Dear "Conservative" Voter: (SIM #80)

Let me start by noting that I'm bothered by the political use of the term "conservative." There's so much baggage attached to the words ascribed to political ideologies that they're frequently ambiguous and hypocritical themselves. For instance, I think many "conservatives" espouse classic "liberalism" and I don't think most of those that consider themselves conservative are against progress, although they'd rue the day they're considered "progressive." For my purposes, I'm referring to conservative as those that consider themselves politically Republican because of a belief in fiscal conservatism and free markets (or classic liberalism).

As part of the cannabis industry, I've had a front row seat to many of what I consider to be the most significant flaws of the Democrats’ political machine. I have numerous tangible examples and I'd describe the majority of them related to an underlying ideology that business, particularly big business, is morally corrupt and it's the politicians' job to be the moral high ground and ultimately, these politicians aim to be the capital and resource allocators that can best solve our communities' problems.

I've written previously that I think capitalism is supposed to lack morality and that this is a feature, not a bug (SIM #66 - Feature, Not a Bug), but lacking morality is very different from being immoral. The initial point of this musing is not to re-litigate the lack of appropriate accountability within our current version of capitalism (I'd argue it's heavily crony capitalism), but rather to sympathize with those long standing "conservative" Republicans that are seeing the Democrats continuing to victimize business and wealth creation as the main problems with society. Unfortunately, the Democrats make this relatively easy to do. They've even turned many of the finance and tech social libertarians against them, a group that usually leans socially liberal enough to align more independently and often with Democrats.

If this describes you and you can't possibly bring yourself to vote for the Democrat that's been elevated by the party's political machine, then I bring myself to the main point of this musing. I urge you to choose NOT to vote. Use this election cycle as an opportunity to rebuild a legitimate Republican political party or even an independent party if the Republican Party is going to stay attached to Donald Trump, the NRA and those co-mingling religion and governance. Oh, how much I'd appreciate a candidate like Mitt Romney right now. I struggle immensely with the Democrats' governance, yet to vote Republican while Trump is the most influential person in the party is to vote for the extremes of intolerance and mistrust. To be clear, I'm speaking in degrees and not suggesting the Democrats are the model of tolerance and trust.

For me, with a choice of Trump or Harris, the best possible election outcome would be a shallow victory for Harris with incredibly low turnout, demonstrating a lack of comfort with the Democrats, but an understanding that Trump is not a viable candidate and truly represents a threat to our basic levels of trust, collaboration, and progress -- things that make America great. Unfortunately that's not what I expect, as Trump's primary gift is an ability to grab and sustain attention, with little attachment to reality or honesty and using spite and clever soundbites to polarize most of the things he touches; the stirring of these passions likely leads to record turnout for and against.

We need new leaders. That's where our thought leaders and influencers (and billionaires if it's of interest to them) should be focused; using these attention-grabbing algorithms to influence us to insist on pragmatic and worthy leaders that motivate others and rely on experienced talent to help make great decisions. And we need people to understand that our most complex problems are exactly that, complex. Creating better solutions and better alignment of interests is going to take sacrifice; we need to get away from acting like the victim to the immoral acts committed by whoever is your bogeyman “other.” 

Josh