Why I Would Rather Watch Big Brother than the Republican Convention

Okay. So I DID watch some of the Republican convention. I saw Don Jr. do a fantastic job speaking with a TelePrompTer. I saw Ivanka do a phenomenal job making her father appear conservative, all while using progressive, left-wing talking points. I also saw Trump himself speak. But I seriously wanted to cry, so I ended up turning it off half way through and just listening to it on the radio. I missed the one speech I wanted to see - Ted Cruz's - because I had a previous engagement and my DVR decided to forget what I told it to do.

Side note: all the fuss about Ivanka wearing a dress that "only" cost $135 is lost on me. I wouldn't spend $35 on a dress, let alone $135. I literally spent $60 on my wedding dress. But maybe I'm the only one. And I can't help but feel as though it was more about promoting her brand than it was about being frugal. But maybe that's just me, too.

But I digress.

The reasons I have started watching Big Brother instead of election coverage and the news about Black Lives Matters and ISIS are as follows:

1) They don't talk about it.

Really. I have never heard the words Trump, Hillary, Black Lives Matter, or ISIS uttered in the house. There was one guy who compared himself to Obama (and Jesus), but the house evicted him the first week. Mostly because he compared himself to Obama and Jesus.

I kind of envy them, really. They are immune to the news from Paris and Munich. They are unaware of the drama surrounding the convention in Cleveland. They are oblivious to the recent deaths of policemen in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Kansas City. People say that ignorance is bliss, and I'm jealous of both the housemates' ignorance and their bliss.


2) Housemates are making friends, forming alliances, and evicting nominees based on merit and character rather than the color of their skin.

Da'Vonne dislikes Frank, not because he's white but because he's a jerk. Tiffany didn't like Da'Vonne or Zakiyah because they lied to her, not because of the color of their skin. Honestly, it's my idea of utopia. In real life, I'm so tired of race being an issue. I find affirmative action offensive. People of color have talents and abilities worthy of employment and acceptance to college based on merit. They don't need the government to ensure their success. They are perfectly capable of ensuring it themselves IF everyone will just get out of their way and let them.

 Of the three showmances (yes, that's a word), two of them are inter-racial. For any of you who watch,
I'm definitely Team James & Natalie.  It should be noted that, in addition to politics and race, religion plays no part in relationships or gameplay.


3) It gives me the opportunity to escape reality.

I am by nature a realist. I'm an optimistic realist, but a realist nonetheless. I spend a lot of time reading about, listening to, and thinking about the world around me. I don't know how I became the way that I am, but I have a nearly compulsive need to know everything about everything. My mother finds politics and current events to be too stressful. My father was an immigrant from the UK so he just wasn't terribly interested. My brother was a Bernie supporter, to be honest, but it's still not something with which he is overly concerned. I, on the other hand, have been slightly obsessed with politics since middle school.

In addition to my obsession with politics and learning about the world around me, I am also the mother of four children, a senior in college, and spend my days working in the public school system. Like a lot of you, my family struggles financially. We have a roof over our heads and food on the table, but we don't have a lot of extra money and I worry already about retirement.

I have told you all of that to say this: my days are filled with a lot of harsh realities and Big Brother is a means by which I can escape reality, just as the housemates have. For one hour I don't think about the disaster that is Trump or the corruption that is Hillary. I just enjoy watching people dress in odd costumes for competitions and then try to negotiate and bargain with one another so that the "right" person is evicted. I think I'm better off than they are, however, because while they're stressing out about being nominated for eviction and competing for power, I'm chilling on my couch with my daughter or jogging on the treadmill.

Thanks for indulging me ;)

2016: The Year of the Dumpster Fire

In the words of a spokesman for Senator Ben Sasse (R, Neb.), "with these two candidates (Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump), this election is a dumpster fire." I cannot tell you how much I love that quote. It encapsulates the current condition of politics of this country perfectly.

How did America get to this place? How did the country that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin worked so hard to build get to the place that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were the chosen presidential candidates? How did the country that both Kennedy and Reagan worked so hard to fight Communism decide that Socialism was a viable - even preferred - option? How did the country that idolizes Martin Luther King, Jr. get to the place that entitled college students could scream about Black Lives being the only ones that matter?

I'll be honest. After writing the last blog entry, I became a big fan of Ted Cruz. He seemed to be the one candidate that understood the importance of the Constitution, the value of the Human Life, and who was willing to stand up for what he knew to be right even when faced with the opposition of the entire Senate, both Republican and Democrat. That is what I wanted in a president. After Cruz dropped out I felt defeated, and I frankly haven't been nearly as invested in this election as I was before he left it.

Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina

This isn't to say that there weren't good qualities among the other candidates. Marco Rubio was certainly someone I would have supported if Cruz had dropped out before he did. I would have also supported a Cruz/Rubio ticket. Carly Fiorina was fantastic, and I would have gladly voted for that female candidate had she won the delegates. I initially thought she would make a great Secretary of State, but was happy when Cruz chose her for his running mate. I also liked Ben Carson. I didn't think he was ready to be president, but I thought he would make a great asset to the cabinet and, once he learned the ropes a bit, could have made an excellent candidate in eight years.

I cannot fathom what America was thinking. We essentially have two narcissistic criminals running for office. For all intents and purposes, we have the choice between a Democrat running as a Republican and a Socialist running as a Democrat come November.

According to the FBI, Hillary is so ignorant, she doesn't know how to tell classified information from unclassified. After spending eight years working in the White House with her husband Bill, and after spending four years as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is so stupid she doesn't realize what information needs to be restricted? Hillary Clinton is a lot of things, but she is not stupid. However, for the sake of argument, we'll say that she is. If that doesn't disqualify her for the office of the presidency, it should at the very least make us question whether or not she's the right person for the job. Do we want a president who "accidentally" sends classified emails to friends on an unsecure server? I don't.



Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R)

There are two schools of thought about our little dumpster fire. The first is that we need to vote for
Trump, because no matter how awful he is, he's got to be better than Clinton. The second is that we need to vote third party because Trump will not only ruin the country, he will also destroy the Republican party. That is how bad he is. He may well destroy the party that gave us Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago.

Now, I don't think for one moment that Trump will have caused the destruction of the GOP single handedly. No, politicians like Mitch McConnell and Pat Roberts have been chipping away at the party of conservatives for years. Both of these men were among the Republicans that voted to pass Obama's omnibus spending bill last December. And then there is Paul Ryan, the man who was supposed to regain some ground for conservatives after John Boehner was ousted as Speaker of the House. Currently, he is spearheading gun control legislation after the Democrats staged their sit-in.

Donald Trump is the unfortunate result of all of the hard work of the Republicans to become Democrats and the Democrats to become Socialists.  He is the result of the people in fly-over country who are angry that their representatives aren't representing them. What they failed to understand is that Trump, who will say anything that comes into his head, has very little substance. Sure, he can call a spade a spade, but he's playing poker in a bridge tournament. He doesn't know what he's talking about most of the time, and he's too narcissistic to realize it or to care about it.

So which is worse? The candidate that knows exactly what she's doing and is going to take us all down with her, or the candidate that hasn't got a clue what he's doing and is likely going to take us all down with him? Either way, it's a dumpster fire. Our only hope is to free the delegates. Please. For the sake of our children and our children's children, let them go.