Some Cures For Post-Election Indigestion

We take a break from poetical reverie and social commentary to mark an important day. It is ELECTION DAY in the United States. Democratic process is being... er... processed. That is to say, those who are eligible and registered to vote can, for the most part, cast their ballots--that is, make their choices and wishes known unto all the electorate.

I say "for the most part" because this country is not completely unlike others, in that there are nefarious efforts underway to ensure that many people who are eligible and registered do not have the opportunity to make their choices known. It should be illegal for any State government to issue laws within the last four weeks leading up to an election, much less at the last minute, adding ridiculous rules about how voters must prove they are eligible and registered.

All I can say is this: VOTE EARLY! If you live in a swing state, I feel your pain. If you are a voter who is among the marginalized or threatened, I pray for you on this day. I pray for all of us. 

VOTE.

Then go have a drink. Or two. (Responsibly and not alone. Cabs are standing by).

Tomorrow, no doubt, we will be UNITED as a NATION of people who have POST-ELECTION INDIGESTION, of one sort or another.

To ease BELCHING and FLATULENCE, brew an infusion of chamomile, peppermint and balm, in equal parts. Drink a cup before eating (if you are up to it), three times a day.

To ease CONSTIPATION, decoct 2 tsp to a cup of water yellow dock, dandelion and aniseed. Drink three times a day.

If you drank too much on Tuesday night (and for the many months preceding, or even years), you might have been contributing to CIRRHOSIS of your precious LIVER! So, get out your tinctures of milk thistle, 2 parts to 1 part each vervain and dandelion root. If these are alcohol based, for HEAVEN'S SAKE put them in hot water so the alcohol will evaporate away from the herbal component! (Don't add insult and further injury!) One Half TSP of this mixture, 3 times a day.

If you are JUST PLAIN PISSED OFF, you might need to slow down with some good old fashioned barley water.

BARLEY WATER

4 to 5 oz. whole barley

4 pints boiling water plus 1 cup

rinds and reserved juice of 2 lemons and 4 to 6 oranges

natural sweetener, to taste (honey, agave nectar, natural sugar, maple syrup)

tiny splash of rum (unless you are working preserving your liver)

1. Gather your lemons and oranges. Cut them in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl. Fish out any seeds, of course. Set aside the juice. Cut up the rinds in to strips or hunks and set aside; no precision necessary.

2. Throw the barley in with 1 cup of water into a quite large pan. Bring this to a boil for about 10 mins. Remove from the heat and strain the liquid off, rinsing the barley. (This is merely to cleanse the barley.)

3. Return the barley to the pan with 4 pints of water. Add the rinds of both lemons and at least four oranges (this mostly depends on the size of your pan).

4. Turn up the heat until the liquid is simmering. Continue simmering your emotions and your barley for either one hour or at least until the barley is completely soft. Pull the pan off the burner and let heat diminish to lukewarm.

5. Strain your barley liquid into a pitcher you can cover, discarding the rinds and barley.* Add the sweetener of your choice, to taste, and the reserved juice, along with the splash of rum (not for you LIVER people...)

Drink a cup at meals.

Barley water is supposed to help lower blood pressure and regulate digestion.

Queen Elizabeth II drinks barley water at every meal. 

Of course, she doesn't have to deal with the stress of general elections, does she?

_____

* You may want to squeeze the liquid out of the barley. I keep an empty flour sack in my kitchen, that I use for drying washed greens and beans; that would be an admirable tool. After straining the liquid into your pitcher, place all the remaining material in the bottom of your flour sack, twist and squeeze! Then dump the remaining pulpy mess into your green waste disposal container, or (better yet!) compost pile.

N.B.: You know I am not a doctor, and so these are soothing recipes for the nerves. Further, I am tongue-in-cheek-facetious; I do not advocate drunkenness.

Count Yourself IN!

We live in a Representational Democracy. Your preferences are only represented if you, the registered voter, participate by exercising your right and civic duty to vote.

Hopefully, we have all done our homework and know what it means if we vote "yes" or "no" on propositions. Hopefully, we are clear that the people we are voting into office are people who will do what they have said they would do, and that they have clearly, during their campaigns, stated their platform.

I leave you with some food for thought; a few quotes from Barry Goldwater (1909-1998), who lost to Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election. A Republican senator from Arizona, Goldwater was called "Mr. Conservative" for a reason. However, he was much more Libertarian in his politics than his party was willing to accept: he believed that abortion was a valid personal choice; he decried the grip the "religious right" placed on the GOP and its platforms and policies; he was for legalization of medical marijuana; and he was against banning gays from the military. A few years before he died, he told right wing leadership not to associate his name with anything they were doing because "You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican Party more than the Democrats have."

Political wisdom from Barry Goldwater:

"How did it happen? How did our national government grow from a servant with sharply limited powers into a master with virtually unlimited power? In part, we were swindled. There are occasions when we have elevated men and political parties to power that promised to restore limited government and then proceeded, after their election, to expand the activities of government. But let us be honest with ourselves. Broken promises are not the major causes of our trouble. Kept promises are. All too often we have put men in office who have suggested spending a little more on this, a little more on that, who have proposed a new welfare program, who have thought of another variety of 'security.' We have taken the bait, preferring to put off to another day the recapture of freedom and the restoration of our constitutional system. We have gone the way of many a democratic society that has lost its freedom by persuading itself that if 'the people' rule, all is well."

“Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.”

“Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.”

“Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes—and  who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible?”

The point I make by highlighting the statements of a conservative politician whom I would not have voted for, had I been of voting age during the Presidential election in 1964, is that policy is bigger than the spin our parties generate about it.

Policy is most frequently about money, who gets to have, keep or spend it and who does not; no party is averse to money or clean from the taint of it.

This election has been driven by big money and corporate interests. Candidates have tried to buy their offices. Communities, mine and perhaps yours, too, have been tortured with spurious campaign mailers, robo-calls, fake surveys and push polls.

Big money is behind that. Don't wonder why. It is about parting you "soon, and often", from your hard earned wage.

This is unthinkable. But I want you to think on it, as you head to the polls to cast your vote today.

Goldwater also said, "To disagree, one doesn't need to be disagreeable."

He was right. We need to wonder at all that has been disagreeable during this campaign, and be concerned about our choices, as they have bearing not just on our rights and liberties, but also those of others.