SLL WILL BE ON VACATION 10/27-10/30. POSTING WILL RESUME 10/31.

This article is addressed to those who are considering voting for Hillary Clinton, although those who have decided not to may want to read it as well.

Hillary Clinton wants your vote. What does she offer? Will she perform as promised? How well has performance lived up to promises in the past? The same questions can be asked of her party. How well will candidate and party serve those who vote for them?

Clinton frequently cites her concern for children, even writing a book about them. Concern for children implies concern about their education. The US leads the world in per student spending on elementary and secondary education. Unfortunately, US students, especially those in inner city school systems, rank low on international tests of knowledge and skills in standard subject areas. Most worrisome is their abysmal performance in math and science, the foundation for competitiveness and growth in the global economy.

Who benefits, then, from hefty educational spending? Teachers’ and educational administrators’ unions are one of the Democratic party’s largest monetary and in kind donors. They are lined up behind Hillary Clinton. Democrats consistently push for increases in educational spending. They get votes, their union supporters get paid, and the children get left behind. Their poor performance is invariably used as a justification for more funding. One guess where most of that funding goes.

COMING SOON!

Markets offer choice, competition, and accountability. The wealthy can take advantage of educational choices for their children. The Obamas send their children to private schools. Most people have only one choice—public education—take it or leave it. Many parents of children locked into decrepit school systems respond enthusiastically when offered charter schools and educational vouchers. Those alternatives still work within the existing system, and are modest compared to the choices that would be available if education was entirely market-based. However, they do introduce competition and accountability. Not surprisingly, the unions and public school establishment fight them.

Votes are more important than children. The Obama administration has blocked charter schools and vouchers in Washington, claiming its school system (the one to which the Obamas don’t send their kids) does just fine without them. Obama, Hillary and the Democratic party’s solicitude for children is a hypocritical scam. Their claims that they’ll improve education only mean they’ll distribute more money to their public education support base. If you’re a public school teacher or administrator, vote for Hillary. If you’re not, but vote for her because she’ll “improve” education, you’re being played.

A similar scam is unfolding in medical care. The Affordable Care Act was doomed to fail and fail it has, leading to calls for the government to provide medical care, as it provides education. That would create another Democratic voter bloc, but would patient care improve? Google “Veterans Administration scandals” for a preview of government-provided medical care. The elite will turn to private sector alternatives. The rest of us will be in the same position as inner city students stuck in rotten schools: take it or leave it. Funding will increase while care deteriorates. Medical care unions will put their muscle behind more-of-the-same Democrats every election. Many won’t realize how badly they’ve been played until they can’t get desperately needed medical care for themselves or their loved ones.

What’s more important politicians: their gender, race, ethnic group, sexual preferences, and other identity markers, or their policies? Many people voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 because he would be America’s first black president. His election was a symbolic milestone, but he has pursued the same domestic and foreign policies as his predecessor.

The one percent have done well: the government expanded its spending and debt; the Federal Reserve monetized it and suppressed interest rates; the privileged borrowed, speculated, and pushed up the price of financial assets; large, bailed-out banks consolidated their grip on finance, and Washington became even more of a crony capitalistic flea market. Millions subsist on government redistribution, but most of what it takes is “redistributed” to Washington, the nation’s wealthiest metropolitan area. Average government pay is higher than private sector pay, and government workers get better pensions. Government-sponsored dribble-down economics dribbles little, drains the life out of the economy, and burdens posterity with debt. If you believe that prosperity is just around the corner, even as your own economic situation has deteriorated, you’re being played. Hillary Clinton promises more of the same, just-around-the-corner prosperity.

Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, failed to end any of George Bush’s much criticized military forays, and initiated new ones in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine. Since the 1950s interventionists have argued that waging war in remote corners of the world makes the US and the world safer. Hillary, a fervent interventionist, wants to make the world safer still by upping the US ante in Syria and Ukraine. How does challenging Russia make anyone more secure? Did not the violent overthrow and mob execution of Muammar Gaddafi, which Hillary championed and exulted over (“We came, we saw, he died!” Cackle.), make Libya a chaotic hell hole? If you buy that Hillary’s vaunted “experience,” embrace of regime change, and hostility towards Russia and Vladimir Putin make her the candidate of security and peace, it bears repeating: you’re being played.

Hillary and her husband have netted over $100 million during their careers in public service (Who’s serving whom?), but they’re just like you and me. Hillary gets over $200 grand per Wall Street speech, but she’s going to take on those Wall Street fat cats. She bravely speaks out against those who would harass, assault, or molest women, insisting that victims’ stories be believed and acted upon, but has viciously retaliated against the women who disclosed her husband’s harassment, assaults, and molestation. Individuals, companies, and nations seeking favorable action from the US government have donated millions to the Clinton Foundation and paid millions in speakers’ fees, but perish the thought that has any influence on Hillary. She has lied about every aspect of her life (literally from birth, claiming she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary six years before he became famous by climbing Mt. Everest) and career, but trust her, she’s telling the truth now.

If you’re a member of Hillary’s socio-economic class—not the “just folks” she claims to represent but her real class, those whose fortunes, status, and power come from their alignment with governments—you’re well-advised to vote for her. She will do her best to augment your fortune, status, and power. On the other hand, you may see yourself as “just folks.” You’re considering voting for Hillary, but an inner voice whispers that her concern for you ends the second you cast your ballot. We’ve all known people who were nice to us when they wanted something, but were jerks after they got it. Listen to that inner voice.

MAYBE THIS NOVEL REALLY IS DIFFERENT

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