Episode 10: Donkey/Elephant

"If I keep on talking politics/my friends will dip/they're over it/if I keep on talking politics/I'm Hamilton/without the hits."

                                                 -AJR, "3 O'Clock Things"

My favorite president

  Before I get into the main meat of this episode, I wanna talk about my favorite president, Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was the eighteenth president and served from 1869-1877. He was a Republican, his vice presidents were Schuyler Colfax and Henry Wilson, and his First Lady was his wife Julia. Before running for president, Grant commanded the Union armies to victory in the Civil War. This boosted Grant to national fame and prominence. Grant was by no means a politician, nor even particularly interested in politics. However, that didn't stop people from begging him to run in the 1868 election. At the time, the incumbent president was Andrew Johnson. Johnson was Abraham Lincoln's vice president, so he took over as president to finish what was supposed to be Lincoln's second term upon his assassination. 

   Johnson was doing a horrible job with reconstruction and was facing impeachment. He was hated by most in the government and was acquitted by only one vote. Johnson was a Democrat, and because of all this, Republicans wanted to prop up someone who was very different from Johnson to be their nominee in the 1868 election. Grant was an obvious choice. Grant was convinced to run, because he saw that the country needed him to steer reconstruction in the right direction and fix the damage Johnson had done. Grant had never been one to deny a call from his nation. He ran, got the Republican nomination, and faced Horatio Seymour in the general election. Grant handily won and was sworn in on March 4, 1869.

Why am I talking about Ulysses S. Grant?

   Besides him being my favorite president, I relate to his stance on politics. Grant was a Republican because he had to align with one of the two major parties in order to win. He chose the Republicans because they were, at the time, the ones moreso supporting reconstruction and civil rights and had been the ones to call for the abolition of slavery. Lincoln was a Republican as well, and Grant had great respect for Lincoln.

   I, too, have chosen a political party, but really for the same reason Grant did. I am a Democrat, but I'm not necessarily super happy about it. I voted for Biden, but a big part of me voting for Biden was simply how much I don't like Trump. I have a Biden sticker on my car, yes because I like him comparatively, but moreso because it was free and I collect campaign stickers. I also have stickers for Obama, Bush, Cruz, Carson, Sanders, Buttigieg, and Warren.

   I chose the Democrats because I felt some weird urge to be in one of the two major parties, instead of taking the easier route so many Americans take of being in neither. And, comparing the two parties, I agree more with the Democrat platform than the Republican. And while I find myself angry with either party quite often, I find myself angry with the Republicans far more.

#thesystemisbroken

   Why'd I make this section a hashtag? That's because of one of my favorite shows, Designated Survivor. The show follows Tom Kirkman, a man who was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and is forced into the presidency when a bombing during the State of the Union kills everyone above him in the cabinet. He lived because he wasn't there, because he was set aside to be the designated survivor. #thesystemisbroken is the title of the season three premiere. Spoilers ahead! In season 3, President Kirkman must decide if he wants to run for his own term in the election. Kirkman, an outspoken independent, must also decide between one of two choices: run as an independent and thus maintain his firm stance on neutrality but reduce his chance of winning the election, or join the Democrats or the Republicans and increase his chance of winning but lose his credibility. 

    Kirkman easily makes the decision to run as an independent. He's a very principled man, and he refuses to backslide on his morals by picking a side. Come election today, he wins; thanks to his popularity and being able to sway votes from unsure Democrats and Republicans into his side.

Unfortunately, the President Kirkman situation isn't real.

    Kirkman was able to win the election because of what I just said, and he only became president as an independent because everyone above him died. If he had initially run as an independent, he wouldn't have had a chance. SPOILERS OVER. There have been several partly-successful third-party campaigns in US history, but none have won. Most haven't even come close. The closest a third-party campaign has come to winning was when the former president Theodore Roosevelt got second place running for the Progressives in the four-way election that was 1912. 

    That's why #thesystemisbroken. I wish we weren't such a two-party system. It sucks that every election is a choice between two candidates, two that you may not even like. Democracy shouldn't mean picking the lesser of two evils, but that's how US elections work. I just wish it was different.