Open Letter to Millennials

Dear Millennials:
Its election season.
But you have to understand, its ALWAYS election season in America. Europeans and
Canada can usually get-er-done it in six to eight weeks with less fanfare, expense and
universal healthcare. Since the arcane Nielsen ratings were initially created for ABC, CBS,
NBC and a few local UHF stations (back in the rabbit ear days ask your grandparents),
television has been scrambling to be relevant in an age of 24-hour news; 24-hour movie
channels, 24-hour music channels, a bazillion social media platforms out the wazoo and
Netflix (which crashed last week on the Luke Cage premiere)! Television as a medium I
predict will likely either be diminished or replaced in 10 years.
Bottom line: The Bigoted Orange Cheetos Jesus (not my words, a republican operative
named Rick Wilson gave him that in a tweet storm) and Hillary Rodham Clinton arent
your favorite choices. You, my kids and my nieces and nephews wanted Bernie. I get that.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz didnt help the situation by putting her thumb on the scales
during the Democratic Primaries either. It made the whole thing unsavory, I know. Trust
me, had Bernie won I would proudly vote for him for the same reasons Im voting for
Hillary, which Ill explain shortly. You voted for President Obama in droves and 2008;
slightly diminished in 2012 and youre threatening to sit this one out because hes not
running and your favorite candidate is now campaigning for Hillary.
Dont.
Because like me a man of a certain age (54) your parents; your grandparents this
election will determine how you will work, marry the one you love; retire and age
gracefully (yeah, that last point was depressing you wont maintain the sexy). Entropy
will win out, and time as you get older is like a metronome that tocks faster each day.
Barack Hussein Obama was the 7th African American to run for the presidency at the time
of his election win in 232 years from George Washington to George W. Bush.
The list is as follows:
Shirley Chisholm (Democrat) 1972
Jesse Jackson (Democrat) 1984
Dr. Lenora Fulani (Independent) 1988
Alan Keyes (Republican) 2000
Senator Carol Mosley Braun (Democrat) 2004
Reverend Al Sharpton (Democrat) 2004
Barack Hussein Obama (Democrat) 2008
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President Obama was of course followed by Pizza Man 9-9-9 Herman Cain and the
sleepy stabbing, former neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson (both republican, in Carsons case,
at least since October 31, 2014).
Some simple math: President Obama as other-than-white-male is 1:44, or 1/44 = 2.3%
in probability.
Donald John Trump (if ever a middle name applied) would lower the other statistic to
1/45 = 2.2%. Not much, but dramatically halved from the chances of getting a female head
of state.
Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton would raise that probability to 4.4% being elected even
one term. Still minuscule, but you have to think the long game of when one of you post
mine and Secretary Clintons time on this Earth decide to run yourselves.
Im not here to tout Hillarys readiness or qualifications to you. Id like to talk to you and
give an example of the impact she could have serving only one term, since reelections are
usually a referendum on how you did your first term, so she has to win first.
The Supreme Court.
Yes, it like Black Lives Matters to you in the prime example Ill give:
Justice Clarence Thomas.
Thomas was the controversial pick that George Herbert Walker Bush (Ws father)
nominated to replace retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall. Unlike Marshall, who argued
and won Brown vs. Board of Education that desegregated schools with all deliberate
speed, Thomas had a sparse resume in comparison. He also had sexual harassment
charges that were in his docket from Anita Hill (you may have seen the dramatization with
Scandal star Kerry Washington). He cowed the then Democratic Senate accusing them of
high-tech lynching (at the time, the only high-tech thing about it was C-Span). He won
confirmation. Other than reflexively following his muse, the now deceased Antonin Scalia,
a short list of his decisions that have impacted our world, yours and your parents in
particular:
5-4: Decision to stop the recount in Florida and award the electoral college vote to George
W. Bush.
5-4: Decision to allow Hobby Lobby to use the owners religion to deny female employees
access to birth control through medical insurance.
5-4: Decision allowing Same-Sex marriage in the United States. Thomas was in the 4.
Clarence Thomas has been in the Supreme Court for 25 yearsa generation.
How does this all relate to Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court? Before there was a
Tea Party, there was this infrastructure being built by Roger Ailes, Steve Bannon and the
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alt-right and right wing media to feed the beast with conspiracy theories of brown
people coming to take our jobs (Governor Pence used illegal aliens as a sophisticated
dog whistle). Having a brown person in ones pocket on the US Supreme Court gives one
plausible deniability from racist intentions. From the days of Brown vs. Board of
Education, conservatives avoided taking cases to the Court like the plague: now they
cant wait to repeal things like Roe vs. Wade or the Affordable Care Act. Despite President
Bill Clintons recent gaffe taken out of context, neither would be a good idea for women
or 20 million Americans currently covered by insurance. Clarence Thomas doesnt say
much, but hes done appreciable damage in his tenure. Trump has promised Justices like
Scalia that even if he were to win and serve for only one 4-year term, the damage could be
felt for another generation: the twenty-five years youll reach middle age in.
The republican senate has blocked President Obamas nominee for the vacancy on the
Supreme Court Merrick Garland precisely because they want Trump to win; despite the
fact the democratic senate in 1988 nominated Anthony Kennedy DURING an election
cycle because President Reagan demanded they do it. President Obama has made a
similar insistence, his chief high crime and misdemeanor being president-while-black.
Our government is a federal republic. We elect representatives to Congress and the
Presidency to look out for our best interests. Senators and House members are up for
reelection in the off years, or midterms. Senators are elected statewide, while House
members are elected by districts. An arcane rule allows whats called gerrymandering
crafting political districts dominated by one party or another during the Census, which
happens every 10 years. 2000 was the previous Census and George W. Bush was
appointed by the Supreme Court as president, so they got to write their own rules. Its
why well likely have a republican house until 2020, also a presidential election year.
Presidents nominate judges at the federal and state level as well as Supreme Court
nominees and the senate is supposed to advise and consent according to the US
Constitution they claim to revere.
Except: republicans had a meeting the night of his inauguration, promising to block
anything on his agenda, even if they had previously been for it. John McCain led the
charge on a bill he forwarded President Obama said hed support. McCain wasted
taxpayers you and me time and considerable money.
Except: House of Representatives member Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted you lie! during
the presidents first State of the Union, and then FUNDRAISED off of it.
Except: Orly Tate was the first to raise the specter of birtherism, then taken over and
fanned by Donald J. Trump until his non-Mea culpa a few weeks ago stating the obvious
that the first African American president 2.3% other was forced like he was in South
Africa during Apartheid (Reagan supported, by the way) to show his papers.
Except: Ted Cruz and Tea Party republicans shutdown the entire federal government over
the Affordable Care Act and Planned Parenthood, costing the taxpayers us again 24
BILLION dollars, and to date have not paid a political price for this folly.
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You really shouldnt base your election choice on whether Hillary or Trump wins and who
is the lesser of two evils. The truth is, unless Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad, Thor or
Vishnu reincarnate and run for political office or we build Mr. Data from Star Trek: The
Next Generation, humans are all weve got.
You shouldnt base it on your liberal or conservative parents screaming at you (some do,
sadly) about how the other is a disaster and dangerous.

You should instead base the election on the kind of world you want eventually be handed.
You should base it on science, facts and rationality.
You should base it on radical action on climate change, so you can have a planet to raise
your kids on.
You should base it on an educational system thats not prepping you for a stressful
standardized test; school loans you cant renegotiate with banks.
You should base it on an educational system thats not teaching you fables like
creationism and intelligent design, which through Mike Pence, a Trump-Pence
administration would push. Suddenly, studying biological evolution and the actual age of
the universe would be a subversive, underground revolutionary act.
You should base it on jobs that cant be outsourced (like new, green energy careers); plants
that are built in the US and vocational occupations that are found here, which puts
pressure on the educational system K-12 and college to prepare you for that work.
You should base it on space exploration: during the Cold War, it was all about missiles
delivering nukes; during the 21st Century, its all about species survival and resources. We
have a limited amount of supplies on this space ship called Earth. We need to spread out
to Mars, orbital platforms and beyond our solar system before we become as Science
Fiction writer Octavia Butler opined smooth dinosaurs. A famous experiment was done
with rats and supplies: Im not anxious to see it played out with humanity.
You should base it on clean water not just in Flint, Michigan and that its your right
to have it everywhere, despite what Nestle says.
You should base it on infrastructure and roads that need to be paid for by taxes levied
fairly at all levels, because government is not a business and cannot by its structure be
run as one.
You should base it on fairness and far less bigotry, homophobia and sexism than the vitriol
you and I have seen birthed in this election cycle. No matter who wins, that Pandoras box
will not be closed any time soon. That will take a generation: yours.
Finally, you should base it on the US Supreme Court you want deliberating on matters
you deem important as you and your future families age. Because trust me, that will come
sooner than this election cycle, or that you think.
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