The worst form of government

Near bottom of paragraph 3 I misspelled specter. Did you get new head shot?
   DB

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The worst form of government
From: David Brankley <kleybran@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2016, 6:12 PM
To: editor <editor@telluridedailyplanet.com>
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      Everything about Donald Trump's candidacy has been surprising. Maybe it's just me. I am shocked that so many in my party ,or drawn to my party at least temporarily by this singular candidate from who knows what political netherworld, would find Trump an acceptable choice for president. Why aren't they seeing what I see? It's a good question. I find myself asking it at least once a day, but then I do think about politics way too much. I have this funny idea that understanding politics, especially the how and why of people coming to their political views tells us something significant about humanity, maybe even more than what shows we watch. Some say the two are related.
      If you're not a Republican you're probably thinking, "Of course he's popular. He speaks to people's fears and appeals to all their bassist instincts. That's exactly what your party has been about since Goldwater and Nixon." I don't think that's a fair assessment, but given Trumps success among a large portion of traditional GOP supporters there's undoubtedly some truth in it.
       In this election cycle you are either very cynical or you're not paying attention. My cynicism has been fed recently by coming across the very scholarly " Democracy for Realists" a book by social scientists Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels. They show that study after study highlights the conclusion that very little of our political thinking results from actual thought. Our opinions grow out of our affiliations rather than lead us to them. Our political opinions are largely an accident of circumstance. We use our rational minds mostly to justify these views, not so much for rearranging them, less still for originating them or changing our minds. Even worse than this finding is that the votes that really count in most national elections come from those who haven't even thought things through enough to have a cogent political opinion one way or the other. This group is unburdened by ideological considerations but surprisingly open to considerations as arbitrary and beside the point as ,for instance, the weather, or the color tie last seen on the candidate under consideration. God help us! These are the people who's spector keeps me up at night. Not only do they vote, often elections turn on their irrational impulses and proclivities .
        When it comes right down to it the state of the weather is just as good a reason for voting for or against a candidate or party as the state of the economy. Consider that there are a multitude of factors to hamper,crash, or promote an economy. There are so many, and the process is so complex ,that otherwise reasonable economists can't come to any sort of consensus. Not even Nobel prize winning economists. Like most of the rest of us they come down on ideological lines on economic questions. Little wonder that the rest of us, who haven't devoted a lifetime to studying economics, reach for any trope that's comes handy to base or justify an opinion. Nothing beats a simplistic answer, especially when it reinforces what we already believe and is accepted by those around us. Unfortunately, simplistic answers never work in economics. Maybe that's why it's called the dismal science.
         Did the Clinton tax hike of 1993 stimulate the economic growth that followed, and help lower the deficit? Well actually the economic boom of that period was largely due to the digital revolution that was making economies all around the world more productive and efficient. The reduction in the deficit ( but not the debt) was due to the stimulation of that tech boom combined with budget slashing measures taken by a largely Republican reformist minded Congress. Of course, that tax hike didn't hurt the economy as many of us feared, and it did help considerably to lower the deficit. How you view those events depends almost entirely on what side of the political fence you sit on.
       We like giving credit to our side whenever we can, and accuse the other side of only hurting the causes we care most about. Both sides, right and left, take this to extremes. So you have two opposing sides, alike in blind loyalty to the faith, determined to not give an inch. In the middle you have those who have somehow arrived at their views without the encumbrance of thought. From such strange preferences and enmitys you get modern politics, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz. As Churchill said " Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried from time to time."

Rounding for home

   There comes a time in every journey when you realize it's nearly over. Despite all appearances this isn't it. Today on the rolling steppe of the Eastern Navajo reservation in New Mexico I came over a rise and was surprised by the sudden aberration of the San Juans hovering over the Northern horizon like a brilliant cloud. Because of the lack of landmarks out here either foreground or middle- ground ,snow covered peaks ,even while still one hundred miles away or more, make a distinct impression. The impression is underlined by the realization that my home is up there. Up there is the end of this winter's cycling tour of the Western States.
     If you were to trace this ride on a map it could be confusing. Rather than straight lines and definite objectives there would be curves, loops, ellipticals and diversions. The only discernable theme would be a route that ties together most of the best desert riding the American west has to offer joined to much of the best coastal riding along the Pacific.
     Tomorrow morning I'll be in be in Farmington, noon at the latest. Once there a several day famine from WiFi will be over. I will pour over Facebook and maybe post some photos, check my email, and post this column. The desert doesn't offer a lot in the way of WiFi coverage , or even cell phone coverage. What it offers is a whole lot worth posting about. There are spectacular sunsets, and starry nights, coyote choruses, firey meteors, and overwhelming silence, nature's extravagance amid severe austerity. There are pronghorns, and javalina, ravens, and horned larks , lizards, tortoise, and roadrunners. Roadrunners are throwbacks to the age of dinosaurs. They rarely fly. They use their long legs for chasing lizards across the sand. Their motions are dinosaur-like and so is their general appearance. Unless you're a lizard that appearance is not really intimidating so most people don't make a big deal out of watching roadrunners . Replace those feathers with scales or flesh and the sight of them transports you back a hundred million years in time, an era so fitting to this scenery. Desert travel is time travel. This planet spent a tremendous amount of time doing nicely without us. It's revelatory to keep in touch with that reality. We're not that big a deal and we only just arrived. Here is where we do that.
     I've managed to gain a few extra pounds lately, not in fat or muscle, in dust. The winds have been raging in Northern New Mexico this spring, as they do every spring. What's to stop them? That's how so much New Mexico soil, and Northern Arizona dust end up on our snow most springs. Maybe their loss is our gain but I'm not so sure. I like my snow white. I like me white too, or at least tanned. Instead I've become the color of the desert that surrounds me. So are my clothes. So is my gear. We are all color coordinated at last. All the bottle showers in the world won't remove it. I can feel fresh for an hour maybe, but the dust returns. I'm sort of a magnet for dust I suppose. A real bath would be nice, or a long hot shower. Some of the state parks in Utah have showers. That's all the more reason for heading back to Utah.
   In all these years on a bike saddle I've never been blown over by wind. This spring, about three days ago, in Northern New Mexico I was able to cross that one off my list. I was on Old 66 closing in on Grants. Most of the day I'd enjoyed soul satisfying tailwind but I was making one of those curves I was talking about and now I had it against me. Against me is exactly the way to say it. This wind had it in for me. Suddenly a whirlwind grew around me. I took a glancing left then a powerful right hook that layed me out on the road before I knew what was happening. That may have been a blessing. If I tried to prevent injury I would probably caused it instead.  I was alright, just shaken and sore for a few days.
   I'm only rounding for home at this point. I'm not really headed there. It's too early in the season still. Spring arrives at different times in different places. At 9000 feet it can't be expected to arrive until some time in early May. That's when you can expect me to make the climb up the San Juans and intoTelluride. In the meantime there's more riding ahead, more curvy confusing paths to follow, ellipticals, loop-t-loops, and parabolas. More wind, more dust are in store, maybe another delightful fall, but so are moments of unusual beauty and transcendent peace. It all comes in one package.

Free to choose

   In the 18th century when British explorer Capt. James Cook discovered a spectacular chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific and named them after expedition sponsor the Earl of Sandwich, he had every reason to believe that he had just stumbled upon paradise on Earth. Sandwiche's name would live on for his culinary innovation but those islands are now called Hawaii. It was a place utterly unlike the kingdom Cook had sailed from. Although it was then the richest ,most advanced and powerful empire in the world ,it's capitol contained enormous unhealthy slums, it's countryside had numerous poor and landless. In that age of enormous economic upheaval many of its people were worse off than their serf ancestors.
    Hawaiians, on the other hand wanted for nothing. Nature provided a rich diet in fruit and seafood. Where nature left off Hawaiians supplemented its offerings with the tarro and pigs they had brought with them centuries earlier from Polynesia. Their surroundings were beautiful. The climate was ideal. 
    After initial contact Cook and the scientists on board began to reassess their first impressions .All was not well in paradise. Hawaiians were pitted in conflict with each other. The wars between and within royal households were bloody and protracted, almost genocidal. Their rulers were absolute, and rarely benign. The penalty for allowing your shadow to fall on anyone of royal blood was death. The Hawaiian word taboo applied to a vast code of conduct. The penalties for even accidental slips in decorum could entail execution or banishment. Many, even most of the strictures of taboo appear arbitrary and ridiculous to us.. In Hawaii before Cook's  discovery ,the code of taboo meant everything, and no man or woman dared disobey.
   I've often wondered how and why Hawaiians got it so wrong. They had such a good thing going for them. There was passion fruit and mahi mahi, rich volcanic soil, lush vegetation, and beautiful wahinees, hula and pig roasts on the beach. Why not concentrate on just enjoying what life had to offer? Why mess things up with spiteful warfare and so many meaningless ,wasteful, and harmful rules? With all those natural advantages why discard the opportunity to be the happiest ,freest people on Earth?  I'm not sure I want an answer to those questions. I'm afraid it may be that freedom is not entirely compatible with human nature .Freedom is a burden few of us wish to bare. Hawaii is not an outlier or an anomaly, it's just an extreme example of the problem with human nature.
     In a library a few days ago I'd picked up an article to read about a nine year old super athlete.  Milla Bizzotto had taken up exercise to increase strength when bullies at school were making life difficult. She loved working out .Recently she won top place in her age group in a national test of strength in the form of a grueling obstacle course based on Navy Seals training.  She had this to say," I don't want to play video games. I don't want to Hoverboard. I don't want to do things to make life easier. I want to be comfortable being uncomfortable." . She's my hero. At nine she's already wiser than 99 point something of all the adults I've ever met. Putting the article down I almost shouted her words to the boys playing animated games on the library computers nearby. I managed to restrain the impulse. All the boys looked to me to prefer playing computer games to anything requiring actual physical effort. All were overweight. One was obese. 
   Freedom begins with the liberty to act for ourselves, but once that is possible the extent of our actual freedom depends on what we do with that liberty. Mostly it's squandered. Making bad choices and acting on them, or failing to act deepens our loss of a sense of accountability .Choosing not to grow is choosing to loose ground to our own worst instincts .When we face the results of our own poor decisions, human nature has us looking for external causes to our problems rather than facing our own deficiencies head on. There will always be others to channel our  disfatifications to feed their insatiable need for power. Take a look at the candidates in this election season.
     On a positive note I try to remember that the loss of freedom is not inevitable. When all around you are heading down the wrong path you are free to step aside and set your our own agenda. There's nothing stopping you . Choose freedom, accept accountability over comfort even when it runs counter to popular opinion, respectability, or convenience. It matters.