Why the modern American political system needs help – Thoughts.
Let’s talk about politics.
I do not care what side of the ‘aisle’ you are on – or if you are a centrist. The political landscape of the USA is at best a mess, at worst dangerously broken.
Our politicians continue to make it clear that they don’t care all that much about the people they have been elected by – they care about the money, and continuing to get re-elected. A US Congressperson when first elected probably does real work for, oh, 9 or 10 months, before they are looking towards re-election. The President, the only one with term limits, about 18 months – and even then, it might be 9-10 months before they have to start supporting those from their own party running for election or re-election to Congress. And Senators also get maybe 18 months before they are dealing with re-election issues for their party.
No bill is ever straight-forward. There are always provisions, mark-ups, and ‘pork’ that gets tacked onto a given piece of legislature. Special interests have a lot of money – and thus a lot of say when it comes to the making of laws. Big business and wealthy parties have a lot of influence, and thus they manage to have their way – and continue to make money no matter the cost to human life, the environment, or whatever. Look at Exxon/Mobile – they make BILLIONS in PROFIT annually. Profit – as in above the break even. And look at their influence on our government and its energy policies.
The number of problems with the current political climate are numerous, and frankly a little daunting. These are examples of some of them:
– The Two-Party System. C’mon, really – why do these two parties hold ALL of the power? They can barely agree amongst themselves – and yet they band together with ‘party lines’ that create more and more division as the years go by. And while the two-parties might sometimes lose a seat in the house, the senate, or a governorship – they maintain a complete death-grip lock on the Presidency.
– The Republicans. Once upon a time this party stood for smaller government, fiscal responsibility, and less bureaucracy. Somewhere along the way they picked up these religious zealots, big business, and a conservative line that wants the nostalgic days of the 1950’s in Mayberry that never ACTUALLY existed.
– The Democrats. Once upon a time this party was all about social equality, fairness, and a government FOR the people. Somewhere along the way they decided to ignore where the money comes from, and have split between liberals intent on social welfare for all and centrists who are utterly wishy-washy.
The two parties regularly attack one another, though the Republicans are FAR better at lock-stepping together and disrupting the process than they Democrats, who can barely agree on anything at all. They had a two year MAJORITY in the House, the Senate and the White House – and yet they only barely did anything worthwhile – and most of that just before they lost the House.
– The Tea Party. A lie. A total, complete, and utter lie. False populists. Led by a woman who is bright enough to make a lot of noise but so incredibly corrupt it amazes me she still manages to get people to listen. The entire party is corrupt, false, and VERY dangerous. They convince people to believe in some pretty serious bullshit. But they are about as far from being populist as fire is from water.
– The Pundits. It’s rather a sad statement of fact that in this day and age the best source for political news comes from a comedy program. John Stewart and The Daily Show and Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect provide the main pundit voices from the liberal leanings, in especial with Keith Olberman moving on. And then you get Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh, two of the loudest bullshit artists the world has even known. Lies, hate, distrust – these are their weapons of choice, and they are powerful – and inappropriate, really.
We are a nation divided. The ‘blue states’ and the ‘red states’ after the 2000 election – and that divide is deepened by hard-line politics, fear-mongering, sabre-rattling, misdirection, and outright lies. Instead of trying to breach the gap, the politicians work to strengthen that divide, deepen that rift – and instead of bi-partisanship and compromise to better our nation, they work to gain more power for themselves and their parties, and try to drive us all further apart.
We NEED health care reform in this country. Not going to happen. The reform that was passed is the equivalent of a band-aid on a sucking chest-wound – and equally ineffective. The insurance industry got their way – and no one is willing to admit that THEY ARE THE PROBLEM. The Economy? Sorry, all – trying to help our economy recover WILL drive up the deficit – and while in the long term that’s bad, the short term attempts to fix this problem only make matters worse, not better. And why does ‘defense of marriage’ matter? If a man loves a woman, or a man loves a man, or a woman loves a woman – who are YOU to say they cannot marry? Who drives these ‘issues’? That would be the money.
– We are too big! There are 50 states, and the people that make up those states are VASTLY different. I have been to 43/50, and I can tell you from first hand experience – the way we think up here in the Northeast is almost alien to the Deep South, which in turn is inconceivable to the Midwest, and no one quite gets California.
How can the central government work to rectify this divide? The current plan may have worked when we were 13 states – but the bigger and more diverse we have gotten, the harder it is to accomplish much of anything.
– Religion. Religion has NO PLACE in politics. It DOES NOT MATTER if a person is Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindi, Muslim or Pagan – or even ATHEIST – religion does not belong in politics, and thus does not belong in law. See my previous rant on this topic.
However – as such – subjects such as marriage (be it straight, gay, or polygamist), abortion, adoption, and prayer-in-school should not be a part of political discourse. If you love someone(s), marry them; if you are not able to bear and raise a child for whatever reason, it’s your body – you choose; if a single man, married couple (gay or straight) wish to adopt a child another did not want, more power to them; prayer is a private matter between you and your deity(s) – a public school is no place for that.
Ok, so I think this all still only barely touches the surface of the issues in American Politics today. If you are reading this, please do me one favor – THINK ABOUT THIS: The Roman Empire fell. It was a corrupted system with entrenched incumbents holding on to whatever power they could and was greedy and decadent – and look at the USA now. Note the similarities. Rome fell. If we do not heed this lesson from history – the question is not IF, it is WHEN.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana.
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