoral votes is three shared by a number of states plus the District of Columbia. Right now, a Presidential candidate could win the requisite 270 votes with just 11 states, leaving almost 80% of the states without any real representation in the White House. But what if we had a large concentration of the population in only one state? Would the rural folks have any hope?

The Super State Experiment

Lets do a little experiment where we take the Electoral College to its terrifying final form. In order to make this experiment easy, we have assumed the US voting population is close to the same as the current actual population (approximately 300 million). New laws were passed to allocate votes based on the voting population, not the total. In order to win the electoral vote, a candidate still needs 270 votes. And last, poor Washington DC will be left out, their three votes gets absorbed into the experiment's ether. We will tax the good people of DC, but you still get no representation.

To see how the Electoral College is a farce, we need to imagine a Super State. This Super State would have over 99% of the United States population. Let's imagine that a wonderful thing was discovered in this state, and every American citizen would have to move there for economic survival. Because we are creatures of habit, the United States keeps the other forty-nine states. We do not want to change the flag. The other non-Super States would keep three people living in their borders, a Representative and two Senators. And then let's say that the Electoral map looked like this after the election.

I choose Missouri because the map looks cooler. Boy is it going to be crowded in the Show Me State.

Beautiful blue Missouri has 391 Electoral Votes, more than enough to elect the President. Who in their right mind would argue that the winner of the Super State should not be President? Yet people still argue that this map is valid:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/2012-election-county-by-county/

The blue portions on the county map account for over 50% of the current US population. Not like Super Missouri, but more than enough to gauge the will of the American voter. The county map is filled with false ideals. For example, a candidate can win the state of Ohio by taking just eight of its eighty eight counties. Why are there no thought pieces about the under representation of the other eighty counties? Because it would be ridiculous. 

Lets look at how big the Super State of Missouri has to be so it does not control every election. If the other 49 states have six electoral votes each, then Super Missouri would have a paltry 244 votes. Having six electoral votes means that each small state would account for 9% of the population of the country. Our mythical 49 states with six electoral votes would then in total make up 46% of the population. Super Missouri would have 54% of the population, and their unanimous voice could not elect the President. A true tyranny of the minority.

Here is where the Electoral College really shows its failings. It is not logical to think that every single person in Super Missouri would vote for one candidate. It is conceivable to think that the Presidential candidates would only campaign in the Super State and try to sway a majority of its dense population.. If Missouri holds 99% of population, then it is a race to the plurality, but what if Super Missouri was just barely big enough to sway any election? 

For this to happen, the other 49 states need to have five electoral votes each. That means the states that are not Super Missouri would have approximately two million residents each. Collectively, the non-super 49 would be just under one third of the population. That means in a two party race, a Presidential candidate could win the election by taking just over half of Super Missouri. In every election, the President-elect would only need one third of the nation to vote for them. In a race with multiple fringe party candidates, the victor would need much less than one third of Americans supporting their candidacy. With 100% voter turnout, less than one in every three voters would determine who would lead the nation for four years. The Electoral College deems this fair. 

What Damage has the Electoral College Done?

Every four years people defend the Electoral College as a system that stops the majority from imposing it's will on the entire country. The demagogues come from the political fringes, the philosophical minority. The majority has to be more centered to attract more voters. By embracing the Electoral College, we enable the growth of fringe movements. The modern political campaigns are not contested in big states like New York, California, Illinois, and Texas. Theses states are some of the biggest economic powers on the planet, and they have little influence in who the President will be. States like Ohio and North Carolina have a deeply divided electorate. They get the lions share of attention in a political campaign. In fact, both the Clinton and Trump campaigns spent almost 90% of their time in just four states at the end of the 2016 election. In an era where the Republican party will run 147 people for President, an unqualified wanna be despot can take the largest minority of votes in a primary and become the de facto choice A or B in the Presidential election. Once that person gets to the final round, they only need to get the right number of states, and not the will of the people, to be the President of the United States. The Electoral College defends the will of a partisan minority over the wishes of a balanced majority.

The Electoral College was an idea born of fear and inhumanity. It is a system being propped up by a political minority who will die without it. The defenders of the system claim it is more representative of the nation as a whole, and they are wrong. A modern America has been held back because of this terrible 18th century idea. It is time to understand the true failures of how we elect the President of the United States. It is doubtful that any real action will happen in our lifetimes, but with our little experiment, maybe more people will become enlightened. America has discarded other bad ideas from her past, maybe the Electoral College will be the next one to join the ash heap of history. We can only hope for that change.

Thanks to outsidethebeltway.com for their maps and crazy awesome knowledge.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Are you one of the five people who live in a three Electoral Vote state? Tell us why you need unequal representation by writing for SeedSing. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing

Dear Trump Voter

I'm hearing some protests from you recently that "we're not all racist/misogynist/etc!"  And I take you at your word. It's not my place to figure out what is in your heart. But here's what I know.

We're all grownups here. We all have deal breakers and priorities.  You voted for Trump for a reason, and I voted for Clinton for a reason. I'm sure Trump isn't your ideal candidate, and Clinton isn't mine. Some things are disqualifying, and some aren't. For instance, I put aside Clinton's hawkish interventionist tendencies. I put aside the dynastic implications. I put aside her ties to Wall Street and the general whiff of graft because they were preferable to what I saw on the other side.  I own that decision. I will not pretend that I can distance myself from the less savory aspects of her candidacy.  If she won and chose to invade Yemen, I'd have no right to be surprised.

You made a different choice, based on your own values. That's completely fair. You heard the divisive language, the racist dog whistles, the calls to violence, the authoritarianism,  the grotesque treatment of women, the suggestion that Latino judges and Muslim gold star families are less American that their white Christian counterparts. You knew that his running mate supports gay conversion therapy.  You chose to set that aside for the things (abortion, guns, making America great, whatever) you felt were more important.  Fine. But own it.

Don't pretend to have hurt feelings that people call you out for your priorities.  Don't even try to equate the discomfort of being called racist or misogynist with the sting of actual discrimination. Don't try to equate being called a homophobe with the pain of not having legal rights with your partner. It's just insulting.

So fine. You're not racist. You're not misogynist. You're not a homophobe. But you voted for so someone who actively promoted that worldview, because for you, that stuff was negotiable.  It wasn't a deal breaker.  That tells me that we may get along fine at a backyard barbecue.  But I can't really trust you. You may not actually think my kid deserves less respect than yours, but you're willing to tolerate those who do.  When push comes to shove, you don't have my back.  You made that choice. That's your right as an American. But deal with the fallout. Suck it up. After all, elections have consequences.

Tina S

Tina is a sometime contributor to SeedSing and a special guest star on the X Millennial Man Podcast. Check out her latest walk on appearance on the X Millennial Man Podcast where she discusses the best political ads ever made. We made a twitter for Tina, go follow her @TinaSeedsing. 

What's Next?

Election day is like New Years Eve for political junkies. The good stuff happens in the nighttime, we tend to stay up way later than we should, and the amount of drinking is well beyond the normal range. On the next day we are hungover, regretful, and many times confused about what happened.

The 2016 election was one of the most epic political New Years Eves in history. Once the election was over, and we woke up in a hangover, the consequences looked dire. After a quick shower, and a ton of coffee, our mind started to play through the nights events? Donald Trump is the President elect. Really? The Republicans predictable held the House of Representatives, and surprisingly continued to control the Senate. That does not seem right?  If you were a Democrat, your best option in the political new year was to keep drinking. Things look downright terrible.

If things are really terrible, we need to make them right again. Once our minds have finally recovered from the headaches and regret, only then can we start to solve our perceived problems. On New Years Day it is tradition to make resolutions, life changes, that will make our lives better. It is now the new political year, it is time for our resolutions to make the Era of Trump a personal productive one. I am going to get this ball rolling.

First up, these are the things I am going to give up in the Era of Trump.

Big Data. People like Nate Silver at 538, the New York Times Upshot, and numerous other self promoting political statisticians are useless and dangerous to the political process. Nate Silver in particular is a thin skinned, self obsessed, bullying force in our modern political discourse. He, like many others, claimed to be mathematical gurus who could read political futures. They were wrong on Trump in the primaries, and they were way wrong on the election. Silver will claim he was more sympathetic to Trump's chances. Unfortunately for him, it is obvious he was only promoting Trump as a form of clickbait. Whenever Silver was called out on his non-scientific behavior, he would throw a twitter temper tantrum. Big data is as useful as saber-metrics. It was a cute fad, until we learned that there was no real value in it. No more Upshot or 538 for me.

The Professional Left. Websites like the Huffington Post and cable outlets like MSNBC have been falling out of favor for a few years now. HuffPo is a third rate Buzzfeed wanna be with smug left leaning commentary. MSNBC is getting worse in being the crazy college kid who is "experimenting" with socialism. People like Rachel Maddow and the jamokes on "Morning Joe" have started to talk down and liberalsplain everything concerning politics. These professional left outfits have actively alienated disaffected voters by treated the middle of the country as an intellectual wasteland. The pundits on the left are out of touch, and by treating Trump as a non serious candidate, they endangered the entire country. No more wasting time being talked down to.

The Democratic Party. We have made no secret of our disdain for the professional clowns who run the Democratic Party. Around SeedSing we have even given a name to the party's incompetence, The Ohio Problem. These incompetent jabronis have failed many times, and it is time to stop giving them support. The party needs to discard the ways of 20th century politics, and embrace a modern strategy with fresh new faces. We do not need the Clintons, Bahys, and Feingolds of the world. They were great, but it is time to move on. It is time for 21st Century ideas.

What do we do next?

Do not silence your voice, yell louder. There is a saying that goes something like "If a person is in the middle of the street yelling they are crazy. If a group of people are in the middle of the street yelling, it is a movement". I want to yell in the middle of the street with a group of people. SeedSing is designed as that street with people yelling. I want the world's thoughts, ideas, and dreams. There is no word limit, no censorship, no closed commentary, just the free flow of ideas. Our country may have elected someone who embraces divisive ideas, but at SeedSing we are looking for voices who will bring hope and progress to the world. You should really check it out.

Vigilance. I do not support Donald Trump, or the GOP agenda. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan now have more power to implement their ideas on the American people. I for one believe in science, a women's right to privacy, human rights for all, and other issues the Republican congress has actively opposed. My voice will not be silent. I will not fall for the calls of unity from a group of people that have done nothing but undermine President Barack Obama. I will be stand against those who harm America, especially if those people sit in elected office.

Project 2020. SeedSing started as a launching pad for a think tank called Project 2020. The mission of Project 2020 was to find ways to elect 21st century progressive leaders in as many state legislatures as possible by 2020. If these new leaders could control the next congressional redistricting process, then we can bring true representation back to all of America. Project 2020 is not about winning the White House, it is about winning everything below the Presidency. The Republican Party has had the advantage in these races for a generation, and that has left many people without representation I am reviving the ideas of Project 2020, and we are looking for people with a 21st century vision. In the coming months we will start building a community here on SeedSing and elsewhere where these new leaders can get the support to make a run for office.

Well, I have sobered up from Election night, but the hangover still remains. It is a new political era, and I have set out my plan. Like all good resolutions, things will change according to the situation. This is a beginning, a first step. The times ahead do not look that great, but America is to great to fail. The road ahead has many obstacles, but I have a plan for what to do next. Join me.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.  

I'm Sorry

I will start with a picture of a puppy

I was wrong. For over a year here on SeedSing and the X Millennial Man Podcast I have not given Donald Trump the respect he deserves for running a winning Presidential campaign. Here, along with our community of citizen journalists, have never taken the New York businessman seriously. We have pointed out every gaffe and hateful action from the Trump campaign. We assumed that Donald Trump was going to be embarrassed on election night, and the country would not be that much different than before the election of 2016.

I was wrong. What we never took into account is the true anger, and disconnect, people feel with the Washington DC class. Many times on, this site, I have railed against the incompetence and corruption of our elected leaders. Voting for Hillary Clinton was endorsing this culture I was so very frustrated with. My assumption is that the recklessness of Donald Trump would drive people back into the comforting arms of an old and broken Washington DC system. What I never saw was the single issue rage that turned out the Trump voter. The majority of Americans have been left behind by DC, and enough of people chose the chaos of Trump over four more years of the same. Uncertainty is a better option than more of the terrible same.

So what is next. My first step was to apologize. No excuses, I just need to say that I am sorry for being so dismissive. The next step is to find a way to move America forward. The Trump voters who felt left out of the system now have an opportunity to make their voices heard. The people who were anti-Trump now get to decide if they are going to work for positive change, or just pray for Trump and the GOP to feel. I promise to look for ways we can make America better than it is. I will team up with anyone that truly wants a greater America. No hate, no anger, just progress. Who's in?

Be kind to one another

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Did We Mention that you Need to Vote Today

As RD has already stated, and I'm going to state right now, go vote today. All my pop culture stuff is not nearly as important as going out and letting your voice be heard. Voting is a right handed to us when we turn 18, and now more than ever, you need to vote. Everyone who reads and listens knows who I voted for, but I do not care who you vote for, as long as you vote. Sitting this out and thinking your vote doesn't matter is dumb.

Our country is a democracy and voting is the best way to use your voice in picking, not only the next president, but governors, treasurers, any form of government in your state. There are also plenty of other issues on ballots today that will affect your city and state in the future that need to be voted on today as well. Go out and do your due diligence and vote today. Obviously, I think you should vote for Clinton as president, but you vote for whoever you want, just vote.

And let the world know that you voted too. Pass it along on social media and let people know where you voted, and let them know they have until 7pm in most states to vote. Also let them know that if you are in line, and stay in that line even after 7pm, they have to let you vote. You cannot be turned away, no matter what they try and say and do.

Also, go out of your way to thank the volunteers at your polling place. They are taking the day to help you vote. These are good people, doing thankless work. Let them know they're appreciated.

Anyway, vote, vote, vote. It is very imperative that you get your voice out via voting. I'll be back to pop culture/sports/music stuff tomorrow, but today, voting is what matters most. GO VOTE TODAY!

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He pops up on the Politics side when talks about voting, and to teach Donald Trump a little history. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Second Annual Get Your Ass Out and Vote Call to Action

Just follow the signs.

Ed note: Much of this article was copied from our "First Annual Get Your Ass Out and Vote Call to Action". The names and entertainment have been updated. Next year will be a lot of the same words if you don't get off your ass and vote.

Hello All, again.

It is election day. I assume many of our good readers are well informed of the candidates and issues. You all probably woke up bright and early, presented your voting credentials, and are now wearing the "I Voted" stickers to the embarrassment of your non-voting friends, co-workers, and family. To all the good voters out there, good job, you make America proud. 

The preceding paragraph represents less than two thirds of America's eligible voter population.  In over 75 years we have seen Presidential election turnouts rate top out at 65% of eligible voters participating only one time (1976 - Jimmy Carter's victory). What the hell is the problem? Why do people not vote? Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are not inspiring a bunch of hope in the American electorate. The onslaught of the 24 hour media, and the subhuman conversation on talk radio, make elections into a quasi philosophical battlefield. Cowards like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh use their time on publicly created radio and television airwaves  to claim America will be ending if their chosen politicians do not win. The professional left (once again thanks Robert Gibbs) makes every election into a crowning of their latest political celebrity. With all of this noise, very few people actually vote.

What the hell is wrong with you people? The national (and most state) Democratic Party has totally given up on local elections so they can win the "Best in Show" ribbon that is the Presidential election. Way to go Democrats, Obama won two elections. How has that worked out? We have the psychopaths of the tea party in congress now, non-stop obstructionism, and a Republican Senate who promises to never give a hearing to a Supreme Court Justice if their party is not in power.. The Democratic Party's lack of developing any local candidates, and supporting them, has led to people in Washington DC much worse than Donald Trump. The mighty party of the people has completely failed at building a strong stable of candidates, and left the power to the most self serving political movement in American history.

The people who are on your school boards, city/town councils, and municipal courts have a ton more power over your lives than anyone who is elected to Washington DC. Your kids go to schools run by the philosophical whims of the school board. Your emergency services are managed by your city councils. Your home values are dictated by the people elected today. Yet nobody seems to care. We all get excited to vote for history (Obama) or vote to take our country back (Donald Trump), but we care not to vote for the person who will give the next generation a chance to thrive. What is wrong with us? The election you do not participate in today will elect the crazy person to your school board. That person will next move on to win a city council race you refuse to vote in. Next thing you know, that crazy person is being featured on "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" as another crazy right winger who belongs in the 1800's. They got there because we refused to stop them from winning their first election.  We elected them by not participating.

Wake up and get your ass out to vote. I know that levies, school boards, and trustees do not excite our electoral urges. Maybe you got up to vote against Hillary or Donald? Make sure you look down that ballot and make your mark against other names and issues. Grow up. Your home values, your kids education, and the overall future of our society depends on who wins this November 8th, 2016. If you decide not to vote, I will blame the next Trump/Clinton on you. 

Vote

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Not voting gives us leaders like Matt Bevin in Kentucky. The Bluegrass State would like a do over. Be a thought leader of tomorrow and write for SeedSing. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump is the Least Important Choice on Your Ballot

Somehow we got to use this picture again.

Who is ready to do some voting?

At long last, the greatest election in American history is coming to an end. Jay Z has sung, Ted Nugent has grabbed his crotch, the most important voices have told you who to vote for. It is now the general public's turn. On election day, less than two thirds of eligible voters will make their choice. Hillary or Donald will emerge victorious in the days after the election, and America will enter a new era. The choice of the people will be ready to lead.

Unfortunately we are all already know what will come after the election. Trump will lose, and he will throw a temper tantrum. If in some weird way Trump does win, the Clinton supporters will lose their minds and accuse people of election fraud. The new President will be deligitimized immediately by the opponent's partisans in the media. The idea of respecting the outcome of an election is long gone. The new President will have an incompetent group of partisan hacks in the US Congress who will do everything in their power to stop any meaningful idea from the executive branch. The millions of people who vote for the loser between Clinton and Trump will feel left out of this new America, and they will react poorly.

The thing is, we have ourselves to blame for this dangerous division. The supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have made the election only about themselves. Clinton does not do rallies with down ticket Democrats, and Donald Trump has flat out refused to endorse some very powerful congressional GOPers. The media, national and local, spends 99% of its time on Trump and Clinton, and the other 1% on other races. The public is uninformed, and not curious, about any thing outside of the freakshow that has been the 2016 Presidential campaign. That attitude has created a broken America.

This is a huge problem. Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012 by a wide margin. He is the first President since Eisenhower in 1956 to win over 51% of popular vote twice. What do we remember from Obama's eight years? We have the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare if your nasty. We also have a ton of Republican obstructionism. That is pretty much it. There was the increase in LGBTQ rights, but that came from the courts. Obamacare and Republican obstructionism is pretty much what we saw over eight years. There has been a record number of votes to overturn Obamacare, all failed. We have now long past the record for the most amount of time a Supreme Court appointment has gone without a hearing. If Obama is so popular, how can Congress keep being do nothing obstructionists and get away with it?

Obama, like Clinton and Trump today, never made their supporters care for the down ticket races. It takes a whole lot of money, and personpower, to run for President. The hording of resources is what we have called the Ohio Problem (you can read all about on this fine website). The general electorate, or less than two thirds of it, get excited to vote for President, and forget everything else. Midterm elections struggle to get half the amount of voters in Presidential elections. There is very rarely times where people are excited to vote for the Senator, or school board member. That lack of excitement has given us a popular President, and a Congress more concerned with partisanship than with doing actual work. The most important races, the people running who can actual affect your life, are being pushed to the side for the dog and pony show of modern Presidential campaigns. 

In 2000 many people thought George W Bush was way less qualified to be President than Al Gore. In 2008 Hillary Clinton and John McCain made the case that Barack Obama was a celebrity, not a seasoned politician. The press liked the camera friendly Bush, and the dynamic Obama. The people followed the press. The American people elected the popular kids over the hard working salutatorians. The idea of celebrity was overshadowing the solid resumes of the DC lifers. People wanted to be part of a movement, they wanted to join the cult of personality. The experienced workers were squares who most of the electorate ignored.

While these media friendly neophytes were winning, the public forgot about the people who actually make laws. In the last two decades, a freshman member of the US Congress has more power than the President. Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have stopped legislation supported by both parties. Members of the House of Representatives you have never heard of are currently blocking vital federal funds from solving the water crisis in Flint, Michigan and containing the Zika virus outbreak in Florida. The most powerful members of our government were being reelected with no competition from the opposing party. Even in the swing state of Ohio, the Democratic party has ceded the election to a man who was once the Budget Director and trade representative to George W Bush. Hillary Clinton is working hard to expand the Democratic Party's electoral college map, but her hording of state resources are allowing the GOP to keep a stranglehold on Capitol Hill. Her supporters believe electing Hillary will be enough. It won't be.

How the Democratic Party keeps missing the lessons of 2012 are baffling. Hillary will probably win, and the Republican party will still control Congress. Senators John McCain, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee have promised not to hold hearings for any Supreme Court appointments for the next four years. That is unconstitutional and anti-American. Nationwide, people running for office as Republicans have promised to waste more taxpayer money by have a thousand more showboat votes to defund Obamacare. By ignoring down ballot races, the Democratic Party is embracing gridlock and giving up any chance of change until the next election.

This needs to be the next election. We have made the case for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but their victory is unimportant. Many people have expressed their frustration that both candidates are terrible. Then don't vote for the President, or vote third party. Who cares? Trump will not have the power to do what he wants to, and he will act the child he has been his whole life. Clinton will not have a Congress that will work with her, and she will use the office to enrich her family and her donors. Ok, they stink, but there are other people on the ballot. The person you elect to the US House, the Senate, your state legislature, town council, school board, they have real power. Your taxes are decided by these people. The education your child receives is in these peoples hands. Feel like you do not know who these people are, check out your local ballot. Think you don't know these people, Google them. If you plan on going to vote for Hillary or Donald anyway, it doesn't hurt to take time and vote for the people who really matter.

We get our chance to end this nightmare tomorrow. Clinton V Trump will not be listed as one of the more inspiring Presidential campaigns in US history. The good thing is we have a moment to take power back. Sure there all third party candidates like Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Evan McMullin, and Cthulhu, but we should focus on the not as well known names lower on the ballot. When we focus on getting a working Congress, a school board who thinks of children over partisan interests, and judges who focus on the law over special interests, then we will have a government who has real hope and change. 

Go out and vote.

RD  

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Be a thought leader of tomorrow and write for SeedSing. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Case for Hillary Clinton

The combo for the case was in one of the 3000 emails

In case you live under a rock and still find time to read SeedSing.com, there is a pretty contentious race going on for the Presidency of the United States. New York businessman Donald Trump is running against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. There are a few other people on the ballot, but they have no chance whatsoever, so we will not name them here.

Are you one of those undecided voters? Really? What is wrong with you? Well we are going to give the undecided, and the determinedly decided, voters a look at why each candidate deserves your vote for President of the United States. Enjoy, and make damn sure you vote on or before (if allowed in your state) November 8th. 

Why Hillary Clinton should be President of the United States

Time for some real talk.

Hillary Clinton will walk into the election on November 8th with almost enough electoral votes to win the Presidency. If you take, Ohio, Iowa, and Florida, all states won by Obama in 2012, and give those votes to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton will still have over the needed 270 electoral votes. This huge advantage is not because Clinton is a transcendent candidate, it is because the Democratic Party nominee will always have this advantage until the GOP can figure out how to grow voters. Complaining about immigration, and offering no credible solutions. Voting constantly to defund Obamacare, and offering no real alternative. Claiming white christian men are the real victims, while ignoring every other demographic group. These issues are keeping the national Republican Party isolated from the majority of Americans. How and why the GOP can win everything except the Presidency has been a mystery to many. We have discussed how the GOP has been so successful at the local level, and so very bad in Presidential elections. While the Republican Party rests on the success of their small ball approach to elections, and not evolve to bring in new voters, the Democratic Party will continue to win ever single Presidential election. Most of these victories will be by a wide margin.

Being gifted this Electoral College advantage is why Hillary Clinton will be elected President of the United States, but it is not why you should vote for her. The contrast between Clinton's centrism, and Trump's populism is almost nonexistent. There are many issues where the candidates are on the same page. They will both work with a pro business Congress to bail out Wall Street when there is another economic downturn. Both candidates will acquiesce to any recommendations the Pentagon makes in concern to our continued military operations in the Middle East. Like every recent Presidential campaign that preceded them, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have claimed to be the change candidate, but when it comes to the big issues they will not have the Constitutional powers to make the broad sweeping changes promised on the campaign trail. The economy, gun rights, foreign policy, it will all stay the same under a President Clinton or President Trump. Sorry, but those are the facts.

Where Hillary Clinton does separate herself from Donald Trump is in the areas where the Republican Party is falling behind on the national stage. The GOP, led by Trump, has taken a very hard stance on immigration. Talk of loyalty tests, banning entire groups from entering the country, and the constant defense of racist leaders, and their racist ideas, has hamstrung the Republican party with many minority groups. Immigrant groups like Latinos, and Muslims, are growing, while the old middle class white man as a voting group is shrinking. While Fox News, and other thought leaders of the Republican Party, continue to demonize these growing groups, the GOP will continue to lose voters. Gaining these groups is creating a permanent fire wall of supporters the Democratic Party can count on for generations. If these groups turn out, there is no way the Democratic candidate can ever lose the Presidency. The Clinton campaign is counting on these voters to put them over the top.

Many people wonder why the majority of minority groups blindly support the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton, along with majority of the Democratic Party, has not been demonizing Muslim or Latino immigrants . Along with African Americans, the immigrant community sees the Democratic Party as their only choice in a national election. Clinton has highlighted the struggle of the people who come to America for a better opportunity. She has put on display the heroism of immigrants who have given it all to defend America. The GOP has tried to present a case to American minority groups that the Democratic Party does nothing to help the true struggles immigrants face, but it sounds hollow when in the same day Donald Trump is turning Muslims, African Americans, and Latinos into people all Americans should fear. By acting gracious, and not suspicious, the Clinton campaign is adding voters with almost all minority groups in the United States. Alienating these voters is killing any future the Republican party hopes to have at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare if your nasty, is another area where Clinton is focusing on solving a problem and Donald Trump is only concerned with creating division. The Affordable Care Act is not a very good piece of legislation, but it has areas that almost everyone agrees on. People should not be denied healthcare because of a preexisting condition. No matter of income level, every American deserves adequate access to good health. The mythical GOP plan that has been presented as an Obamacare replacement has included both of these provisions at one time or another. Hillary Clinton has been involved in reforming America's healthcare system for over twenty years. She wants to create a solution, not have endless defunding show votes that accomplish nothing. Donald Trump, and the Republican Party, continues to treat Americans health as a commodity where there is money to be made. Hillary Clinton may not have evolved to the point where access to good health should be equal, but she has devoted a large part of her life in trying to gain access to good healthcare for all. Her leadership on this vital issue is a comfort to a nervous electorate.

Donald Trump likes to criticism Hillary Clinton for being in politics for so long, and not accomplishing anything. If Mr. Trump, and the Republican Party, had read the United States Constitution, they would understand that a former private attorney, First Lady, US Senator, and Secretary of State does not have the unilateral power they all believe she did possess. If one was to have an unbiased look at Clinton's actual record of accomplishment, they would come away impressed. Clinton has made her mark on both US domestic and foreign policy. People may not agree with everything she has accomplished, but the record is long, and even Republicans will see some good. Trump likes to say she created ISIS, any thinking person can see the lie in that statement. The Republican Party has tried, and tried, and tried to trip up Secretary Clinton on Benghazi. They have failed and embarrassed themselves. Hillary Clinton's long political career has not only created an unparalleled list of accomplishment, but it also created one of the craftiest political fighters in US history.

This is usually the point where the Trump supporters will point to the corruption that has followed Hillary and Bill Clinton their entire political careers. There have been a lot of news stories, hit pieces, and congressional investigations, yet Hillary Clinton has never been indicted or charged with any crime. None whatsoever. While the GOP has gone after Hillary Clinton, she has swatted every single attack down. The email scandal has been going on since before Clinton announced her intention to run for President, yet their is still no smoking gun. Foreign entities have tried to derail Clinton's campaign, they have all failed. Former President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and many other administration officials, kept government information on private email servers and deleted millions of communications when investigators came knocking. Surprisingly there have not been endless investigations by the the Republicans in Congress who claim they are just trying to protect Americans. While the Bush administration has gotten away with deleting millions of emails concerning government business, Hillary Clinton has constantly been hounded about 30,000 communications that no one can find. Most Americans see the double standard, and Donald Trump is losing the argument.

Hillary Clinton has spent most of her adult life working in the Washington DC machine and slowly climbing her way to the top. On the campaign trail people like to see an outsider running for President, but we have always preferred the comfort of knowing that our President knows Washington DC. Hillary Clinton definitely knows DC. Voting for Hillary Clinton is like walking through a haunted house attraction. How everything works is hidden from your view. The secrets of the house are closely guarded. You have an idea what to expect, but there will be a few scares. In the end you will be right back where you started. Nothing has really changed. On the ride home you are left wondering if it was all worth it. 

Go out and vote.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is not embarrassed about writing what is not in his heart. Why does he have no shame? Because journalism has no shame. Be shameless and write for SeedSing. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Case for Donald Trump

The case is filled with lead and swings in the general direction of the candidate.

In case you live under a rock and still find time to read SeedSing.com, there is a pretty contentious race going on for the Presidency of the United States. New York businessman Donald Trump is running against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. There are a few other people on the ballot, but they have no chance whatsoever, so we will not name them here.

Are you one of those undecided voters? Really? What is wrong with you? Well we are going to give the undecided, and the determinedly decided, voters a look at why each candidate deserves your vote for President of the United States. Enjoy, and make damn sure you vote on or before (if allowed in your state) November 8th. 

Why Donald Trump should be President of the United States

With the current state of the national political climate, any Democratic candidate has a huge electoral advantage over their Republican counterpart. It is the facts of math. Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008 were blown out in the electoral college vote because of the Democratic Party's advantage. In order to win the election, Donald Trump will have to get a state, or two, who have leaned towards the Democratic candidate for nearly a decade. Trump has to gain votes that Romney and McCain could not. Being so unpopular, how does Trump gain these voters?

The fact is that the only way Donald Trump will win the US Presidency is if enough people vote for him because he is not Hillary Clinton. To this vital group of people, who can swing the entire election, the case for Donald Trump is that he is not Hillary Clinton. That is it, these people want to find a way to keep Clinton out of office.  The anybody but Hillary crowd need to break for Trump. If that happens, than the Republican nominee may have gained the voters the GOP have been searching for over the last two elections.

Why does Donald Trump deserve the lion's share of the never Hillary voters? To begin with, Trump is definitely not like Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is not like any politician in modern memory. The election of Donald J Trump to the Presidency of the United States would be shocking. For years, many people have run for elected office claiming to be outsiders. Trump is genuinely an outsider. He has ran as a third party candidate. He has been registered as a Democrat longer than he has been a Republican. The talk of being an outsider is never right, except when it is Donald Trump doing the talking. For people saying that the problem with politics is politicians, Trump is the messiah they have been waiting for.

Donald Trump has also put a great amount of effort into running for President. While most of the Republican field took the electorate for granted, Trump was always on tv, and at rallies, making his case. When the fundraising has been a little light, Trump has put his own money up. Hillary Clinton has run a very low key, and low energy, campaign, while Trump is a force that never stops. His constant presence has had many consequences, but no one can deny his effort. Being a figure who has taken advantage of other people's hard work, it is shocking how much energy Trump has put into his 18 month run for the President. Donald Trump may be accused of a lot of bad stuff, but being a lazy candidate should not be one of those accusations.

If Donald Trump is elected to the Presidency of the United States, it will end the Clinton Dynasty. The Democratic Party has been crippled at every level because of the hording of resources and manpower done by the Hillary Clinton campaign (just take a look at the Ohio Problem). The constant defense of the sins of Bill Clinton has caused the Democratic Party to lose the moral high ground. Any Trump accusation is turned around to make a similar, if not worse, accusation against former President Clinton. True or not, there is an unfortunate history of Bill Clinton and infidelity, and the left wing never condemns the former President. The mainstream media, along with the entire Republican Party, has spent decades litigating Bill and Hillary Clinton. Many people are tired of the overzealous investigations, and the same amount of people are tired of the general corruption that follows the Clintons. Make no mistake, there are plenty of scandals surrounding Donald Trump, but they are new scandals. The nation does not have the same kind of fatigue concerning the Trump scandals. There will be plenty of media, and maybe even a few congressional, investigations into a possible President Donald Trump. That does not matter. What is important to the nation's psyche is that we are finally investigation someone not named Clinton.

There is also no way of knowing what a Donald Trump Presidency would look like. I know many people find that frightening, but to others it will be an exciting breath of fresh air. We know what we get from a Hillary Clinton Presidency. She will help Wall Street, not fix Obamacare, continue the terrible foreign policy Bush II started in the Middle East, protect her big campaign supporters at the expense of everyone else. Hillary Clinton will act like every President before her because that is what the system rewards. Trump is an unknown. He says a lot of things like building the wall, and tearing up trade and defense treaties, but he does not have the unilateral power to do these things. Congress will definitely not follow the currently laid out Trump plan. How will President Trump react to this? The last time there was such an unknown, and feared, person in the Oval Office his name was Teddy Roosevelt. History has judged President Roosevelt quite well. Could Trump take his unknown qualities and change America for the better? 

Do you want an unknown quantity, who is very high energy, and will finally kick the Clinton machine to the curb, then Donald J Trump is your man. His language may be rough, his past is filled with landmines, and his business acumen is questionable, but he is definitely not a part of the same DC machine that has given us our current broken government. Voting for Donald Trump is like diving into the old quarry late at night. You have no idea how far down it is, how deep the water is, and if you will actually survive, but it sure gets the heart racing. It is up to America to decide if we want to make that jump. The only thing we risk is death, paralysis, or one hell of thrill. Leap at your own risk.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is not embarressed about writing what is not in his heart. Why does he have no shame? Because journalism has no shame. Be shameless and write for SeedSing. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are not Equally Terrible

Politics is all about bad math

Have you been checking out your Facebook feed lately? There is a lot of insightful political talk going on? Too many people use their social networks not to try and gain support for their given political candidate, but they want to trash the other side. With every new hiccup coming from their chosen political campaign, people rush to the internet and let the world know that the other side is filled with brain eating monsters. This behavior is not just living in the world of amateur want to be political minds of social media, the national press engages in the same tactics. If one candidate does something terrible, the press balances it with an attack on the other candidate. Even worse, the opinion shows go all in and defend their chosen candidate, no matter what their talking heads have been preaching for years. It does not matter what a candidate does, it only matters that the other one is equally as bad. Democracy in action.

The latest round of memes making there way around the world wide web concerns the fact that no one likes the binary choice of Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Yes there are other candidates, but let's be grownups and understand that only Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have a real, not imaginary, chance of winning the presidency. The political discourse has devolved into the engaged internet political pundits wanting a do over. They do not like Trump, and they really do not like Clinton. The latest infection of not so clever memes has come up after the Trump "Grab them by the pussy" tapes and all the new allegations of sexual abuse being levied towards the Republican nominee. Fox News has predictably used their most un-American pundits, people like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, the Fox and Friends jamokes, to go all out and attack the alleged history of corruption and sexual assault from Bill and Hillary Clinton. The supposed news anchors of Fox News just try to set up an equivalency of terribleness between Hillary and Donald. If Trump says / does something bad, the Clinton campaign has also done something not similar but still really bad. Other media outlets like the network news, Sunday political shows, and cable follow the Fox News ratings grab formula and report on the same equivalency of terribleness. The message is clear, if Donald Trump is bad, Hillary Clinton must be at least as terrible.

Hillary Clinton has a long, rocky, history in the public arena. There are many scandals she is either directly, or indirectly, been a part of for nearly thirty years. Things like Bill Clinton's history of sexual indiscretions, Whitewater, the private email server used during Hillary's tenure as Secretary of State, have been gleefully investigated again and again by Republicans in congress. These defenders of fiscal restraint have no problem using millions of taxpayers dollars to litigate the same issue again and again. Their lack of concern for saving the taxpayers is equal only to their abuse of power in going after the Clintons. We can thank the GOP for thirty years of pointless, and wasteful, investigations that have produced nothing but failure. Hillary's scandals have been kept alive due to Republican impotence.

Then we have the crackpot conspiracy theories that the GOP refuses to give up on. Since the Clinton's famous 60 minutes interview that aired immediately after the 1992 Super Bowl, Republican opinion leaders (i.e. Rush Limbaugh) have been going after Hillary Clinton about every trivial thing. She is ugly, she is a bitch, she is a lesbian, she is a woman who does not respect her place in society, all of these hateful, and non-important, character traits have been used against Hillary by the fringes and mainstream media. The are still being used today. Embarrassingly, the details surrounding the suicide of Hillary's former law partner Vince Foster are still being discussed all over the internet. The fact that the Clinton's took furniture and other items from the White House after President Bill Clinton's Presidency is still treated like one of the worst things any former first family has ever done. Most people still do not the truth about what happened. Many of the self righteous media types slamming the Clinton's conveniently forget about all the freebies that Ronald and Nancy Reagan received while at the White House. What the Clinton's did was wrong, just as wrong as what the Reagan's did. In the petty act of using the White House as a gift giving apparatus, the Clinton's and Reagan's are equally terrible.

This leads us to Donald Trump. With all the Clinton problems, the public wants to equate the Trump problems as part of the same culture. Just recently Donald Trump was hit with the damning off record tape of he and Billy Bush casually talking about sexual assault. That was excused as boy's locker room talk. Since then, and for decades before, women have come out to accuse Trump of sexual assault. This is excused as being no worse than what was alleged about Bill Clinton. Trump has used a tax code that favors the rich to fail upwards whenever another one of business ventures fails. This is excused by saying that Trump is a great business man. Trump's long, proven, history of infidelity and ugly divorces has been part of the Donald's story since his separation from first wife Ivana Trump. This is excused by his acolytes by saying it is all ok because Donald Trump is now a good christian man and should be forgiven. Trump uses cheap, unregulated, overseas labor for many of his projects, and regularly does not pay his contracts to american workers. This is excused again by saying that Trump is a smart business man. There is also the racism, hate, and hints of wanting violence on display in Donald Trump's rallies. This is excused by saying Trump is just speaking for a "silent" majority who have no voice. Cracked.com has even more, true and proven, terrible things that Donald Trump has done. Donald Trump is responsible for things we would not let a candidate for school board to get away with, much less a major party candidate for President.

With the two candidates history, how in the world can one say that Clinton and Trump are equally terrible? What Hillary Clinton has been accused of, and litigated by the court of public opinion, is what we can connect to any politician who is been in power for a long time. That does not make it right, but that is the current reality of American politics. We treat these elected officials like royalty, so they act like royalty. Did Hillary Clinton knowingly hide things from the American people? Probably. Has she used public service to increase her families wealth? Definitely. Does she say one thing to her donors in private and something contradictory to the voters. Absolutely, that is how are political system works today.

Do you know who else has done what Hillary Clinton does? Every single person elected to public office. Tea party heroes like Jim Jordan still forces  the government to buy tanks the US Army says are a waste of taxpayer money. He does it because of powerful political donors who make the tanks. President George W Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales deliberately did not turn over millions of emails subpoenaed by the US Congress  because the emails were on a private server run by the RNC. The Chief of Staff to sitting Vice President Dick Cheney was convicted of outing a CIA agent because the agent's husband was a political enemy. Scooter Libby made America weaker and spent time in prison. President George W Bush pardoned Libby as a political favor. Did the press feel the need to balance Hillary Clinton's history with these cases of political greed and pettiness?

Donald Trump's terrible ideas, and business struggles, are not part of a broken political culture. His terribleness is born in the fact that Donald Trump only cares about his own personal well being. There is nothing in his history that shows a man who is trying to help anyone out. He inherited a fortune and used an economic system built to protect the wealthy to protect his failures. He used his money to acquire, and eventually discard, women. He used his celebrity to take what he wants, forgetting that there are people he is actively hurting. Trump does not care about any of this, and many people cheer him on for this. Donald Trump is not trying to appease a political constituency. He is not trying to push a public agenda. Donald Trump is actively trying to keep a world alive where Donald Trump is the most important person. Trump is correct when he says that he is not a politician. Politicians have to care about others in order to win elected office. Trump does not cater to anyone, unless that person is Donald Trump.

That is what makes Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump different. Clinton has been trying to serve other people, and in the process has been part of a broken and corrupt political system. Hillary Clinton is no different than any other politician in the swamp of Washington D.C.. Trump is corrupt due to his own narcissism. He has no will to help anyone who is not Donald Trump. The system did not make Trump bad, he has been exhibiting this terrible behavior as long as the press has been covering him.

Many people use Clinton's scandals to dismiss her because she is the Democratic Party nominee. Voters who identify as Republicans do not want the Democrat to win, so her scandals are brought to the forefront like any other opposition candidate's scandals would be. You do not want the Democrat to win, then you need justification on why they are unworthy. The apprehension to Donald Trump has little to do with the fact of him being the Republican nominee. His terribleness is wholly his own and not part of a larger political culture. His scandals are not part of a D.C. culture. Donald Trump has personally created his own political struggles through his greed and immorality. Clinton is a politician, Trump is dangerously selfish. That is not different sides of the same terrible coins.

Stop with the equivalence of terribleness between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They may both have things we do not like, but it is not even close to equal. If you do not like Hillary Clinton, don't vote for her. What you can not do is claim that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are equally flawed. Clinton is part of a system that has enlarged elected officials for a very long time. The system needs to be reformed. Donald Trump is part of a system that is anti-american and anti-progress. The system that helps Donald Trump to succeed needs to be discarded. There is no equivalence.

RD 

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Listen to RD and Ty discuss the history of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on the newest X Millennial Man Podcast. What do you think of the current state of American politics? Tell us all about it. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Semi - Instant 2016 Presidential Debate Reaction

Let the debates begin

One debate down, I do not want to even count how many more times we have to do this.

The very first debate between Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton, is mercifully over. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt attempted to ask questions and keep control of the event. He failed terribly.  The newsman began the night be reminding the audience not to be emotional humans, Holt then reminded the candidates that there were many questions to get through. Why do we need so many questions to be unanswered? Then we were underway.

Secretary Hillary Clinton and multiple bankruptcy declaring businessman Donald Trump proceeded to trade jabs, oldies from Trump and a few new focus tested ones from Clinton, and not answer any of Holt's questions. Clinton attacked, Trump defended and babbled, and Holt begged to move on. For ninety plus minutes the nation got to witness the exact same two candidates that were packaged and sold to us earlier in the year. Nothing new happened.

Hillary Clinton looked way more polished and in control during the debate. Everything she said seemed rehersed and extremely prepared. During certain moments of the debate I could tell her team were trying to come up with phrases that could be easily hash tagged. Anyone looking for some warmth and humanity in the former Secretary of State were not going to be in luck. Clinton was well aware that Trump was going to be combative and unpredictable. Here biggest victory was to be dismissive of the Republican nominee, and to land crushing blows to his record and ego. While she may have come off as cold, Hillary Clinton definitely looked more Presidential than her opponent during the debate.

Donald Trump was the same disaster of a candidate we have witnessed for a year now. The only difference is that the stage is not filled with a cast of thousands of other Republican clowns. Now Trump has to face off against an extremely well prepared, and extremely experienced, politician in Hillary Clinton. He did not do well. Trump was unprofessional in constantly interrupting Clinton and Holt. Trump would not give up on all of his lies and divisive tactics. Trump was flustered and incoherent whenever Clinton challenged his wealth or business failures. Trump was loudly breathing into the microphone. Donald Trump as bad as he has always been, and on the Presidential debate stage next to Hillary Clinton, he looked so much worse. The Trump campaign has been one of doom and hate, and Donald Trump embraced those ideals once again on the debate stage. He was played by Clinton, and his lack of ideas was clear to the audience who tuned in.

There we have it. One cold and calculating politician who spouts off hashtag campaigns, and one rambling lunatic who is clearly a danger to the country. Both candidates have to make some improvement before the next debate to convince the majority of voters. Hillary Clinton needs to be a bit warmer and present a positive agenda for America's future. Donald Trump needs to attend anger management classes and maybe sit down with the best psychaitrist the world has ever known. The candidates have a few weeks to get it together. Can not wait to see what happens.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor at SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. 

John McLaughlin was Always Right

I did not always agree with John McLaughlin, but I always knew that he was right.

Today we lost a legend. John McLaughlin was the host and moderator of the "McLaughlin Group" that would air on PBS every week. I never knew the day it would premier, I used to watch it on Tuesday nights, but it never mattered. The McLaughlin group was the only political gab fest worth watching. Eleanor Clift, Bob Novak (also RIP), Pat Buchanan, Mort Zuckerman, Clarence Page, and John McLaughin, these are the people who enhanced my political education through the 1980's, 1990's, and the early 21st century. I studied politics in college, and "The McLaughlin Group" was must watch tv. I worked in politics after college, "The McLaughlin Group" was required weekly viewing.  My wife is very politically aware, and she makes "The McLaughlin Group" appointment television. As our country was becoming more and more partisan, "The McLaughlin Group" was the intellectual oasis in the sea of political ignorance. John McLaughlin was the center of this great and influential political education.

John McLaughlin's politics were not my own, but I knew he was looking for the right answers. Eleanor Clift and Pat Buchanan would argue about something, and John McLaughlin would put them both in their place. His politics may have been conservative, but is ideals were American. John McLaughlin wanted to know what would be the best solution for everyone. During the George W Bush administration, "The McLaughlin Group" was the first place I saw discussion about the wrongness of the Iraq war. During the debate for the Affordable Care Act, "The McLaughlin Group" was the first place to question the actual problems with the law (the fact that the law is a transfer of tax dollars to private insurance corporations). Before Fox News, or MSNBC, or "The Daily Show", John McLaughlin and his panel were exposing the problems with the Washington D.C. machine. John McLaughlin invented the idea of being disappointing with the federal government.

The modern incarnation of political television debate started with "The McLaughlin Group". Bill Maher would have no blueprint for "Politically Incorrect" or "Real Time with Bill Maher" without John McLaughlin. Fox News idiotic panels are nothing more than the conservative side of John McLaughlin's PBS show. Pointing out the folly of Washington DC did not start with John Stewart or Stephen Colbert, it started with "The McLaughlin Group". His influence was so great, that one of the most famous Saturday Night Live Sketches lampooned his new take on tv political commentary. John McLaughlin may be gone, but his legacy is bigger than any of us really know.

I watched the last weeks episode of "The McLaughlin Group" because I heard that John was absent. My heart sank when I heard he passed away. I did not share John McLaughlin's politics, but I shared his excitement for the American experience. The world of political dialogue is better for John's involvement, we need to honor that. RIP great moderator.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Be the next great political voice by writing for SeedSing.  

The Day After: Democratic National Convention Edition

The halls are empty, beware your front door

History has been made. Hillary Clinton is like the 40th woman to ever run for President of the United States. She follows in the grand footsteps of Victoria Woodhall, Lenora Fulani, and Roseanne Barr. I know about all of these other women because my Republican leaning friends on social media want everyone to know that Hillary is not making history. Republicans need to find anything that will take the spotlight away from the Democratic party. Plus, they have been playing the hate Hillary Clinton game for over two decades. Sorry to say, but all the Republican apologists out there are wrong. Hillary Clinton is the first women to ever be the nominee for President by a major political party. The former First Lady, US Senator, and Secretary of State is the first women ever who has a chance at actually winning the election. The Republican voter can continue to try and deny progress. The fact is that history was made in Philadelphia this week. A woman has a legitimate chance of becoming President of the United States.

Once the unpleasant affair with Debbie Wasserman Schultz was swept away, he 2016 Democratic National Convention was everything the Republican National Convention was not. The star power was real, and not filled with c listers from 30 years ago. The speakers talked about the growth and greatness of America. The candidate was not a suprise usurper, but someone who has been working to this moment for almost a decade. The defeated rival gave a full endorsement to the nominee. The four days in Philadelphia saw the Democratic Party celebrating their recent past, and getting ready to create a new future.

The speakers of the 2016 Democratic National Convention were the exact opposite of what was seen in Cleveland and the best of the GOP. It is clear that the Democratic Party is currently blessed with a group of great orators. Former President Bill Clinton can give a speech to thousands of people, and make each every one of those people feel like Bill is talking only to them. Current President Obama can build excitement like no other politician. Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine did his duty by attacking the bluster of Donald Trump. Vice President Joe Biden talked of personal tragedy, and the need to be a servant to the people. First Lady Michelle Obama used her place in history to talk about the evolution of American society. Khizr Khan, whose son died in Iraq protecting his squad, showed the backward looking GOP what being a 21st century American is all about. It was the best speech of either convention.

Late last night, Hillary Clinton walked out to engrave her name into the history books. Dressed in a white pantsuit, a clothing style owned by former Secretary of State, she took the stage and gave the most important speech of her career. Last week I showed dissapointment in the overly long, and incredibly gloomy Donald Trump speech, Clinton exceeded expectations with her address. I was worried that she could not deliver on the same level as all the other DNC speakers. Clinton is not known for giving many speeches in public. Yet for nearly an hour, Hillary Clinton laid out her plan, and knocked down her opponent. The GOP's nominee used hate and fear. Clinton used the words of Ronald Reagan and FDR. Trump said America was failing. Clinton said our greatness is still growing. The thing I kept thinking is that if this was a high school student council election, Clinton is the candidate that actual cares about student government, and Trump just calls out the football team (San Dimas high school football RULES). The goody goody always wins the election over the meathead. 

The dark cloud hanging over the Democratic National Convention was that of the Bernie Sanders supporters. After Ted Cruz used is time to not endorse his party'e nominee last week, many feared the Vermont Senator would do the same thing. Sanders enthusiastically endorsed Clinton, even to the misguided boos of his supporters. As the week went on, anytime someone referenced Sanders, the tv cameras would cut to the runner up looking quite disgruntled. The inept media kept trying to make it look like the Democratic Party was fracturing, and unity was not going to happen. Outside of a few ego filled protesters chanting during big speeches, the Sanders revolution fizzled like the Never Trumpers. In order to have a story, the press need a split party, like that of the GOP. Poor Fox News, and even venerable PBS, could never get that fight going. Lord did they try.

The long grueling primary season is officially at an end. Trump v Clinton: Dawn of an Ugly Presidential Race is now upon us. Battleground states will be terrific, until their not. The endless narrative of the Clinton scandals will occupy our television sets. The only thing I know at the end of July is that Trump will somehow make America great again, and Hillary Clinton will try to be the liberal icon Democrats have been waiting for since Mario Cuomo. Oh I also learned that the White House was built by some well fed slaves. Thanks Bill O'Reilly, your idiocy is the thing that never changes with each Presidential Election.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He would be happy to go on The O'Reilly Factor and tell confront Bill on his lack of historical knowledge and his lack of human feeling. Come on tough guy, contact us.

The Day After: Republican National Convention Edition

Time to move this mess to Philadelphia

It is now official. Donald J. Trump is the official Republican Party nominee to be President of the United States. I never thought this would happen. Even today I am filled with confusion and apprehension. The ascension of the New York businessman, and reality television star, to being one of two assumed choices for President is a story for the history books. For four days in Cleveland Ohio, the country got to witness what the Trump Republican Party was all about. Last night, for over an hour, candidate Trump had the attention of the nation all to himself. No more debates with ten or more people. No more primaries or states needing to hold a caucus. No more wrong media analysis. The GOP of 2016 has been solidified, and now onward goes the campaign for victory on November 8th.

The 2016 Republican Party National Convention was feared by many, and hoped by some, to be one of chaos and fighting. There was an expectation of political fisticuffs in the convention hall, and real violence from protesters who had descended on Cleveland. The Never Trump movement had one more chance to derail the nomination. Stories of the 1976 Republican Convention, and the Ronald Reagan supporters trying to block Gerald Ford's nomination by changing the rules at the last minute, were being linked to what may go on in Cleveland. The Cleveland police were requesting help from other cities. Public officials wanted to suspend the right to open carry firearms. The nominee himself was promising an exciting and non-traditional list of speakers. I for one was not looking forward to the violence and hate, but was intrigued by what a showman like Donald Trump could pull off. The 2016 RNC was going to be unlike anything we have ever seen in American politics.

The reality is that the 2016 Republican National Convention was a bit of a letdown. Thankfully we did not have any horrible violence in the streets of Cleveland. The protests were typical for any political event. Flag burning, yelling, and being drunk while political, typical protester stuff. Inside the convention halls, nothing much happened. The Never Trumpers tried, and failed. They failed in a spectacularly quick manner. The speakers were nothing to be that excited about. Typical Fox News republicans like Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and Chris Christie did the same tired act they have been doing for years. An endless parade of actors and sports figures most of us have forgotten about would take the stage and yell about how horrible President Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton are as Americans. Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence put a lot of America to sleep. Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made their expected speeches, and both men were not welcomed with open arms. The Trump children were the only speakers that garnered any bipartisan praise. Possible First Lady Melania Trump stirred up some non-news by possibly plagiarizing a 2008 Michelle Obama speech. It was a dumb story kept alive by an underwhelming convention. 

Then there is Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The 2016 Presidential Primary contest was one of the most personal, and drawn out, contests in American history. Senator Cruz and Mr. Trump were both trying to run as outsiders, and Mr. Trump came out as the eventual winner. To the surprise of no one, Trump used personal insults and general bullying to gain voters. Florida Senator Marco Rubio tried to use Trump's tactics against the New York blowhard. Rubio was out of the race a few weeks later. Senator Cruz and his family were prime targets for Trump. It was ugly. By giving Senator Cruz a Wednesday speaker slot at the convention, many Republicans thought the Texas Senator would move past the primary, and endorse Trump to show party unity.

That did not happen. Senator Cruz instead used his time to take a passive aggressive swipe at his own party's Presidential nominee. Why show up and do this? Marco Rubio and John Kasich, who both have ambitions in four years, were smart enough to stay away and not take a chance at ending their national aspirations. The only reason I can see Ted Cruz going this route is that the man must be crazy. He has an irrational want to be the GOP's next Ronald Reagan, and maybe his speech was supposed to start an inter party revolution like Reagan's 1976 convention speech. The thing that the Texas Senator seems to forget is that the Gipper did not try to undermine the nominee, Reagan endorsed Ford and worked to try and get the incumbent President reelected in 1976. Cruz has tried to undermine his party and has used shady tactics in every campaign the man has ever run in. He attacks Republican and Democrats alike. The only reason Cruz could last as long as he did in the 2016 primaries is by being shady and because the Republican party on the national level is a mess. By allowing so many people to run in the primaries, Reince Preibus doomed any hope of a moderate Republican from emerging. Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump, should have been done in January, but incompetence at the RNC allowed their fringe campaigns to survive. By not supporting Trump, Senator Cruz has given up any chance of ever being the Republican Party's Presidential nominee. He is not a smart man who has shown everyone that the only thing that matters to Ted Cruz is Ted Cruz's own political ambition. The end of Senator Cruz's Presidential dreams is one good thing to come out of the Republican National Convention.

Finally, late last night, Donald Trump ended his speech and officially became the flag bearer for all Republicans this November. I for one was really looking forward to seeing the Trump acceptance speech It was going to be unlike any political speech in my lifetime. Unfortunately is more of the same from Trump, just louder and longer. I went to bed feeling a bit let down. It was boringly typical Donald Trump. America is a hellhole of crime. Illegal immigration, pointless war, and free trade have led us down a dark path. Hillary Clinton is incompetent, a crook, and dangerous to all Americans. President Obama has failed for almost eight years. The only thing that can save Lady Liberty is the awesomeness of Donald Trump. There was no actual solutions to these problems, just the awesomeness of Donald Trump is the only cure needed. Oh, and for the first time ever a Republican Presidential nominee said we should be nice to the LGBTQ community, and he was applauded. That was weird.

The balloons dropped, confetti fell, and my brain is still trying to accept that Donald J. Trump is on the ballot as the Republican candidate for President of the United States. The entire Republican National Convention felt like a big letdown. No grand solutions, only problems. The action on the convention floor did not seem to be well planned. Most of the speakers did not embrace their nominee. Many people gave rambling, or over the top, speeches that only incited the fringe of the right wing. Conspiracy theories were being given more time than actually trying to court new voters. From my perspective it seems like the RNC has given up on the Presidential race and is going to rely on Democratic Party incompetence in the down ticket races so the GOP can hold onto everything below the executive office. That is probably the party's best path forward. Donald Trump's new Republican Party had its star shine bright, and dim with the four days in Cleveland. 

RD 

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. We are looking for people to talk about the 2016 election from their local point of view. Have something to say? Come write for SeedSing.

Brexit, Democracy, and the Ash Heap of History

The first on the fire?

Have you heard about how the Brexit referendum has destroyed democracy? It definately ended Prime Minister David Cameron's political career. Since the British people voted 52%-48% to leave the European Union, almost everyone with an opinion has decided that Britain made the wrong decision. The "Leave" voters have been called racist, children, and ignorant. People are trying to make the referendum vote as proof that there is a divide between people living in urban areas and those living in rural parts. Those of two different generations have views that are diametrically opposed. The young urban intelligentsia have compassion, and the old uneducated hick is an idiot. The war between the future and the past was fought during the Brexit referendum, the old barely won, and the rest of the world has lost. Democracy has failed to secure our future.

Almost everything written, or televised, about Brexit is insulting and wrong. The coverage is focusing on a small group of angry remain voters, and discounting the 17 million plus majority voters who want to leave the European Union. Let's take a closer look at how the British people actually voted.

A big deal is being made out of the urban "Remain" voters against the rural "Leave" voters. The majority of the urban centers did vote for "Remain", along with all of Scotland and Northern Ireland. It was not just the far out, lowly populated, rural areas that carried "Leave to victory. The majority of England and Whales voted "Leave". Once you exit the center of the urban areas, nearly all of the suburban parts voted "Leave". Almost all of the blue collar, highly populated, areas pushed "Leave" over "Remain". 

The higher educated were also applauded for wanting to remain in the European Union. Nearly three quarters of UK citizens with a college degree voted "Remain". The problem here is that less than one third of UK citizens have a college degree. The media tries to make it look like half the country is college educated and the other half is not. The fact is that by using this group in one's analysis, the whole truth cannot be seen. A minority this small is insignificant in swinging an election.

Another interesting piece of the Brexit vote is party affiliation. Predictable the "Leave" voters mostly identified with the conservative party and the UK Independence Party (UKIP). The conservatives are currently the majority party in the Parliament, and had won a hard fought election just over a year ago. Even if the former Prime Minister David Cameron was backing "Remain", many of the voters stuck to their conservative principles and voted with their nationalistic hearts.

The most telling voter data can be easily described by the BBC.

"Younger people voted Remain

According to polling by Lord Ashcroft, younger voters were much more likely to vote Remain than older voters.

But turnout in areas with a higher proportion of younger residents tended to be lower."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36616028

The millennials who are being championed in the media as the sensible losers in Brexit, most of them did not even vote. Lack of interest in voting is not being discussed in the Brexit vote because the media would rather paint the millennial generation as victims of baby boomer excess. Once again voter turnout is a problem.

Why do we swallow the media narrative of the disappointed electoral minority and immediately discount the majority votes of an entire nation? More than seventeen million people voted to leave the European Union, and the global narrative is focused on the exact opposite. The answer is quite simply. It's all about the money.

Every single post Brexit story focused on the fall in the global stock market and the devaluing of the British Pound. The concern for a few peoples wealth was way more important than the humanitarian consequences of Brexit. President Obama and Speaker Ryan supported Britain staying the EU because of how it would effect US trade policy and what an exit would mean to the business owners in the United States. That is exactly what the elected leaders of the United States should do. It was the same thing around all the industrialized economies of the world. The world's economy was going to suffer if Britain left the EU. Quietly, Vladimir Putin supported Great Britain leaving the European Union, but that has more to do with consolidating power than it does for global economic stability. If Putin supports something, it usually means the rest of the global economic powers will be against it.

If the economic consequences are so dire, why would 52% of the voters want to bring about the chaos? The answer is that the majority of Britain's citizen's, and the citizen's around the world, have been exploited and held down by the politicians and business leaders of the twenty first century economy. When David Cameron took the keys to 10 Downing Street, he immediately enacted programs that drained the social programs of needed funds. These so called austerity measures were supposed to restore the economy to pre-2008 levels. The Prime Minister's family was named in the Panama Papers as someone who was avoiding taxes. He has no idea how important the government funded social services are to people that cannot afford to hide their money and dodge taxes. Cameron did not have anything to lose by demanding that the working people pay more, and sacrifice much more. He did not care how much the majority would suffer.

The non-college educated working class suffered the most from Cameron's austerity plan, and the rich got even richer through tax cuts/incentives. London Mayor, and fellow conservative, Boris Johnson enthusiastically blamed immigrants for the city's economic troubles. The people who could not afford to live in downtown London saw their social safety net being cut to shreds by Parliament, and had immigrants to blame through the mayors racist rhetoric. Nigel Farage, the head of the UKIP, was even running advertisements in the suburbs telling people that the money saved by leaving the EU was going to help strengthen the drained National Health Service. The day after the vote, Farage sort of rescinded that promise on national television. When the majority of your voters are non-college educated, struggling to get by, and looking for a way out, leaving the European Union was their only viable choice. That is why leave carried the day.

The myth of democracy is what caused the Brexit vote. David Cameron could not find anymore of the people's money to give away to his rich business donors, so he approved the Brexit referendum. Boris Johnson had a small period of time to maintain the immigrant hatred, so he pushed hard for Brexit. Nigel Farage is another demagogue he wants to justify his hate through the will of the people. Brexit was formed out of fear and economic hardship. The rightfully elected majority party in Parliament created and fed this flame of discontent. The will of the people was created by these leaders of government. Modern democracy created the majority leave voters.

Today we are questioning the will of the people. It has been weeks since Brexit, and our global economy is begging for a do over. David Cameron has resigned, and new Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to carry out with Great Britain's exit from the European Union. Democracy must be respected. The people have spoken, even if their voice said the wrong thing.

Brexit should represents the end of our love affair with democracy. The fact remains that 52% of Britons voted for the wrong thing. The leave supporters were fed a bunch of lies, and voted on baseless fear. The voters were used as pawns by rich men who were trying to hold onto the little bit of power they can still embrace. Austerity did not work, it only made things worse. With the failures of austerity, the leaders turned to racism. That will also one day fail. Great Britain has shown that an up or down popular vote is not the answer. The conservatives gained power by standing on top of the majority. The weight of the conservative party's greed has crushed their nation. Leaving the European Union was politically their only way to hold onto ill gotten power. The fallout from Brexit will hurt all of Britain, and leave the conservatives with no avenue forward in their quest for wealth and influence. 

Democracy has exposed the mob as not fit to govern. Brexit is the most glaring example popular voting's failure. More than 17 million people believed that leaving the European Union would improve their rapidly declining economic conditions. They never thought the people they supported in previous elections were the ones who were causing the economic decline. Once democracy relies on racism and fear to gain power, it is time to find a new way. Leave won because the supporters relied on lies and fear, while the opponents were met with low voter turnout and disorganization. Is this the best way to govern an entire nation, or a global economy? Democracy has failed, and Brexit is one of many examples to come. The fires of history has produced a lot of ash. Democracy will be next. What do we do know?

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. What is our new way forward? Tell us by writing for SeedSing. 

Stop Waiting for Congress to Pass Gun Laws

The Congress could not regulate this over 200 years ago. Why trust them now?

This week the Democrats in the United States House of Representatives, led by Georgia Congressman and civil rights hero John Lewis, did something amazing. They took a seat for the American people. On Wednesday, June 22nd, Representative Lewis gave a fiery speech lamenting the inaction of Congress on doing anything to help curb the epidemic of gun violence in the United States. After his speech, Lewis was joined by other Democratic party members of the House and they all took a seat. The sat right down on the floor of the US House of Representatives. The Republicans, led by Speaker Paul Ryan, ended the session and cut off the live video feed provided by the cameras of the Cable-Satellite Public Access Network (C-SPAN). The Republican party wanted to block the images of the Democratic sit in from the American people. Unfortunate for Speaker Ryan, 21st century technology allowed the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution to live on. Many House members used Twitter's Periscope live video app and started to stream the images out to the internet. C-SPAN started to air these Periscope streams out through their airwaves. Many more Democrats, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and current Presidential candidate (as of this writing he has not conceded) Bernie Sanders, joined their colleagues on the floor of the House of Representatives. The Democrats were finally fed up with Republican inaction on any meaningful firearm regulation, and all of America was able to see the spectacle going on in the nation's capital. Things were about to change in Washington DC.

Twenty five hours after Representative John Lewis's sit in started, it was over. The US House of Representatives adjourned for an extended break, and the American people were promised by the Democratic party that the fight for gun regulation would resume when everyone got back to Washington DC. Once again America had another gun massacre answered with anger, spectacle, and inaction. Our elected representatives, who make around $174,000 plus expenses paid by the taxpayers each year, left the nation's capitol to take another mandated break. Over the next two weeks there will be no chance of any reasonable firearms legislation. The current batch of firearm regulations will be forgotten. Inaction will once again rule the day.

The next time the nation will see something like the Great Sit-In of June 2016 will be after the next horrible firearm massacre. Unfortunately the next massacre is more likely to occur within the next few months. The bodies will be dead, and the nation will once again cry out for answers to an all too common occurrence. The Republicans, backed by their NRA handlers, will ask for a moment of silence and not want to "politicize" the issue. The Democrats will look at the recent shooting, and try to build conversation about what could have prevented that one singular incident. Once a week has passed, the NRA will have helped sell thousands of more firearms, the Democrats will have forgotten about any meaningful legislation, and the dead will be forgotten. We will be witness to the whole process again once the next firearm massacre occurs. 

Why do we look to Washington DC to solve our gun violence problem? As more people die needlessly, the inept process never changes. Twelve dead at Columbine High School, no action. Thirty two dead at Virginia Tech, no action. Nine dead in Charleston South Carolina, no action. Twelve killed at the Navy yard in Washington DC, no action. Thirteen dead at Ft. Hood, no action. Three dead at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, no action. Twelve dead in Aurora Colorado, no action. Nine dead at Umpqua Community College, no action. Fourteen dead in San Bernardino California, no action. Twenty-six dead, twenty of them children, at Sandy Hook Elementary, no action. Forty-nine people dead in Orlando, no action. (ed note: these are the shootings I remembered off the top of my head. There are many, many more Here is an excellent look at the recent history of US mass shootings from the LA Times.) The killings continue, and the government does nothing.

In the aftermath of the Orlando shooting we are experiencing one of the rare instances when the national government does try to pass meaningful gun regulations. The law being proposed is so flawed it would be better if it never passed. The Great Sit-In was centered on two laws the Democrats were championing. One was to make all gun sales subject to a background check. There is currently no requirement to perform a back ground check on a private gun sale. That  type of law has never passed in the history of the United States. The other law would ban the sale of guns to anyone on the United States government's no fly list. This bit of new gun regulations was first brought to the nation's attention by presumptive Republican Party Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. The NRA at first seemed to be behind the law. A bill was introduced in the US Senate, one written by Republican Senator Susan Collins from Maine, that would ban people on the no fly list from purchasing firearms. The bill received 52 votes in the Senate, but since every controversial bill is threatened with a filibuster, the bill needed sixty to pass. The US House had yet to take up debate, or voted, on the no fly no buy bill. The Great Sit-In happened, and ended. Representative John Lewis has vowed that the House will take up the legislation when Congress gets back from their well deserved vacation.

The No Fly No Buy Bill has the best chance at being the first meaningfully firearm regulation to be enacted into law in over twenty years. Unfortunately it is a very bad law. Many Democrats just want a political victory, and they have rallied behind a bill that at best is ineffective and at worst is racist. The bill is one of the few laws in history to be opposed by both the NRA and the ACLU. The NRA just wants to sell guns, the ACLU is worried about people's actual freedom. The No Fly list is a secret list administered by unknown persons. The list became part of US policy after the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Many non-terrorists, like children, former Senator Ted Kennedy, and sit-in leader Representative John Lewis, have had their names appear on the federal no fly list. No reason is given if one's name appears on the list, and there are no standards in place to have your name removed. The government claims that over 98% of the names on the no fly list are not American citizens. If you are a non-citizen, you cannot buy a guy already. Legal visa holders with proof of state residence (i.e. students) can purchase a firearm, with a background check. The No Fly No Buy bill is not only potentially racial profiling, it is utterly useless. There is no possibility for preventing any future massacre with the No Fly No Buy law. It is political theater being used to try and convince the American people that Congress is compassionate. It is worse than doing nothing.

The United States government has proven absolutely incapable, and unwilling, of protecting the American people from firearm massacres. Decades of inaction has led to political stunts being carried out for the passage of ineffective and racist laws. We must accept that there will not be the passage of any meaningful gun laws by the US government. The faith of the American citizen needs to be put elsewhere. Congress is filled with failure, America should not continue to look towards failure. There needs to be a new way.

The state of Hawaii just recently became the first state to have gun owners registered in a federal database. The Aloha state is doing something to keep its 1.4 million residents a bit safer. The rest of the country does not have politicians with a will to protect their citizens like Hawaii does. What can be done by the American who is not represented by the thoughtful politicians of the Hawaiian Islands?

Only 1/3 of American households and 1/4 of individuals even own guns. Regardless of what the NRA, or the government says, gun ownership is not very popular in the United States. The number of smokers in the US is close to the number of gun owners. The large majority of non-smokers were able to make smoking an anomaly. The same can happen to gun ownership. Privately the nation sees owning a gun as an odd thing, publicly we can do the same. Having a firearm is not a normal thing, and gun owners should know that. If we want gun owners to responsible, the non-gun owners should demand it. There are plenty of non-smoking areas, there should be areas where we do not accept guns. Many public places have designated spots for the smokers to gather and poison each other. The same should happen for guns. Let all the gun owners gather in the spots designated for guns, and our society will know who these gun lovers are. Hunters are already well known as gun owners due to the season and attire required for their hobby. If one has a gun that is an antique, is unusable, and has no ammunition, they do not have to gather in the designated live gun zone. The professionals who require guns for their employment, i.e. police officers and military personal, they are already known by society as carrying a live firearm. A non-government registry of gun owners would quickly be created when everyone in their neighborhood knows whose house has all the guns. Knowing that one's guns are acknowledged by the public will make these gun owners a lot more responsible. It may even cause these gun owners to give up their mythical need to protect themselves with weapons designed for mass killing. The very small minority of gun owners would shrink to a much smaller, and manageable number. Owning firearms designed for killing a whole lot of people would not be an NRA marketing campaign, it would be a source of shame.

The Democrats who sat down this week deserve our admiration. They were trying to bring attention to the inaction that has plagued our nation for decades. Their intentions were good, their law is bad. The NRA has used the government to create a sense of gun ownership being vital and normal. It is not. Since the NRA has used money to buy most of Congress, the American people can not rely on the elected representatives to protect us. We must rely on ourselves. Stop waiting for Congress to act, they will not. Start creating a safer world in your neighborhood. Our actions will be stronger than the money, and ineptness, of Washington DC. We can stop gun violence today. Yes we can.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.He wants to hear the counter opinion on owning guns. Write for us.  

2016 and the End of the 1968 Political Revolution

I am the one who makes American Great

The Presidential primary election is usually a boring, anticlimactic, process the country goes through ever four years. There are a few legends of divided presidential nominating contests. In 1800 Thomas Jefferson handily beat incumbent John Adams in the election for President, yet due to some quirks in the process of electing the executive, the victorious Jefferson had to fight it out in the US House of Representatives with his own running mate, former Senator Aaron Burr. The electoral stalemate was broken only when Jefferson's rival, former US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, threw his support behind the Democratic-Republican candidate from Virginia. Jefferson went on to become President, and Burr killed Hamilton in a duel a few years later. The second Republican Party convention of 1860 famously saw relative unknown former Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln go from a third place finish on the first ballot, to winning the nomination on the third. The 1948 Democratic Party convention ended in a split within the the party when the pro-segregationists left to form the Dixiecrats. Other infamous political icons like South Carolina's John Calhoun, Nebraska's William Jennings Bryan, and New York's Horatio Seymour have at times made their party's nomination contests somewhat of a circus.

Not one of these historical episodes compares to what happened to the Democratic Party in 1968. Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson choose to not seek the party's nomination due to increasing public dissent over his administrations role in escalating the war in Vietnam. Senators Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota and Robert Kennedy of New York were challenging for the nomination by running on an anti-war platform. With President Johnson out, the establishment of the Democratic party was rallying behind Vice President Hubert Humphrey. In the lead up to the convention in Chicago, the nation was in the grip of never ending tragedy and violence. On April 4th, civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee. June 5th, shortly after claiming victory in the Democratic Party's California primary, Robert Kennedy was assassinated by a lone gunman. Many cities across the United States were experiencing riots due to the discord in the country. The baby boomers were beginning to reach voting age, and many of them were tired of seeing their family and friends coming back from Vietnam injured, mentally damaged, or dead. They wanted their concerns to be heard, and the politicians was ignoring their voices. The Democratic Party Convention in Chicago was marred by constant protests and violence in the streets. Things were made even worse when the party nominated the pro-Johnson Humphrey over the anti-war McCarthy. The nomination of Hubert Humphrey was seen as a manipulation by party leaders because the sitting Vice President had not even competed in a number of state primaries, and the anti-war McCarthy, with the primary votes won by the recently deceased Kennedy, had garnered over three quarters of support from actual Democrats. Party insiders had gone directly against the will of the people, and nominee Hubert Humphrey was destroyed in the general election by Republican Richard Nixon. 

Is 2016 shaping up to be another 1968? The two parties are getting ready to nominate candidates who have extremely high disapproval numbers. The primary process itself has been marred by political insiders trying to subvert the will of the voters. The parties are ignoring the millennial voters and their concern about economic security and opportunity. There has been more talk about convention rules and superdelegates than there has been about the will of the voters. Violence has been erupting at events associated with Presidential candidates. The anger and fear of the younger generation of voters is being ignored by the establishment candidates. The summer of 2016 is starting to look like that of 1968. What has happened to bring us back to this point almost 50 years later?

The road to the nomination for New York businessman Donald Trump mirrors the 1968 Democratic Party nomination. In 2016, like in 1968, the party was divided along many different ideologies. The insane number of Republicans who competed in the early primaries caused a fracture in the central GOP philosophy. Voters were split and would gravitate towards candidates based a few issues. No consensus candidate could be rallied behind. Trump emerged as an alternative to the establishment Republican ideals by speaking directly to the fears and anger of the Republican voters. Unlike in 1968 when the Democratic establishment was able to force their preferred candidate to the nomination, the republican voters of 2016 were able to elect their man. The incompetence of the Republican National Committee, and the cheerleading from the press, led directly to the embarrassment that is Donald Trump's candidacy. The dangerous and un-American  rhetoric from the New York businessman is leading us into a summer of discord. The Republican Convention in Cleveland is getting ready for 1968 Chicago levels of disruption.

The eventual nomination of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by the Democratic party has more in common with the ascension of Richard Nixon to the GOP nomination in 1968. Nixon easily won the nomination in 1968 because he was the party's most reliable national figure. The former Vice President had been around Washington D.C. for decades. He was a well known commodity for a party that did not have a strong bench of nationally renowned figures. Nixon was mildly challenged by an upstart in California Governor Ronald Reagan, but no one in the Republican establishment were taking any of Reagan'a new conservative ideas seriously. The former Vice President also devised the "southern strategy" during the primary season to make sure that core republican voters were solidly in the Nixon camp. Richard Nixon was not a popular choice, but he was the best the party could do. Plus, with  the problems in the Democratic Party, Nixon could be presented as the sensible choice for President. 

Secretary Clinton has been presented as the "next person up" since she announced her candidacy is 2015. The Democratic Party insiders have done their best to smack down the different ideas of the Bernie Sanders campaign. The primary plan for Clinton has been a bizarro southern strategy where the former Secretary of State has secured the support of minorities who tend to be traditional Democratic voters. Her campaign uses these tactics to drown out and ignore the disaffected millennials. Clinton may not have secured the nomination with the same ease that Nixon did, but her inevitability followed the same path.  The Democratic party have already adopted the GOP 1968 talking points by insinuating that Hillary Clinton is the sensible choice for President in 2016. Core voters, establishment support, and being the most acceptable person available, that is how Hillary Clinton won the primary.

As the Primary season ends, and the party conventions just around the corner, the United States is living in a new era of public frustration. The Republican Party is being fueled by anger and violence, while the Democratic party is catering to the establishment while it ignores its younger voters. The nomination process of 1968 fatally injured the Democratic Party, and cut a small wound in the GOP. Both parties were forever changed by what happened. Forty-eight years later, 2016 has seen the Republican Party fall to pieces with the Democrats starting to accelerate their demise. Donald Trump will hurt the entire Republican Party in 2016, like Humphrey did to the Democrats in 1968. Hillary Clinton will easily win the Presidency in 2016, following the same path the fates set for Richard Nixon. Many voters on both sides of the political spectrum will feel left out. The discord and anger in the country will get worse. The election of 1968 started a political revolution that lasted for almost 50 years. How long will the revolution of 2016 last?

ed note: The original article misspelled Senator Eugene McCarthy's name. We have corrected the mistake.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He wants to know how in the world Hillary Clinton will not win the 2016 election. Come on and tell us.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Empire of Dirt

Time for some rehab on DNC HQ

Current Democratic National Committee chairwomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz is not a very popular person these days. Vermont Senator, and current candidate for President of the United States, Bernie Sanders has endorsed the challenger in the Florida Congresswoman's Democratic primary. Most of the reports surrounding her tenure as the DNC chairwoman have not been flattering. The Democratic party has lost an extraordinary amount of down ticket races since the chairwoman took over the DNC. Many of the millennial voters who identify as Democrats view her unfavorably. Even Bill Moyers, a highly respected member of the Democratic Party intelligentsia, has repeatedly called on the chairwoman to resign. With so much discord, and an awful electoral track record, what kind of influence can Debbie Wasserman Shultz have in the 2016 election?

To the dismay of many democrats, Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz is one of the most powerful people in the current election cycle. Her influence has already helped steer the party in helping to make Hillary Clinton the party's Presidential nominee. During the early days of the 2016 primary season, Wasserman Schultz worked to get the number of Democratic Presidential Candidate debates very limited. Many political insiders felt that the debates hurt Clinton in the 2008 primaries. By reducing the number of debates, many felt that the DNC was trying to save Secretary Clinton from making any mistakes that could alienate Democratic Party voters. In one of the first DNC sponsored debates, Clinton did slip up by blindly defending Wall Street when the she was questioned about her ties to big money. This early slip up has stayed with Clinton the entire primary season. Any more debates would lead to more slip ups. 

Once the DNC and Chair Wasserman Schultz were called out on their obvious tactics to help Secretary Clinton, more debates were added. These new debates were scheduled at times not known for being friendly to television audiences. The Chairwoman was called out again for being biased towards the Clinton campaign, and once again the DNC was losing support of many Democratic voters.

Chair Wasserman Schultz influence is strongest through the use of party money and the superdelegates. The Democratic Party has used superdelegates, party insiders who get a vote at the convention to elect a Presidential candidate, since 1980. In 2008 Senator Clinton was trying to use superdelegates as a tool to give her campaign a narrow victory in the primary. At the same time Senator Obama was collecting more state primary wins and talking about the will of the people. Once Senator Obama had a majority of voters, the superdelegates were obliged to switch their support. Wasserman Schultz was a co chair to the 2008 Clinton campaign, and in 2016 the use of superdelegates is once again a key Clinton strategy. Senator Sanders won over 60% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, yet all six of the state's superdelegates have pledged their support for Clinton. Why would these Democratic party insiders go against a large majority of their own voters?

Money is almost always the answer to why someone would do something against their own people. Under Chair Wasserman Schultz, the DNC has been virtual bankrupt. The chairwoman seems more interested in raising money for her own campaign, which she always wins with relative ease, than she does with raising money for the national party.  The only thing seemingly keeping the DNC financially afloat is the influx of money coming from the Clinton campaign's victory fund. The use of a victory fund means a candidate can pool large amounts of money from a single donor. No more separate checks for the primary, party, and general election. The victory fund allows these high dollar donors to write one big check. Secretary Clinton created a victory fund in conjunction with the DNC. The money raised is then distributed by the DNC to state party leaders. The large majority of these state leaders have pledged their support to the Clinton campaign. The New Hampshire Democratic party received $124,000 from the Clinton / DNC victory fund. Senator Sanders, like President Obama in 2008, does not a victory fund in conjunction with the DNC.

The undemocratic methods being employed by Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz is not the only reason many in the Democratic party want her to resign. The horrible record of getting democrats elected around the country has been a mighty thorn in the chairwoman's side. Since 2011, Democrats have lost an incredible amount of ground in municipal, state, and congressional races. The Ohio Problem has become a national problem under the leadership of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. What used to be seen as unelectable candidates, such as Matt Bevin in Kentucky, have been winning races because the incompetence at the DNC. The Democratic party is not embracing a new and young generation of leaders. The current practices of the DNC are turning off the next generation of voters. The Democratic Party is facing an extinction event thanks to Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz.

Under the leadership of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic Party has a name, and no real substance. The Democratic Party is an empire of dirt. It is time to rebuild with new, younger, and inspired leadership. This new leadership needs to embrace a whole country approach to the Democratic Party. The President can not make any real change without a Congress of like minded people. The Supreme Court will not be full unless the majority is run by grown ups who understand how the process works. The States will only thrive when their citizens are put ahead of out of state rich donors. Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz has watched the party decay. It is time for her to go so new leaders can build a better, more inclusive, future.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Are you running for office? Let SeedSing tell your story.