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Saturday, January 27, 2018

Refinement of My Voting Strategy for USA Elections

This link posits my last take on the best voting strategy for me to follow:
https://samslair.blogspot.com/2017/12/one-voting-strategy-for-future-usa.html?m=1

You really have the read the above link in order for the following to make complete sense:
       In addition to the above voting strategy, if one or the other of the major parties becomes too far gone, I will vote for a third party in their place. Example: If Democrats go too far afield, I’ll vote Green. If the Republicans get too carried away with themselves, I’ll vote Libertarian.

Note: I generally think of the Republican Party as being somewhat the stereotypical Daddy Party and the Democrats as the Mommy Party. If they can’t have a meaningful discourse, the the old adage that “politics is war in slow motion” will prevail.

Note: In my voting strategy at the local level, I’ll vote for the person and not the party. Therefore, it behooves all the major and minor parties to run some good clean campaigns and address the real issues in a sensible manner. If third parties want a real voice, they need to influence what the major parties are saying by “stealing their thunder” with sane and rational thinking. Don’t be an extremist fringe party; be the bipartisan party. Give me a party to vote for that gives me a balanced budget, protects the environment and free trade, prevents the need for abortions through contraception, etcetera through proactive measures — not reactive political countermeasures.

I do realize, of course, that gerrymandering and partisan politics hold sway. But, it’s a start.

When Norway Sent Us Its Poor

“It’s deeply ironic that President Trump says the U.S. should be taking in more people from Norway instead of from “shithole countries,” said Andrew Van Dam. Norway “was once the kind of country Trump might’ve spit on.” During the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s, waves of Norwegians immigrated to the U.S. hoping to escape grinding poverty in their homeland. Today, those immigrants “are idealized” as fast-assimilating strivers. In reality, they were received with hostility by native-born Americans leery of the influx of poor, low-skilled migrants, most of whom came from rural professions like farming, fishing, and logging. One study shows most Norwegians of the period earned less than native-born Americans even after 30 years of living in the U.S., showing that assimilation is a “difficult and gradual process.” Today, of course, “Norwegian Americans are doing well. But perhaps not as well as those in Norway.” Adjusted for population, Norway is almost twice as rich as the U.S., has a superb social safety net, and is consistently rated one of the best places to live in the world. That’s why only 502 Norwegians immigrated to the U.S. in 2016....”
From: The Washington Post

Furthermore:
Some 200 years ago, Norwegians flocked to the U.S. to “escape a shithole of their own,” said Aftenposten (Norway) in an editorial. For several decades, starting in the 1820s, fully one-third of Norway’s population left to start new lives in America. These “poor, toothless fishermen and peasants” did not assimilate as fast as Swedes or Irish. But today their descendants are part of the American fabric. Now, thanks partly to oil, Norway is rich, has the world’s happiest population, and scores higher than the U.S. on measures of education, health care, and good governance. Last year, only 502 Norwegians emigrated to the U.S., and for good reason...”
THE WEEK
January 26, 2018

Note: My ancestors primarily originated in Scandinavia and the British Isles with 1/8th German. One of my female Scandinavian  ancestors, Annia Margaret Ohlsen, grew up in the hinterlands a full day’s walk from any settlement. To procure necessary items that could not be produced on the family holding, she would trek into town, spend the night and return the next day with the goods during the warmer, longer days of summer. When she became a young adult, she moved to town and became a house keeper for a family. Despite poor wages, her frugality eventually enabled her to save enough to act as a dowry for herself when Mormon missionaries came a knocking. She was then ‘betrothed’ to an American who had a wife and large family just before the Mormon trek to Utah began. She wound up pushing a handcart across the plains to the territory we now call Utah. She then eventually had children of her own to take care of other than that of the first wife’s.

My other ancestors had similar stories, though sadly most of the details have been lost (mostly because they were too busy working to make a living). Whereas I am blessed with good health and a pension as a retired public school teacher.