Friday, November 11, 2016

Never Mistake the Power of Influence

Hey all,

As you know, this last Tuesday in the USA we voted for our President. And while the choices--IMHO--sucked, they were who we had to choose from. And while I hate the result, I would have hated it no matter who the winner was. I despised Hilary Clinton's past behavior and was terrified of many of the politics of Donald Trump. So I believed America would lose, no matter who actually won.

When Jonathon and I were at dinner one night, we got to talking about how some voters are influenced by certain well known people, sometimes following their instructions on whom to vote for, for no other reason that they are a celebrity.

You know who I'm talking about. There are some who are VERY opinionated about what they feel, and TRY to influence their fans. And there are others who when asked their opinion, give it, and their fans take their thoughts for gospel. But why on earth do people think that being a celebrity automatically gives them some sort of special intellegence?

Does being an actor make you smarter and more politically knowledgeable? Do you know about all the issues just because you can carry a tune? Why is it that because a person is famous, we automatically assume they know more than we? Or that we should follow their lead blindly? Or even at all?

I asked Jonathon if there was a celebrity he would trust and follow about the presidental election choices, and as we discussed it, we realized neither of us would even consider following anyone's lead just because of who they are. In fact, in most cases, we'd be more apt to turn the other way BECAUSE they were using their celebrity status to try and influence people.

Probably NOT what they were going for.

Either way, this election showed a side of human nature that often made me cringe. Not just the mudslinging and backstabbing by the candidates, but the way regular people treated each other in the middle of it. Many people who were for Clinton were rabid about how horrible Trump was, and the nasty posts on FB were legion.  And it wasn't any better with the Trump supporters. I just wanted to bang my head against the wall at the ugliness I heard over and over again.

Anyway, while the election may be over, now we have to deal with the reality of our choice. And since I beleive that the next four years are going to be some of the most difficult in our history, I'm thinking that traveling out of the country may not be a bad idea at all. Maybe when we finally get back we'll have a president that I can actually be happy about.

It could happen.  Right?

*sigh*

Back on Tuesday with a note about our next move. Brisbane, here we come!!!

Hugs,
CJ England










Follow Your Dreams
http://www.cjengland.com/wanderingstar/badtothebone.htm

1 comment:

Ray said...

Regardless of your opinion of Ronald Reagan as Governor of California and then President, he had prior political experience as president of the Screen Actor's Guild. This time celebrity is meaningless. The Kardashians have as much political experience as Trump. If one of them had won a third party nomination they would have taken as many votes away from the two major parties as those who were on the ballot.

The amount of air time one particular candidate received makes me long for reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine.

I have heard twice, once on NPR and once by Meredith Viera on The View that once Trump starts getting daily intelligence briefs he may change his mind about some of the drastic ideas he ran with.

Tim Kaine is one of my senators. He said in an email that we all have to work together to try to get the worst of the Trump/congressional agenda to ratchet down a notch. All those who don't like that agenda need to work toward the mid term election in 2018.

In Virgina we are not through with political ads. We elect legislators, Governor, Atty General in 2017.