It is easy for me to see why so many American’s do not vote, but for some
reason it is a fact rarely mentioned by the press; this continues to puzzle me, but in fact if you listened to the press, you would think the country was split fairly evenly between voting republicans and democrats, with a bit of
independent thrown in.
But that is not the case; that only describes about half the country. The other half do not vote, and rarely even follow politics. They simply look at things having to do with the government as they look at the weather - sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad and hopefully most of the time it won’t interfere with the way we live our lives at all.
Now more than ever this is becoming true; the last of the old ways are
beginning to fall to the wayside; the effects of our country's institutional racism will be with us for a while longer yet, and we have work to do there, but in that area as in most areas of civil rights, things are better now than they were in the past, and continuing to improve.
They are good enough, in fact, that a lot of us have decided these areas no
longer require our attention. They have been on an upward climb since the
fifties and sixties when actual battles over issues of color and sex were
necessary, and that climb has been aided by activists for these issues and
others.
But as always, in every generation there is a need for vigilance, there is a need for paying attention to what our political leaders are doing. The people in America who do not normally pay attention need to awaken on some level - if you have children, or care about people who do, then you need to be aware of exactly what our elected leaders are doing in the long term interests of our country.
Those interests are not being served now by either party, and they are both knowingly squandering our resources in ways which will not help us in the long run - indeed, seen from a hundred years in the future, I think it will be obvious that the major policies we support as a nation are steering us directly towards disaster.
On this website, and at many others, these problems are being discussed by non partisans. When you listen to the people of either party, though, please pay more attention to their actions than what they say. It has been a ploy in American politics for many decades now to say one thing, and then simply ignore that promise once power is attained.
The easiest example, and the most pertinent is that of our energy supply. Al
Quaida is funded in large part by those countries which we call ‘allies’ in the
middle east; the simple fact is that every time we buy a gallon of gasoline we are helping fund our enemies.
What makes this so egregious is that our government and leaders have not
done one single thing to address this issue; they do not talk about it, they have not raised the gas mileage standards yet (and the amount they want to raise them will do us no good), they have not even tried to get people to use car pools or other means of avoiding cars.
There are not many explanations for this behavior, and there are even fewer that explain why both of the major parties are complicit in this behavior. They are not easy conclusions to come to when thought through, but they are reality at its core.
We can do much to eliminate this travesty, but our leaders have not lifted a
single finger; in the meantime, lives are being lost and the enemy is
winning - and they are getting richer than ever, every time we buy gasoline.
But that is the rub; it is not just our enemies who get richer, and who we continue to fund - it is international and American companies as well. Simply look at the profits from the major American oil companies. It is easy to see, from their point of view, why they do not want to give up their monopoly.
And yet, that is exactly what must happen.
When I see someone who I think will actually address that problem and the others that we face, then I will vote - but neither major party candidate has any trust stored with me; I have been an observer to long, and take a dim view of the current state of government. That knowledge has soaked down into the public, with the result that half the nation believes quite accurately that if they did vote for either viable candidate it would not make the slightest difference in the way the country is run.
Of course, that is just a theory - but so far, the democrats in the Senate and Congress, despite their big talk of 'making changes', have done nothing of import, and continue to do just that - nothing of real importance.
I don't care if they can succeed - they haven't even tried.
reason it is a fact rarely mentioned by the press; this continues to puzzle me, but in fact if you listened to the press, you would think the country was split fairly evenly between voting republicans and democrats, with a bit of
independent thrown in.
But that is not the case; that only describes about half the country. The other half do not vote, and rarely even follow politics. They simply look at things having to do with the government as they look at the weather - sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad and hopefully most of the time it won’t interfere with the way we live our lives at all.
Now more than ever this is becoming true; the last of the old ways are
beginning to fall to the wayside; the effects of our country's institutional racism will be with us for a while longer yet, and we have work to do there, but in that area as in most areas of civil rights, things are better now than they were in the past, and continuing to improve.
They are good enough, in fact, that a lot of us have decided these areas no
longer require our attention. They have been on an upward climb since the
fifties and sixties when actual battles over issues of color and sex were
necessary, and that climb has been aided by activists for these issues and
others.
But as always, in every generation there is a need for vigilance, there is a need for paying attention to what our political leaders are doing. The people in America who do not normally pay attention need to awaken on some level - if you have children, or care about people who do, then you need to be aware of exactly what our elected leaders are doing in the long term interests of our country.
Those interests are not being served now by either party, and they are both knowingly squandering our resources in ways which will not help us in the long run - indeed, seen from a hundred years in the future, I think it will be obvious that the major policies we support as a nation are steering us directly towards disaster.
On this website, and at many others, these problems are being discussed by non partisans. When you listen to the people of either party, though, please pay more attention to their actions than what they say. It has been a ploy in American politics for many decades now to say one thing, and then simply ignore that promise once power is attained.
The easiest example, and the most pertinent is that of our energy supply. Al
Quaida is funded in large part by those countries which we call ‘allies’ in the
middle east; the simple fact is that every time we buy a gallon of gasoline we are helping fund our enemies.
What makes this so egregious is that our government and leaders have not
done one single thing to address this issue; they do not talk about it, they have not raised the gas mileage standards yet (and the amount they want to raise them will do us no good), they have not even tried to get people to use car pools or other means of avoiding cars.
There are not many explanations for this behavior, and there are even fewer that explain why both of the major parties are complicit in this behavior. They are not easy conclusions to come to when thought through, but they are reality at its core.
We can do much to eliminate this travesty, but our leaders have not lifted a
single finger; in the meantime, lives are being lost and the enemy is
winning - and they are getting richer than ever, every time we buy gasoline.
But that is the rub; it is not just our enemies who get richer, and who we continue to fund - it is international and American companies as well. Simply look at the profits from the major American oil companies. It is easy to see, from their point of view, why they do not want to give up their monopoly.
And yet, that is exactly what must happen.
When I see someone who I think will actually address that problem and the others that we face, then I will vote - but neither major party candidate has any trust stored with me; I have been an observer to long, and take a dim view of the current state of government. That knowledge has soaked down into the public, with the result that half the nation believes quite accurately that if they did vote for either viable candidate it would not make the slightest difference in the way the country is run.
Of course, that is just a theory - but so far, the democrats in the Senate and Congress, despite their big talk of 'making changes', have done nothing of import, and continue to do just that - nothing of real importance.
I don't care if they can succeed - they haven't even tried.
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