Once again, a presidential campaign has left me frustrated and depressed.
Once again, the votes of those supporting the Democratic electors didn’t count, just as years ago votes for the Republican electors (if there were any) didn’t count, for in the Electoral College Alabama is a winner-take-all state, although it could choose to be otherwise.
Once again, neither Democrats nor Republicans honestly addressed three of the major issues that threaten the very survival of our way of life: the great demographic shift that will surely lead to at least one American in four being over 65 years of age only 35 years from now; the end of the oil age even sooner than that; the fiscal irresponsibility of our government, whether led by Democrats or Republicans, which is surely leading to a financial crisis far worse than that of 1929.
Both presidential candidates promised more federal entitlements without proportionate tax increases if elected, ignoring the fact that it is only the willingness of foreigners to underwrite our federal debt that allows us to fund the entitlements presently offered. And this willingness is transitory, for soon these foreigners must redeem our bonds to pay for the care of their own elders.
The end of the oil age will mean more than the loss of fuel, for petroleum is the basic stuff of the organic chemicals industry, the industry that produces plastics, lubricants, dyestuffs, organic solvents, and other substances too numerous to list that play vital roles in our daily lives. And the petroleum reserves outside of the Middle East will be exhausted first, setting the stage for awesome political and military turmoil.
Will we ever have presidential candidates truly equal to the challenges of these perilous times?
