It seems a presidential election year, which now starts about two years before the actual election, brings out the worst in everyone. I am no exception. Listening to these talking heads babble about how wrong the current government is, even though they are part of it, and how they’ll wave their magic wand and make everything right if only you will back them with your vote makes me want to hide in a cave with my eyes closed and fingers in my ears. I’m sick of the same old politics. Nothing changes, just merely the subject matter on which they use to skewer each other and the players in the forefront.
At the moment, the Democrats are busy blaming the Republicans for the war and the deaths of thousands of Americans. Never mind the fact they voted to go to war, with the exception of Obama who loves to remind us of this.
Republicans blame the Democrats for being with terrorism because they do not blindly follow the administration. Never mind the fact that the administration ignores salient input and advice from military leaders as how to best go forth in combating terrorism.
Both parties are so focused on terrorism overseas, they completely ignore the terrorism on our own streets by gangs, killers, rapists and thieves.
Democrats are still blaming Republicans for the Katrina disaster, and the terrible response the government had in getting aid to the regions struck the hardest. But never mind the fact that they held control of Congress, and were just as guilty for dragging their feet and delaying desperately needed help.
Republicans blame Democrats for blocking measures to close our borders, stating they are too concerned about the illegal immigrants already in this country and not about the Americans they represent. Never mind that both parties are dragging their feet because they know those same illegal immigrants provide a ton of cheap labor all over the country, both in pay and benefit costs. And if companies that use those laborers had to pay a decent wage, prices would skyrocket immediately and our little slow down in the economy would really quickly head toward a depression. Also never mind that if they did close the borders and kick out illegal immigrants, many of those same lawmakers, from both sides, would suddenly find themselves without their nannies, gardeners and housekeepers.
Democrats blame Republicans for the witch hunt of Hillary Clinton, occasionally trotting out dangerous accusations of sexism. Never mind the thought that perhaps her troubles stem not from the fact that she is a woman, but perhaps people just do not like her, do not like her husband, or even, perish the thought, see her for what she really is, nothing more than a power hungry individual bent on personal gain and glory under the disguise of public service. You know a politician.
They both blame each other for the mess that is our economy. Never mind the fact that both allowed the corporate sector to send jobs overseas to make more money, weakening the dollar. Nor mind the fact that both have approved record amounts of deficit spending over the past eight years, further weakening the dollar and economy. Nor mind the fact that neither does anything of any substance to bring down gas prices (like mandated miles per gallon standards, a push for fuel cells or looking for alternatives to our petroleum fix) thus causing prices to skyrocket, giving the average Joe less money in his pocket for leisure, which hurts everyone.
Back and forth they go, like a perverse tennis match, but with much more vitriol and stupidity. They blame each other for our skyrocketing national debt, the deflated dollar, high unemployment, low voter turnout, the current quagmire in the war effort, low public support for such actions, and probably teen acne too.
The carousel of nonsense never seems to stop. The players just occasionally change horses, depending on their mood, need or whichever one will look like the shiny white horse to voters and lobbyists with big checkbooks.
Well, horse is the right word, since its all horse manure.
Come on everybody, wake up and smell the $4 Starbucks. They want you to believe they are different, but they are not. They’re merely two sides to the same coin. They’re both to blame for the mess we are as a country. All of them. Both parties.
They spend time being too interested in lining their pockets, and those of their cronies, with kickbacks and sweetheart deals. You honestly think Republicans are the only ones with their fingers in the oil drum? Or that only Republicans make money off of deals like Halliburton? Or that only Democrats profit from connections with the entertainment industry? If you do, I have an interesting bridge I would like to sell you; it’s located in the city of Brooklyn New York.
We have no power in the dollar because we no longer make anything the world wants other than cheap entertainment. We buy most everything from somewhere else. And how did that happen? It happened because big business found it cheaper to make everything elsewhere in the world. No restrictions, cheap labor without having to pay for benefits or retirement or time off, cheaper materials, the list is endless, as are the people happy to send the work away. So they made sure their buddies on the Hill made it easier to take jobs overseas. Those same cats then began taxing the hell out of everything made here, thus making it financially sensible to take jobs away. Sounds like a bi-partisan switch to me.
Remember, to pass anything in the House or Senate, it always takes a majority vote to push through any legislation. Guess what? A majority means BOTH parties must contribute. Since right now we have a Republican administration with a Democrat led Congress, this means that both parties are contributing equally to the current situations and problems our country faces.
So never doubt, all of them are to blame for the mess we are in, because their too busy making sure they have more than enough, as do their backslapping buddies, while bickering through partisan politics like schoolchildren arguing over a cupcake. And do you think they give a crap about Joe and Jane American while sitting down to dinner? I want to believe there are a few left who actually do give a damn, but the evidence to support that thought is scant. I rarely see anything politicians do that really shows they have true concern and the best interests of their constituents at heart or at the forefront of their agendas. Even when they do pass something intended to help or make life better, there is always another reason behind it, usually one that benefits those of their ilk.
Ever wonder why they always vote for their pay raises late at night? Ever wonder why they keep voting down a raise in minimum wage?
The amazing thing is this behavior is not hard to see; do not need a smoking gun or paper trail to see how things work. They do it right in front of us; they’re blatantly obvious about how they work they system for their benefit, not ours. As an example, take the current situation with the primary voting in Michigan and Florida. Because Michigan and Florida held their primaries before Super Tuesday, the Democratic super delegates deemed their votes meaningless and stated they would be denied seats at the Democratic convention. Clinton’s campaign manager Maggie Williams was one of super delegates to nullify Michigan and Florida’s primary votes, agreeing with the party line that those states did not follow the rules and this was their punishment. Not that the Clinton campaign followed the rules, they still campaigned in those states and left Clinton’s name on the ballots unlike her competitors. However, her toned changed once her candidate started losing, then suddenly she welcomed them with open arms. She even went so far as to say in an open letter to the Obama campaign,
“…nearly 2.5 million Americans made their voices heard and participated in primary elections. We think the results of those primaries were fair and should be honored.” Do you really think she cares about making sure the voice of the people is heard? Of course not; she’s concerned about her candidate whom if elected will most likely grant her a sweet position on her staff or in her cabinet. See what I mean? Their true concern lies merely with what benefits them, not the average American.
And all of them should be ashamed. When the presidential election machine began to hum in 2007, I looked at the candidates and thought this is the best we have to offer? We proclaim to be the greatest nation on Earth and this is whom we have to chose from to lead us? We cannot do any better than this? They should be ashamed for creating a political atmosphere that drives out the best, brightest and most qualified to lead, because any upstanding, rational person would refuse to run the gauntlet of character assassination, public mudslinging and backroom shenanigans required to win an election. If someone felt the need to serve the public, and possibly have an idea or two that could fix our rudder, mend our sails and steer us clear of the rocks, they never would. It would not be worth it because these jokers somewhere down the line turned the political process from a let the best person win competition to let the slimiest, dirtiest and most cunning rise to the top with the least mud on them.
But you know who should be the most ashamed? Do you know who is to blame the most for this political climate and behavior? The rest of us, that is who truly is to blame and who should be the most ashamed. We should be ashamed for letting this happen. We should be ashamed for not demanding accountability. We should be ashamed for not raising our voices when our elected leaders, put there to do a job by us, do something against our wishes. We should be ashamed for not calling them on the carpet for bad job performance, or passing laws or allowing things to happen that benefit a select few instead of the majority. We put them in office, they work for us and we have been a terribly absent boss.
We should be ashamed for not caring, taking an interest, getting involved, making a difference and demanding real change, and not pretty platitudes. We should be ashamed for re-electing the worst offenders and poor performers. If you ran a company and had an employee that skimmed money, screwed off, blamed others for their failures and destroyed productivity and public perception, would you fire that employee or give them a raise? Yeah, you’d fire them in a heart beat. So why do we allow politicians, essentially our employees, to continue doing their jobs when they keep exhibiting poor performance?
We should be ashamed, because we’d rather read the latest fantasy sports draft projections instead of the news. We’d rather watched staged reality dating shows instead of C-Span. Does anyone even know of C-Span? It provides coverage of everything happening in Congress, unedited and unbiased. We’d rather go pay attention to the latest celebrity scandal than to the economic and political situations in our own country and across the globe.
We should be ashamed for demanding instead of providing. No one wants to do any hard work anymore. People would rather complain loaf and get paid. While that sounds ideal, nothing gets done that way. That’s not true, something gets done. Companies say screw you and go find cheaper labor elsewhere, like say Mexico or China.
We’ve spent too much time rolling around in our own corpulence instead of taking a stand for our lives and our world. We focus on the trivial instead of the substantial. We distract ourselves with mindless entertainment while a handful of others oftentimes no smarter than your average bear and less qualified make decisions that will ultimately affect our lives, either immediately or in the future. We satiate ourselves with fast food, fast entertainment and shallow lives, never pausing to wonder why things are bad, nor who really is doing something to change it. We just turn a blind eye and think, oh, I’m sure someone will fix it. No, they won’t, because that someone is us. And we’re too busy, what with new episodes of our favorite programs coming back on the air.
We’ve become so apathetic thanks to crap food, sedentary ways and television drivel, we’d rather scarf down food advertised as healthy but worse for you than pure grease while furiously voting for an overblown karaoke contest or a dancing competition instead of feeding our brains and soul and furiously voting for whom leads our nation and the direction and course of our lives, livelihood and future.
Kennedy once said that we should not ask what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country. That is tight prose loaded with meaning and a call to arms. We are all in this together, and we should work hard and diligently to make this the best place possible. But it seems it has lost its meaning. No one wants to do anything to make their world better. We’re too interested in asking the question, what have you done for me lately?
This breed of politician and government has been created thanks to ideal conditions, much like how the flu takes hold in a body. Yes, what has happened since they latch onto office is their fault, and their actions only seem to be exasperating the problem. But the politicians from both parties are the symptoms of the problem. They are merely capitalizing the system they helped forge. But we allowed them to forge that system. The true cause and problem is our own laziness and apathy. It’s our own fault. And we can either complain, bitch and moan while sitting in the drive thru in our behemoth SUV’s or we can roll up our sleeves like this country used to do, and set to work moving some mountains and getting all of our lives back on the right track. We can get involved, get rid of the bad apples, draw in people who care and want to make real changes, with real ideas and make a positive impact on this country and our world. For those who prefer the first choice, please keep your pieholes shut and stay out of the way. For the rest of us we plenty of shovels to go around and lots to do so lets get to work.
center;
