Today’s entry is something of a rambling semi-coherent rant, but it’s how I’m feeling at the moment, so I’m going to unleash my frustration.
You ever feel overwhelmed politically? That’s what I’ve been feeling lately. I feel emotionally pulled in so many different directions. Maybe I take this stuff too seriously, but I don’t know where to start, or what to address. Every single day I come across at least three issues I can write about, that just annoy the you-know-what out of me, and any of them would be a worthy topic.
Politics is seriously important, and seriously broken. It guides our lives in virtually every aspect. I believe that people who are non-political, and who want nothing to do with politics… especially conversation… are foolish and naive. If they want to let others decide their fates for them, so be it, I’m ok with that. (And that’s why I never support “get out the vote” campaigns). Yet, in the interest of full honesty, sometimes I envy them. Life would be so much less stressful without all the drama, and bickering, and rudeness, and pettiness, and, well… outright douchebaggery.
Trump’s child-like idiocy. The “shit buffet” of Trump vs Hillary that we had to choose from. The flip-flopping of Democrat’s and Republican’s (alleged) beliefs and (supposedly) solid convictions… eagerly abandoned based solely on who is in power and/or who is on the other side at the moment. Mass/school shootings and the never ending debate and political fall-out. Hell, unwarranted government shootings by an ever-increasing militarized law enforcement. Immigration and DACA. Healthcare. Government overreach. Never ending increasing government spending… national, state, and local. The constant string of broken government promises. A judiciary more interested in protecting its little fiefdom rather than the people. Seemingly everyone who has ever been in any position of power having sexually harassed and/or assaulted somebody else. Mass hypocrisy. Then, to throw in some more to stir the pot even faster, there’s the perpetual boilerplate wedge issues like abortion, the death penalty, gun control even without mass shootings, race relations, gender issues, immigration… things that I’m not sure our “leaders” even want fixed, as it gives them tools to pit us against each other and secure their positions… and on and on and on.
That’s the short list.
Like I said, I’m feeling overwhelmed, really, and to be honest, if I have to blame somebody, I blame partisanship. I blame everybody. Everybody’s right, nobody can be wrong, not even a smidgen wrong. People who are willing to compromise are portrayed as traitors and losers. (Where the eff did that come from?!?) Sure we mouth the words “bi-partisan” and “compromise”, and candidates still spew forth those words and concepts during their campaigns, but we don’t really mean it. We still vote for people based on how extreme they are, and they get in office and give us just that.
While politics has always been big business in its own way, I feel that it has become big “business” for people who don’t even profit from it… average people like you and me. What’s in it for us? What are we getting from it? Why do some people feel the need, or even desire, to blindly and reflexively defend even the dumbest most idiotic and brain dead crap coming from their chosen side?
I’ll tell you what we’re “gaining”. We’re gaining a crap society. The blinders of partisanship guarantees it. And we’re too comfortable and selfish to see it.
Politics has always been mean. And some of the campaigns in 19th century America were downright nasty. But, the current climate is quite possibly the lowest we have ever had, as everybody’s involved, not just the candidates/politicians. It’s us, it’s you and me, too.
Does it ever end? Will it end? Can it end? I think I’d die of shock if even ONE issue were truly solved and went away.
/rant off
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