All Sides of America’s Politics

Introduction

In 2009, I wrote a book—The Dark-Side of American Politics, (nick name ‘dog talks’). Don’t think that my book might be the curse as today America’s politic is still dark and even darker with the longest government shutdown in history. To be more positive in this writing, All Sides of America’s Politics hopefully can turn the light on and reunite all political sides.

In fact, I am not a politician and never want to be. I understand politics at some level through my life and through many American men I have spent time with. These men, too, are not politicians but they complain loud to my face although I am not the President, with passion, emotion and aggression whenever our conversations implicate America politics. They make me doubt—why don’t they try to run for once for the next President?

My life begins after graduated from high school in Thailand. Freedom makes a wonderful life. It’s the first chance of my life to move from suburb and continue my study in a university in capital city. The day I can live far away from parents is the day my life begins. It begins with the excitement as the Bangkok’s lights are never turned off, unlike my hometown in suburb seems too quiet for young people. Life-experience is the out-school education—an important knowledge parents never understand although kids have explained very clear.

I’m so lucky to be able to get in a good university but some closed friends from same high school who don’t like school much study in different universities. However, we still hang out together once in a while. Every time we meet, I know the rule: talking about school is prohibited in our group, so-called the ‘anti-book’ because the reason they continue to study in the Capital, not for good education, is to stay away from parents—to have 'life'.

One night, one of my friends who is a gay man, asks me to go with him for the first time to a male go-go bar. Believe that it isn’t my idea because I’m not that bad. Only I can’t blame him for being a bad leader when I never protest a word. Without his idea, I would never know the place like this in my life. It’s a wonderful place, a heaven-like: cool drinks with smell of alcohol; the first time I know what being drunk is like. What we see on the small stage in front of our seats which is very close like 4-5 steps away, is a stunned discovery, are naked male dancers. They make me stare, I’m sure I am not drunk yet. Oh, you never believe why this place has to turn on air condition too cold that my body is shaking all night, like when you have flu, only you don’t need medicine. I look around and what makes me little guilty when I realize that we are the youngest customers of the night and that gives me a pause of thinking to my parents. We just grow up so fast—not good in this case.

In the very next morning, I go to my university and I want to share my story of the night. Perhaps some of my friends (nerd students from good university) may want to join us next time. However, my idea is stopped short. I never tell any of my classmates, not because am I embarrassed to talk dirty. I think by myself that nerd students would never like this sexual subject matter. Because I have two groups of friends, I feel like living in double life: to have good education is important for a good future but sometimes I also need to enjoy life. I and my gay friend go back to the go-go bar again, many times. The more we go, the more we know other places like this. Until addicted. The addiction isn’t the problem because we warm-welcome this kind of addiction. But because we are still in school (mean no job), the luxurious bill we add into our educational spending cause financial problem which we both are facing in different ways. My financial problem comes with my mother who is born-to-be very good in accounting. She gives money to her kids to spend very-very limit. She carefully calculates how much money each kid has to spend each day. If some day I lose my money just 10 baht, that month I’m broke. So, the situation forces me to learn to think a lot before spending and learn to compare what is more important than what before spending but the sex-addiction always comes as number one on the spending list. For my gay friend, on the other hand, his mother gives him plenty of cash each week but at the end of the week when he goes home, his mother will check his wallet to look for how much money is left. Then his financial trouble comes with the questions what / where / how the money is spent. So, we can’t borrow each other the time we’re broke, moreover we can’t spend much at the bar—limit to one drink and sip through the night. To have more money to fulfill my addiction, one way I can think about doing is to cut my spending, squeeze all my budged, eat less and learn to recycle things then eagerly search for a part-time job. This is how I learn to manage my income from a tough training mother. Through my years of study what I have earned is beyond school education. For the late-night classes, I know, I have spent a lot of money at the young age with the thing I don’t suppose to spend. But if one asks me—do I feel lost the money I have spent on those nights? The answer is always ‘no’. Why? It’s because today I ask myself ‘if I never spend money on those nights at the go-go bar, am I richer today? People don’t want to spend money for only necessary things, do they? That’s why people have to work hard every day for their happy lives. It might be at the moment I am spending I feel losing money but when time goes by it’s easy to forget about. Think like this, the money I spent at go-go bar doesn’t make me richer today but the great experiences of that time stays in my memory to the last day of my life. Who knows, the opportunity you miss might be the best of your memory ever. I want to have a chance to know before I die, what the real happiness is like. I am not suggesting others to do like I do but I never regret to what I had done. Some days I get old, I will sit down alone in my garden with a glass of red wine, and think of my journey with this guy / that guy / many guys, both romance and brawls we create together. This is life. Life has journey and my journey is long and full of happiness. Without happiness, there is no life.

Now I live in America, I have spent time with many American men. A man tells me one day, after we’ve done a good time together—“Work and pay tax. Work and pay tax. And what my life’s gonna be.” It doesn’t take long for me to understand his feeling. Like my mother gives me very limit money to spend, sometimes It makes me feel slighted when I think that our family isn’t considered poor compared to others of my friends but why I deserve to have things less than others. What government has left for people after-tax to spend is just enough to pay bills while the country isn’t considered a poor country, so what life’s gonna be?

Neither am I Republican nor Democrat. I like the Republican policy to cut taxes. Since I have lived in America, I have not heard one person says that tax rates are fair. However, I see healthcare benefit for everyone from Democrat is important. Everyone gets sick, regardless to income levels. To use tax paid money pays for health benefit is fair for everyone. Hopefully, the ‘Payless tax and get more healthcare benefits’ should be on the presidential campaigns for 2020 which Republican and Democrat have to work together. You may doubt: as people payless tax, how can government afford to pay the big-spending healthcare bill? The answer is in my story. I have limit money each month, but still able to manage to pay for my expensive nightlife. Republicans say, they want to cut spending but the reality is, there is no any President cut spending. What all Presidents do is that they cut their opponents’ spending bills to add to their supporters. Both sides have to fight over the limit money because each President doesn’t treat all people with fairness. Think like the country is a big family and President is the father, all people are his kids. Good father should be respected and love all his kids equally. The problem occurs because America doesn’t have the President of United States. America has the Republicans’ President, Democrats’ President, Black’s President, Women’s President, at a time and in the future what queue the line would be the first Muslim’s President, the first Spanish’s President, the first Asian’s President, LGBTQ’s President, etc. The fight is never over.

To achieve the ‘payless tax and get more healthcare benefits’, government needs real spending cut. First to cut is the national defense bill. Cost of war is too high but America can’t just walk away and leave the world issue unsolved. Now, it’s time to have a new way to solve the world issue. This also includes the world poverty crisis. So, my new way will consolidate two bills together: my way will help America stop pay foreign aids and payless cost of war. If the world has peace and poor countries are not poor anymore, America will save big bucks which mean Americans will be richer. But a big question is how? I will talk in details in the next article.

Next will be the migration crisis. Now it is not only America issue but worldwide issue. Even in poor countries too, there are other groups of people migrate to. Think like this ‘rain isn’t bad but flood is a disaster’. However, I disagree to the Republican plan to build the wall. The border wall doesn’t solve any problem but costly. To build the wall is like you build a room just big enough to fit yourself. When these poor migrants can’t survive in their countries, America has to pay more on foreign aid to rescue these people anyway. When their countries have natural disaster such as earthquake, America has to bring them into the country anyway. Moreover, drug crisis is Americans’ problem—can’t blame others. Americans like taking drugs—people all over the world know this very well. No buyer-no seller. Watch on TV, the real stories, such as on the ‘Lockup Aboard’, Americans are in jails in South America countries in trying to smuggle drugs into the US. They are US citizens. These people don’t walk across border but they come right way through the airports’ security check-points. Wall doesn’t solve anything. I will talk in details after the national defense. What the problem all politicians make in the past is that they think of each issue separately. But I connect all issues as a chain: when one issue is solved will lead to the next one easier to solve.

Next will give more tax cut to people. What the mistake Republican makes in the past is that Republican takes it as priority. Think—you have many bills to pay on the table but how can you pay all the bills with no money? The two issues above need to be solved first, then it would be no question for cut tax.

Next will go to economy and unfair trade deals with no trade war. Trade war doesn’t give any country a clear winner as both sides are hurt at certain levels. Next, I disagree with the new USMCA trade agreement at some points. For example, all three countries have to pay factory workers equal wages. A worker gets paid $16 per hour, in the US it’s just enough to pay bills but $16 per hour in poor country is a WOW-WOW salary! And who pays for these workers in poor country? U.S. business owners? Not only doesn’t Mexico pay for the wall, Mexican workers get paid for luxurious incomes. That’s why the new deal done easily because they don’t lose anything. You can’t pay same wage in every country because costs of living are different. I will talk on how to solve this trade issue in details later.

Every President likes to claim that they build good economy by using the unemployment rate drops and stock market increase to tell good economy. But you think, is economy good now? When President Obama is in office, stock market is up and unemployment rate goes down. When candidate Trump runs campaign, he attacks President Obama by telling his supporters that if economy is good during Obama, thousands of people would not come to his campaign. Now is the karma; President Trump uses exact same reason as President Obama to explain good economy. While President Obama is in the office, you never hear negative news about economy on liberal channel. After he lefts the office, a reporter interviews people on street like how President Obama does for economy? Then I hear someone says—‘it’s just okay. Income doesn’t increase’. Why this doesn’t show to President Obama while he is working. What make things better to say after? Politicians like to spend their campaign money to promote themselves in doing good job: pay to have good news and pay to buy out bad news—this might be what President Trump says ‘crooked media’. Have you ever asked President Trump—is economy good as he claims, why you still have to hear on TV such as factories move to other countries, massive lay off, companies found bankruptcy, companies went out of business. These are the things I hear on TV news all the time while President Trump claims the best economy ever. Some areas of the country, economy might look real good—hurricane after hurricane, you don’t have enough construction workers to build entire cities, but this should be economic loss, not economic gain. Economic issue affects to winning the election very much but hard to be solved and unpredictable. What Presidents like to do to solve economy is an easy way by borrow money to feed economy to make it looks good. I believe, Presidents would think in their minds that if they can be the President for life, some days America would be bankrupted. Only no any President would care about because it does not happen in their presidency anyway. Like when you think that some day the world would come to an end but who care because it’s not gonna happen in your life anyway.

I don’t have knowledge in economy but to understand economy I compare the country’s economy to my economy. When I feel I am rich, I should have money to pay bills and debts. My debts should go down or paid off—do you agree with me? Have you ever asked the President—if economy is good, why national debt is still going up? Where is the money? Think like this—today you say you don’t have money to pay bills. The next day you laugh because now you have money. I ask you, how you get the money. You say, you get cash advance from credit cards. Does this mean you are rich? No, because debt isn’t gone but it moves from one place to another place, yet you still have to pay more interests, right? Is the money that makes Americans feel good economy comes from the nation credit’s cash advance?

After all of the problems above are solved, now government should be able to pay for the big healthcare bill. Like Republican solves tax-cut as priority, Democrat too makes mistake in taking healthcare as priority because the question which is never able to answer is that how government comes up with the money to pay for healthcare for all? Why now is the time for healthcare for all? In the near future as the technological development move fast, it allows young generations to be interested in working at home or open small business such as selling things online, getting paid to write comments and post videos on social networks, drive Lyft/Uber car, etc.—these younger people will not have / can’t afford to pay for their health insurances. Moreover, even a billionaire who owns big businesses with thousands of workers, if businesses don’t have to pay for workers’ health insurances, it should be the additional tax-cut and lower costs of doing business in America which help the US companies more competitive. Even if you work in a good job and get good healthcare, thousands of dollars deductible especially when having serious illness like cancer can cause financial broke. Healthcare for all is to end the worrisome on the hospital bills.

In the end, the country should change a new political system. Laws in America change too frequently in every President. Think—you open a business because the President’s good policy supports your business. Then not even yet to own the title of a millionaire, the next President changes all the laws to hurt your business. The reason the new President changes laws usually is not because the previous laws are not good but both political parties just hate each other so they don’t want their opponent has legacy. The new political system I will suggest will give a good President be able to live in the office longer than two terms or entire life, while people are still able to call this ‘democracy’. My idea is different from communist countries. Moreover, other former Presidents can run again.

If my readers are still not tired to read politics, I will add more issues like school such as how to pay less school tax while all students are smarter, technology and environment, women issue, gun control, sanctuary city, police brutality, transgender bathroom, etc.

As 2020 is a long way to go, I prefer to write slowly. Each article for each month. The first start will be the national defense bill. See you again next month.