The Alternative

By: 
Fritz Groszkruger

Leader of the free world
     Marco Rubio told Donald Trump he has small hands. Trump replied.
     Oh man. These are people vying for “leader of the free world.” I use that term loosely because the Heritage Foundation has rated the United States at No. 11 in its economic freedom index. Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on the hill” is behind door No. 11.
     Really, isn’t it time we got off our high horse and admitted the United States as a bastion of freedom is a joke? We’ve got state representatives who praise our servicemen for defending our freedom one day while sentencing sick people to needless suffering the next, by restricting their access to medical marijuana. The National Institutes of Health admitted last August that cannabis is effective in stopping cancer cell growth and relieving symptoms of both the disease and the treatment. The politicians will try to steer the conversation toward statistics and details, such as effectiveness. But this isn’t about marijuana, it’s about freedom. In a free country individuals decide for themselves after reviewing the evidence and its impact on their particular situation.
     The reason I bring all this up is to explain my position concerning the dumbfounded looks I get when I say there is nobody worth voting for. In the example of medical marijuana we need to ask, “Who benefits?” The pharmaceutical industry would hate to have to compete with a gardener. The prison and law enforcement industries also stand to lose if people were suddenly required to be responsible for themselves instead of being ruled over by politicians who claim to be respectful, while showing through their actions they are not.
     How many of you can say you get 50 miles per gallon in a car that can pass with ease on any rolling two-lane blacktop? If you read my blog, you know I found one of those diesel Volkswagens that terrify the oil industry and Detroit clunker factories. Control of our politicians by special interests is costing us huge amounts of cash.
     I was asked who I am supporting for president. I went to Google. There I found Dale Christensen, along with 37 other Republicans. Who would have guessed it? We never had a chance to hear what he felt about the size of his rival’s hands, but I suspect he had other things on his mind anyway.
     Instead of Dale, we have useful tools of the crony capitalist society we have asked for through our desire to have government guarantees for everything instead of accepting responsibility for our own lives. This situation is not without real life consequences. At MIT, a new incandescent light bulb has been developed that is more efficient than LEDs. Do you suppose the EPA will sue MIT in order to prop up the LED industry? Will I get pulled over with a demand that I use twice as much fuel to get around because I live less than 1,800 miles from Los Angeles? What innovations have been stifled or never attempted because of top-down management of the economy? The luxurious lives we live today are not a result of government bureaucrats acting like our mothers.
     So, yeah. Who would I vote for?
     • Try breathing the air or swimming in a river in a country Bernie Sanders wants us to emulate.
     • I know Hillary Clinton has not been convicted, but vote for her for president? There are about 125 million women in the United States. If we desire a woman for president, pick one. Any one... else.
     • The evangelicals prefer Ted Cruz because he is pro-life. It must be hard to see through the smoke from the carpet bombing. Buy your own bombs, Ted.
     • Marco Rubio’s foreign policy adviser, Max Boot, says he would rather vote for Josef Stalin than Donald Trump. Maybe Marco could be Bernie’s running mate. If Franklin Roosevelt were alive he would be pleased at how things are finally coming together.
     • Then there’s the walking contradiction, Donald Trump. If he were anti-establishment, smart and funny, he could fill George Carlin’s shoes.
     Maybe Rubio knows if they would fit.
     Any comments on this column are always welcome through a letter to this paper, by email to 4selfgovernment@gmail.com or by visiting my blog which is updated as material becomes pertinent: www.alternativebyfritz.com.

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