The Trump Divide: Getting Along

Twitter and social media in general is an interesting place where there is an exchange of ideas, even if some of those exchanges are sometimes contentious. Tempers can flare, especially when the topic is politics. President-elect Donald J. Trump is a newcomer to the world of politics and he has created chaos since day one. His running created a group of people who came to be known as “never-trumpers.” The Republican Party and those who often vote Republican became divided—battle lines were drawn. Some of those people fought Trump, even to the point of possibly electing Hillary Clinton as president. Even after the election of Donald J. Trump, the coals of the feud are still hot.

Personal Responsibility: Overdrafts

In one of my, You Might Be A Progressive, series, I posted one that created quite a bit of discussion. You might be a progressive if you believe a bank should loan you money for free in the form of overdrafts. The statement doesn't fully represent an overdraft, but it did create discussion on the topic of bank overdraft fees.

Earlier in the day, I had a progressive complain about the billions charged to bank customers because of overdraft fees. A progressive on Twitter, a Bernie Sanders fan, said, “Banks collected over $30 billion in overdraft fees last year from people who could ill-afford it.”

This is classic progressive thinking. I have no reason to doubt the $30 billion figure and don't deny that these fees are set high and increases company profits. What progressives don't understand, overdraft fees aren't solely motivated by profit. These fees are to dissuade people from writing checks for amounts greater than their balance. Intentionally writing a bad check is against the law even if you plan on depositing funds to cover that check before it clears.

Medicaid

For decades, Democrats have said Republicans are heartless. Statistics show that conservatives are some of the most charitable people in the country. Yet they can sometimes appear heartless when it comes to such things as Medicaid.

The conflict between small government and Medicaid is clear, but at this time, there is no alternative. Presidential candidate Donald Trump came under attack after saying he was for cutting government, but he wouldn't let people die in the street. That means he has no current plan to cut or reduce Medicaid other than the forced expansion found in the Affordable Care Act. The ACA tried to force states to expand Medicaid programs with little to no financial backing.

Why The Libertarian Party Fails

I've written about lowercase and uppercase libertarians. Uppercase libertarians are those who follow the principles of the Libertarian Party. They seem to set hard lines and allow for little deviation. This is one of the reasons they have trouble garnering votes in elections.

We find most lowercase libertarians voting Republican because they tend to have more in common with Conservatives. It's mostly in social areas and war that they find differences. The one area where all lowercase libertarians disagree with the Libertarian Party, is the border.

Hard core Libertarians don't want borders. They believe people should be able to travel freely around the world. What they fail to understand, is that without borders there is no country. Why do they participate in an election in a country they don't think should exist? This is bordering on one world order thinking.

Need For An Armed Society.

It was a normal day at work. People streamed into the parking lot as they had done every Friday. This morning was to be different. The normal sound of cars rumbling and people talking was replaced by five loud explosions as the gun repeatedly fired. People looked around in confusion and concern. This was a parking lot where even fights were a scarcity, much less gun violence. But that morning it had all changed. That morning a man died.

That morning a friend of mine stepped out of the car she had been riding in to work. This same woman had spent the past year riding to work with me, so I knew her well. The twenty minute ride to work allowed me a lot of time to know who she was as a person. But that day I learned something new.