"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."
---Michelangelo
This past presidential election amazed me in so many ways, that I find myself continually doing researching that will help me understand what happened. I have no trouble understanding why a large number of people thought we needed a change, because we had been living in an extremely liberal environment for eight years. I reconciled myself to the possibility of a conservative America in my immediate future.
I knew that the very wealthy were tired of being taxed to care for the less fortunate, and although I didn't relish the idea of going back to a Reagan or Bush environment, I knew that we need balance in our country, and if the majority decided to vote republican, I hoped it would be a moderate candidate. Most importantly, I hoped it would be a moral candidate with a desire to serve our country above all.
I can see why the very rich voted for Trump. He is, after all, a reflection in the mirror for many of them. He believes that they deserve to keep what they earn because this is not a socialistic state, and the money he is trying to save is money that he could personally lose. It is understandable that you might want a president with his own horse in the race. The Obama years were definitely focused on the needy, and it is understandable that the rich wanted a reprieve.
My questions lie with the large number of poor voters who so vehemently backed a man who was known to ignore the needs of his poor workers to achieve his own wealth. What were they thinking? And then I came upon a quote that made a bit of what happened clearer for me. "As John Steinbeck famously said, the problem with poor Americans is that 'they don’t believe they’re poor, but rather temporarily embarrassed millionaires' "
No one believes that he/she was born to be poor. It is a temporary occurrence that happened due to bad luck, and we are taught that positive thinking will help us obtain our goals. The people who voted for Donald Trump, rich or poor, related to him. Positive thinking took this regular guy and made him a billionaire (never mind his family wealth) and he would help them do the same. Obama just looked at them as poor people that needed food, shelter and healthcare, while Trump sees them as down on their luck wealthy people who need a chance that he will provide. He offered them a way out, and they grabbed the rope, frayed as it might be.
Things are becoming clearer to me now, and I believe there is a strong lesson for democrats in the victory of a man whose morality was in question even as voters cast their votes. The vast majority of people don't want to be "given the fish" when they are hungry, they want to be told that they will be given the tools and opportunity to "catch the fish" that feeds their families. Mr. Trump convinced these people that he believed in their abilities, and so he won their votes.
We all want to believe we can achieve our goals, and in the book Confidence: How to Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs and Achieve Your Goals, author Martin Meadows gives us advice on doing just that by self-efficacy. He explains that self-efficacy is the strength of your beliefs in your ability to complete a task, and his book supports his theory.
On a lighter note, in Very Buried Cheesecake (Black Cat Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 4) by Lyndsey Cole we get to help solve a murder in Catfish Cove, a cute little town in New Hampshire. Annie Fisher is a charming protagonist, and we all need a bit of New England charm every now and again.
As always, complete reviews of both books follow this blog.
Happy reading,
- Beverly
---Michelangelo
This past presidential election amazed me in so many ways, that I find myself continually doing researching that will help me understand what happened. I have no trouble understanding why a large number of people thought we needed a change, because we had been living in an extremely liberal environment for eight years. I reconciled myself to the possibility of a conservative America in my immediate future.
I knew that the very wealthy were tired of being taxed to care for the less fortunate, and although I didn't relish the idea of going back to a Reagan or Bush environment, I knew that we need balance in our country, and if the majority decided to vote republican, I hoped it would be a moderate candidate. Most importantly, I hoped it would be a moral candidate with a desire to serve our country above all.
I can see why the very rich voted for Trump. He is, after all, a reflection in the mirror for many of them. He believes that they deserve to keep what they earn because this is not a socialistic state, and the money he is trying to save is money that he could personally lose. It is understandable that you might want a president with his own horse in the race. The Obama years were definitely focused on the needy, and it is understandable that the rich wanted a reprieve.
My questions lie with the large number of poor voters who so vehemently backed a man who was known to ignore the needs of his poor workers to achieve his own wealth. What were they thinking? And then I came upon a quote that made a bit of what happened clearer for me. "As John Steinbeck famously said, the problem with poor Americans is that 'they don’t believe they’re poor, but rather temporarily embarrassed millionaires' "
No one believes that he/she was born to be poor. It is a temporary occurrence that happened due to bad luck, and we are taught that positive thinking will help us obtain our goals. The people who voted for Donald Trump, rich or poor, related to him. Positive thinking took this regular guy and made him a billionaire (never mind his family wealth) and he would help them do the same. Obama just looked at them as poor people that needed food, shelter and healthcare, while Trump sees them as down on their luck wealthy people who need a chance that he will provide. He offered them a way out, and they grabbed the rope, frayed as it might be.
Things are becoming clearer to me now, and I believe there is a strong lesson for democrats in the victory of a man whose morality was in question even as voters cast their votes. The vast majority of people don't want to be "given the fish" when they are hungry, they want to be told that they will be given the tools and opportunity to "catch the fish" that feeds their families. Mr. Trump convinced these people that he believed in their abilities, and so he won their votes.
We all want to believe we can achieve our goals, and in the book Confidence: How to Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs and Achieve Your Goals, author Martin Meadows gives us advice on doing just that by self-efficacy. He explains that self-efficacy is the strength of your beliefs in your ability to complete a task, and his book supports his theory.
On a lighter note, in Very Buried Cheesecake (Black Cat Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 4) by Lyndsey Cole we get to help solve a murder in Catfish Cove, a cute little town in New Hampshire. Annie Fisher is a charming protagonist, and we all need a bit of New England charm every now and again.
As always, complete reviews of both books follow this blog.
Happy reading,
- Beverly
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