Fear Itself…

Al Jazeera recently had a thought-provoking interview with a Polish political philosopher I’d never previously come across: Zygmunt Bauman. The subject-matter was the growing civic unrest that is by no means limited to the United States.

In Western Europe it has been a summer of great change and discontent.

The European Union is facing major upheaval as the United Kingdom gets ready to withdraw its membership, in the process possibly jeopardising the composition of the country itself.

In fact, under the surface, people across Europe seem to be on edge. As European nations deal with migration and various economic uncertainties, the political landscape is changing, and a feeling that old social structures are being replaced or challenged is widespread.

It’s the same for the United States, where the race for the White House is anything but ordinary. Political rhetoric this year is tougher and there’s a feeling the country is seriously divided on race and economic prosperity.

What has brought us to this situation? And what are the possible scenarios going forward?

Bauman thinks our problems are the consequence of what he has dubbed “liquid fear,” and what I would call “fear of random and unforeseeable dangers.”

“Liquid fear,” Bauman explains, “means fear flowing on our own court, not staying in one place but diffuse. And the trouble with liquid fear, unlike the concrete specific danger which you know and are familiar with, is that you don’t know where from it will strike.

“We are walking, that’s my favourite metaphor, as if on a minefield. We are aware that the field is full of explosives, but we can’t tell where there will be an explosion and when. There are no solid structures around us all on which we can rely, in which we can invest our hopes and expectations. Even the most powerful governments, very often, cannot deliver on their promise. They don’t have enough power to do so.”

Bauman says we live in a state of “continuous uncertainty, which makes us afraid.” This fear, this uncertainty, increases the desire for security, the appeal of politicians who say “If you give me power, I’ll take responsibility for your future. I can keep you safe.” He also notes that people’s memories of totalitarian governments and their dangers have faded, making “strongman” promises attractive.

Bauman’s minefield metaphor is so powerful because it accurately describes human reaction to unknown and unpredictable danger. We humans are pretty good at coping with the known: a hurricane, an automobile accident, a disease. These threats are comprehensible; there are experts who can predict their occurrence and deal with them if they appear. Terrorism, economic downturns, pandemics–dangers over which individuals have no control–generate more fear precisely because we feel helpless to either predict or avoid them.

So we look for reassurance, for someone who can convince us that he (and let’s be honest, it’s always been a he) can avert tragedy. We may have to suspend disbelief, close our eyes to the inconsistencies and facts that cast doubt on the assurances, but at least someone is telling us what we want to hear. It’s only later that we remember why listening to siren songs is never a good idea.

It’s because of our very human, very predictable reaction to our anxieties that FDR’s admonition was so important: what we should really fear is “fear itself.”

51 Comments

  1. Many months ago, I recommended John Kampfner’s book “Freedom for Sale: Why the World is Trading Democracy for Security.”

    From the inside of the jacket in his book….For nearly a decade Kampfner was the correspondent for Reuters and the Daily Telegraph in Moscow and Berlin, before becoming political correspondent and commentator for the Financial Times and the BBC. He lives in London [and I’m sure he’s been reading the works of Bauman for years].

    From the back cover: “Marx was wrong, according to John Kampfner. It is not religion that is the opium of the people, but capitalism. Give them good shopping opportunities and they will forget about liberty, equality, and fraternity, and cease to care about who governs them and how….Kampfner’s book is original, persuasive and DISQUIETING, and fills a GAP in our understanding of the post-Cold War world” ~ Sunday Times [UK]

    This further confirms BSH’s reasoning about the advantage of obtaining our news and information from outside the U.S.

  2. Talking with my brother last night, he expressed real fear of the future. He’s been with his company for 33 yrs and in January of this year, the company was bought out and the shake up continues. He was told that despite his 33 yrs with the company, their promise to give him life time health care after retiring was not going to be honored. So he spent those years, hoping never to get downsized and survived only to have the “healthcare” rug yanked out from under him as he nears retirement. I’d say he has a damn good reason to have fear of the unknown because in this country, healthcare is not a right and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it.

  3. Thank Marv. He has 7 stents in his heart and he’s too young to retire and I’m afraid he won’t survive the 10 more years he needs to wait until he’s 65. He’s not the only one in my family that dedicated his life to a company and got shafted by a corporation. The worst part is, it is legal to do that here.

  4. The divided government of the US only makes fear more obvious. The struggle for control between parties and opposing ideologies undermines individual confidence and breeds fear, even in the most resolute. Where/who is the unifier that can give us common goals and purpose? The current crop of candidates certainly are more focused on winning than unifying.

  5. “Bauman thinks our problems are the consequence of what he has dubbed “liquid fear,” and what I would call “fear of random and unforeseeable dangers.”

    I have frequently referred to my personal situation as “living in fear”; whatever description you want to give it, physical fear has escalated dramatically during this current decade due to the many mass shootings. We must now fear as deeply for our personal and economic security from within this country as from beyond our borders. Home grown terrorists have open access to military level weaponry; the current Congress controls the livelihood of all but the 1% in this country who controls the Congress. Seeking future reassurance from the current presidential nominees leaves us less that assured as the media has concentrated 98% of it’s efforts on the “wild card”, the “out of control cannon”, once our primary source of chuckles and titters over his very public financial and marital failures, in the form of “The Donald”.

    We have added to the once a source of the media’s “comic relief”, two women nominees. One who has had an extensive political career (the most qualified politically) but is the source of repeated accusations of being a security risk and less than trustworthy as well as being part of corporate America. The second woman is a “write-in” replacement for Bernie Sanders who was either cheated out of the nomination…or lost it by an official count…a fact we will never know for sure.

    Trump has unleashed more racism and bigotry than this country saw during the mid-1800’s; prior to and during the Civil War and the following Reconstruction era, causing nameless fears and feelings of insecurity on many levels. Will there be anything left to Reconstruct beginning January 1, 2017? We fear our present and our future; we are definitely tip-toeing through a political and economic minefield and we should be afraid because our very lives and our livelihood are at stake now awaiting the outcome of the November 8th election at all levels. Be afraid; be very afraid!

  6. daleb,

    “Where/ who is the unifer that can give us common goals and purpose?”

    It won’t come out of anyone who is now participating in partisan politics.

    We need to look to Europeans like Bauman to teach us how to start to rebuild. A person I would suggest as a model for a unifer would be: Václav Havel (Czech pronunciation: [ˈvaːt͡slav ˈɦavɛl] ( listen); 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech writer, philosopher,[1] dissident, and statesman. From 1989 to 1992, he served as the last president of Czechoslovakia. He then served as the first president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003) after the Czech–Slovak split. Within Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs.

    His educational opportunities limited by his bourgeois background, Havel first rose to prominence within the Prague theater world as a playwright. Havel used the absurdist style in works such as The Garden Party and The Memorandum to critique communism. After participating in Prague Spring and being blacklisted after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, he became more politically active and helped found several dissident initiatives such as Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. His political activities brought him under the surveillance of the secret police and he spent multiple stints in prison, the longest being nearly four years, between 1979 and 1983.

    Havel’s Civic Forum party played a major role in the Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. He assumed the presidency shortly thereafter, and was reelected in a landslide the following year and after Slovak independence in 1993.

    The above was from Wikipedia.

  7. Okay, be afraid, but don’t let fear rule who you are or what you do.

    JoAnn, we do know that Bernie was not cheated. His fans saw thousands at his events and could not comprehend how he could lose. The fact is that going to a big party with all of your buds is not the same as going to the polls and voting. Two weeks before the California primary, I saw a poll the gave Hillary a 20 point lead among likely voters. When you give in to the paranoid rantings, you increase your own fear level.

  8. Oh, get a grip folks. All this fear mongering is just the product of those wanting something out of you, either your vote or your money. Fear sells news. It sells guns. It sells candidates. Don’t be a buyer of a product that will not give you truth, safety, or a leader. Look to history for where fear has taken previous generations. There have always been hard times, and there has always been steady people who would not cave to lies, false security or demons. Those steady people have been our greatest leaders. The unknown future has always been with us. It will be there next year too after the election.

  9. One more thought, if I may. Why do we need a single person to be the unifier? Do we always have to have a savior, or can we save ourselves as a people. Haven’t we learned anything in 6,000 years of written history? Messiahs don’t always work out the way we hope they will.

  10. I agree Peggy. “Be the change,” right? That’s my stand now…don’t like the status quo, do something.

  11. Peggy; there were questions (and still are in some people’s minds) regarding Bernie’s uncounted popular votes and delegate votes which went against the popular votes. I am aware this has been legally resolved, giving Hillary the needed delegate count…no argument there.

    There was a letter on Facebook listed as being from Bernie Sanders to the chairman of the “Bernie or Bust” campaign group in which he listed his issues to be agreed to as part of the Democratic campaign foundation before he would endorse Hillary. I copied them to compare with her acceptance speech; she did mention them in passing but…will she actually (if elected) push for those bills which are against corporate America> One is to create a 21st Century version of the Glass-Steagall Act; Bill Clinton signed the bill in 1999 fully repealing the original 1934 Act.

    At the convention; Bernie gave Hillary his vote and his support but he maintained his 46% of the delegate count; his option to be listed in the history books (until they are rewritten). A wise decision by a more than worthy presidential nominee. The issues I question Hillary’s actual support of and taking action on, deal with the economic security of the middle and lower income majority in this country, expanding Social Security and making inestments in health care, immigration reform, aid for Native Americans and enforcing protection of the environment – until now unprotected due the cost to big businesses for cleanup – part of corporate America.

    I choose to maintain my level of fully warranted fear (awareness) unless and until this government enacts protection of those who are the primary support of this country’s economy. Thus far, the Republican Congress has prevented President Obama from making headway in these areas; unless control of Congress changes we will be stuck with the status quo and dodging smelly brown stuff rolling down that hill at a faster rate of speed. The Republicans referred to this as “the trickle down affect” which we have seen no evidence of.

  12. I have said it before and I will say it again, the easiest things in the world to sell somebody are fear and ignorance. Lots of that going around across the globe today.

  13. Ron Heifetz from Kennedy School of Government has written extensively on what he calls ‘adaptive issues’ and the role of leadership during complex and uncertain times. The solution to adaptive issues are never quick fixes and require dialogue and the willingness to see the issues from diverse perspectives. FDR’s fireside chats invited that kind of listening and thinking and insisted that everyone was part of the solution. The filter bubbles we all live in do not help during complex and turbulent times. The solutions will indeed require a change of heart and real conversation. Thanks Sheila. You are a civic treasure.

  14. Debbie A, just this week I was reading from a series of Heifetz’s talks and his mention of adaptive issues which, as you note, includes a willingness to view issues from diverse perspectives.

    I’ve developed a personal and admittedly simplistic idea there are two main groups of people in the world — the ‘perpetual positives’ and the ‘depressive realists’. Both groups can be rather annoying and even dangerous when left unchecked, but in the spirit of viewing issues from both their perspectives, I suspect the citizens of the world would find themselves in a better place.

    Because we’re constrained by not having a giant crystal ball to read the future, it seems appropriate to dig into history and search for those events that might have some application for us today. Churchill and Chamberlain, the ‘depressive realist’ and the ‘perpetual positive’ respectively, come to mind and reflect their diversity of perspectives and with our added benefit of viewing the ultimate outcome.

    Whereas Churchill with his ‘black dog’ of depressive realism was picking up early negative rumblings from Germany, noting the increase of anti-Semitism in the UK and beyond, and following the activities of this guy named Hitler. On the other hand, Chamberlain, a rather nice chap with a calming positive outlook, was gobsmacked at the 11th hour by the evil intentions of Hitler and his Nazis.

  15. The founding fathers created a republic less democratic than we have allowed it to become. This, I think, is the problem, as the thing we call populism is really the rise of electoral ignorance. So what do we do when one person, one vote, means that the mob can destroy our democratic traditions? Perhaps we need less democracy to save democracy.

  16. Another thought: when our sources of spiritual belief operate on fear-based motivational systems, is it any wonder fear is our response to all threats? When God/Allah/Jehovah (because let’s face it, the problem lies primarily in Abrahamic traditions) is an authoritarian figure, then is it any wonder we see all of life as a long series of threats? If we believe that we are one consciousness experiencing this dimension through organic spacesuits and that there is nothing to be feared, only experiences to have, then a Donald Trump would elicit nothing but pity. FDR’s statement about fear itself is perhaps the most profound utterance ever made by a politician. That thought, not organized systems of fear-based control, will be our salvation.

  17. Debbie A.,”

    “Ron Heifetz from the Kennedy School of Government has written extensively on what he calls ‘adaptive issues’ and the role of leadership during complex and uncertain times.

    You and BSH are right. Ron Heifetz, and his “adaptive leadership” is the type of paradigm we need, but do not have. That’s why Havel is such a good example. Being an outstanding playwright, he had the requisite perception and experience to ADAPT to the conditions in Czechoslovakia just at the right time. And the positive results from his leadership created the forward looking…… Czech Republic.

  18. Over it,

    For sure, there’s an answer to eliminate those populist voters, those who fall into your category of ‘electoral ignorance’. We could return to mandatory literacy tests before allowing voters to register.

  19. The following is from “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World” by Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Martin Linsky (Cambridge: Cambridge Leadership Associates, 2009) 283-4

    Exceed Your Authority

    Thoughtfully exceed your authority. The exercise of adaptive leadership is dangerous in part because you always dance on the edge of your scope of authority, at least with respect to some of your superiors, peers, subordinates, or people outside your organization. You push the limits of what others think you ought to be doing. You raise difficult issues that no one wants to discuss, or point out the gaps between people’s espoused values and their actual behavior.

    The need to go beyond what you are authorized to do, both formally and informally, is what distinguishes adaptive leadership from good management. But it is tricky. Your authorizers may experience you as subversive when you deliberately exceed your authority. But unless you purposefully and carefully dance on the edge of your scope of authority and risk the pushback, you may never move your organization or community forward through adaptive change. As long as your authorizers can KEEP YOU IN A BOX they want you to stay in, real, deep change will not happen; your authorizers are the architects of the status quo. The want soluitions at a minimum of cost to them.

  20. BSH, obviously literacy tests have been used to suppress voting. I am thinking more toward the features of the original constitution like senators being elected by legislatures. In essence I am advocating more elite influence and a democracy that is less direct. As much as I loved what Bernie did, the flip side is that Trump, if not the raging lunatic that he is, could actually be quite dangerous. What happens when the next Trump is cold, calculating, and self-controlled? If incrementalism is the price we pay to avoid giant leaps backward, then so be it.

  21. I think that his diagnosis of what troubles us is certainly consistent with my experience. He in the report though doesn’t deal with cause but focuses on effect.

    I saw a relatively little known movie last night called “Antropoid” (a relatively useless title but a historically accurate name of a WWII operation to assainate a high ranking Nazi in what’s now Czechoslovakia).

    Let’s just say what we fear now compared to what they had to fear then is infinitesimal.

    So our fear is more like emotional anxiety than it is high risk of horrible deaths. All the less understandable because of the fact we live the least risky lives of any humans who ever existed.

    It’s emotional not physical. Mass hysteria? Close.

    Where does it come from? The only explanation that I can come up with is that causing it makes a few folks massively wealthy. The same proximate cause as the real fear in the historically accurate movie: the accumulation of power.

    The Czechs had no choice. Those that resisted suffered horribly and ultimately lost as individuals though even more ultimately prevailed. Yea human spirit.

    Can we scrape up enough human spirit to resist being conquered by anxiety?

    I don’t know, I just don’t.

  22. Pete,

    “Can we scrape up enough human spirit to resist being conquered by anxiety?
    I don’t know, I just don’t.”

    You have to realize that anxiety comes with civic courage. And you have to find a way to eliminate as much of it as you can. The first thing you have to realize is that you cannot make a stand just by yourself. It takes others with similar motivation to help ease the anxiety. They do not have to be with you physically. I’ve found that to be the only way that I have been able to make the successful stands against power I’ve “pulled off” in the past.

    As a matter of fact, I received an E-mail just the other day from a top expert on motivation, pretty much corroborating what I just pointed out.

  23. Marv. “The first thing you have to realize is that you cannot make a stand just by yourself.”

    We have to act though paralyzed by fear of the unknown. We have to break away from the tyranny of the small screens.

  24. Marv,

    “As long as your authorizers can KEEP YOU IN A BOX they want you to stay in, real, deep change will not happen; your authorizers are the architects of the status quo. The want solutions at a minimum of cost to them.”

    These two sentences can be read through several different filters. Since it’s election season, I’ll read them through the filter of the two-party system of our method of selecting leaders. At present, the US voters basically are held captive by two groups of recognized authorizers existing inside the parameters of two boxes, the Democrats and the Republicans. Within the tightly controlled parameters of those two boxes, we are expected to find a comfortable place, a niche, a safe place that represents us as citizens.

    Woe be to the citizen who exists outside the box, outside either box. On the other hand and a happier note, it does require a considerable amount of critical thinking along the way to recognize that one exists outside any political box and any religious box.

  25. AgingLGrl, your brother and his dilemma of losing his job and/or heath care is but one of many who find themselves on the razor’s edge here in America.

    The Democrats had a chance to incorporate Medicaid or Medicare for all in their platform, but once again the Corporate Establishment Democrats torpedoed Universal Health Care. A major nurses union condemned Democrats on the Democratic National Convention Platform Committee, who blocked an amendment in support of a single-payer health care system. – All of Sanders appointees to the platform committee voted for the amendment Universal Health Care. – So if you subtract the Sanders appointees, you are left with the Clinton and DNC Appointees opposing Universal Health Care. The tribal Democratic Mantra is the Republicans have repeatedly attempted to destroy Obama Care. OK, but his time in the Democratic Platform, the Democrats had a clear opportunity to vote for Universal Heath Care – but failed.

    For instance Angela Demaree (Democrat) is running against Susan Brooks in the 5th District – from her Web Site – “High quality, affordable health care should be available to everyone. Angela looks to build upon and improve the Affordable Care Act in order to ensure every American has access to high quality health care and affordable health insurance”.

    The key phrase is affordable heath insurance. Which translates as maintaining the health care for profit system. As a side bar no mention of Social Security in her platform, concerning future viability or increasing the benefits to those of us who are retired.

    So here we are Clinton for President, Bayh for Senate and Gregg for Governor, all we need is a Disco Ball to complete the deja vu.

  26. Pete,

    “We have to act though paralyzed by fear of the unknown.”

    You can’t act against unknowns. That’s why armies have advanced intelligence operatives in the field if possible. Unmasking the deception is imperative. Let me make it clear, I’m not advocating taking on unknowns. I’ve never attempted to do that .

    Sun Tzu says: “always know your enemy as well as yourself.” I was the featured speaker at the Sun Tzu conference last February in Nashville because I have never violated that rule unless it was impossible to follow. If you follow that rule you will win. So far I have never lost a major POLITICAL engagement.

  27. Enjoying this conversation.

    As outside the power box individuals we must overcome the necessary anxiety without the medications in the box. I suggest that a superior means is trust. That, of course, must be built on relationship with our local, national and international neighbors. As an introvert I can recognize what a tremendous labor this is. I know a very few of my neighbors well enough to trust them.

    Finally, we must trust ourselves. After learning that we cannot trust capitalism, corporations, churches or even our elected “leadership” there is really nothing left but ourselves and each other.

  28. BSH,

    “it does require a considerable amount of critical thinking along the way to recognize that one exists outside any political box and any religious box.”

    Absolutely right. But, I’ve always have had a head start over most everyone else since I ran away from home when I was 5. It’s natural for me to feel on the outside, but not on the inside. I’ve never known what it is to FEEL on the inside, not even temporarily and I’m sure I never will.

    But that’s why I’ve been so effective in understanding the deviant elite at the deepest level. They’ve always thought I was one of them when they hired me. Tough luck. Anyway, I’m very thankful for the experiences that I have gained in my pretty much UNDERCOVER life.

  29. Louie,

    “So here we are Clinton for President, Bayh for Senate and Gregg for Governor, all we need is a Disco Ball to complete the deja vu.”

    You are a man after my heart, Louie. 😉

  30. Marv, “Exceed your authority”
    Years ago I was elected chairman of a bargaining unit of 2300. In every act I “exceeded” my authority rather than go along to get along. The results were admirable. Our local put in place several procedures and positions that were later adopted by the international on a nationwide scale. The managers disliked me, and, eventually the members did, too. The reward of seeing the progress we made was worth all the trouble. I learned the power of “no” when backed up by facts was considerable. The difficulty, of course, was that it was not until I had been voted out of office that what I had done was appreciated. The capper (forgive my humble brag here, please) was that about 2 years after I left office a manager with whom I had numerous run-ins came to the shop floor to tell me that while he “had hated me from the first–and still did–he had to admit that while I was in office we were a better plant. Later. just before retiring in 2007 I negotiated a 300,000 sq. ft. building to sequence parts–the only one corporate wide in the US. Exceeding one’s authority is a brilliant and necessary tactic if true change is what one wants and needs. (endnote: the current leadership doesn’t even use the authority it has. Very sad!)

  31. It’s interesting how Republicans are pivoting from it’s all government, to it’s Pelosi, to it’s liberalism, to it’s everything that’s not conservatism, to it’s Obama, to it’s Hillary, to it’s the two party system.

    The evidence is clear. When government is too conservative it stops working. It is prevented from doing its job for we the people.

    Trump is not a conservative, he’s a nothing. We owe future America a country without conservatives AND without Trump.

  32. Louie and BSH; as I responded to Peggy in my 9:15 a.m. comments, IF Hillary is elected, keep your eyes on the Bernie issues she agreed to as part of the Democratic campaign platform to see how much effort – if any – she puts into the issues you mentioned. Of course; if we maintain a Republican Congress we will be stuck with the status quo or marching backwards and nothing will change unless it gets worse.

    I haven’t researched President Obama’s billions in student loan forgiveness but…I remember when Bush gave away billions of dollars in October 2008 to stabilize the economy, he included in his promises that it would provide more money for student loans. It was after his generous giveaway, much of it to banks, that co-signers were required for student loans; preventing many from continuing or beginning college educations.

    We have the candidates which have been legally (I guess) nominated in this current election. We can bitch, whine, cry, piss and moan from now till November 8th but it won’t change anything unless one or more of them die. And it wasn’t that long ago that one state did elect a dead candidate they knew had died months before the election. As Stephen King has said, “The situation is what the situation is.” Just sayin’

  33. FDR was right, and I reject fear. Perseverance and a steadfast adherence to the democratic idealism left to us by our predecessors conquer fear. Let’s not let the libertarian mobs steamroll us into believing that the end is near. It isn’t. This is not the first time we have had policy disagreements. Take the Civil War, for instance. This country is far from over.

  34. JoAnn, yes I noted the 9:15 am entry where you were chastised for daring to consider that Sanders perhaps was not given appropriate and full consideration by the DNC.

    Clearly, JoAnn, you had stepped beyond the tightly constricted parameters as drawn by the poster. She was simply drawing you back inside the box where there is no room for questioning. And, if you continue to question, you might be flagged as paranoid.

  35. “She (Hillary) was simply drawing you back inside the box where there is no room for questioning. And, if you continue to question, you might be flagged as paranoid.”

    Evidence?

  36. False
    Evidence
    Appearing
    Real

    What are we frightened of?

    Is it fear, or are the massive changes we’re seeing actually real?

    Buddha said, “All things in life are impermanent.”

    If we fear change, yet change is an ongoing natural universal phenomenon, we must not trust the process.

    I don’t think it’s fear – we don’t trust our leaders, nor anybody else. If we don’t have faith in something greater than ourselves which is guiding us in a positive direction, what fills that void?

    Infallible humans? Egotistical humans? Flesh?

    I’ve always been told that fear can’t live in the same house as faith.

  37. “I’ve always been told that fear can’t live in the same house as faith.”

    Here’s our faith.

    “Let’s not let the libertarian mobs steamroll us into believing that the end is near. It isn’t.”

  38. Sometimes faith, assumptions about what cannot be known, is necessary. There’s clearly an awful lot not known.

    Before resorting to it though one should check what is known but not to them.

  39. Todd; however it is described or felt or whatever the source of it, fear today is real. If you don’t feel fear yourself; do not denigrate those of us who are strong enough to recognize and admit our fears. The mass shootings, a government we cannot trust, the possibility of losing what income and/or medical care we have is reason to fear and fear generally brings a “fight or flight” reaction. I prefer to fight, using the source of my fear as a target, it gives me strength, it does not weaken me. The Republican elected officials and their current candidates are in my cross hairs; my only ammunition at this time is the Internet and my big mouth. On November 8th my ammunition will be my vote.

    As another source of fear for those wise enough to recognize the current dangers in this country (aside from our heavily armed neighbors) is the Jill Stein faction and those who are determined to write-in Bernie Sanders’ name on their ballots and those who have stated they will not vote. I do not believe their decisions are based on fear; they are simply pissed because, for whatever reason, they did not get the candidate of their choice. Neither did I!!! Each of their votes that do not go to the disliked, questionable to many of us, Democratic candidate, makes Donald Trump need fewer votes to win this presidential election.

  40. Regarding the Jill Stein supporters; I should have added I understand their support of vital issues that are part of her campaign. But…they are issues that are already being fought between the current Congress members and President Obama, they are issues that were handed to President Obama on January 20, 2009. They are issues that will continue being fought over by whoever is elected president and whoever is sitting in Congress; electing Jill Stein will not magically resolve any of the issues. Jeeeeez! Sometimes I get so tired:-(

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