Taking the Wheel

Democrats are worried. Republicans are worried? Why? Because the new American TEA PARTY is coming for you. GRRRRRRRR!

Frankly, I'm not worried. You know why? Because we have worked so hard over the last thirty years to fuck up our political system that I have absolutely no doubt that, if we DO put these people into office, they will be every bit as much a waste of expensive office furniture as the people that they're replacing.

Who are the most important cogs in our political machine? The president and vice president? The Congress? The Senate? Nope. It's WE THE PEOPLE, people. We drive this car. If it goes into the ditch (as it clearly did in 2008), it's our stewardship that did it. Or lack thereof.

So I, as a centrist, would like to address some things here for my fellow frustrated centrists, and to the people who are finally waking up to the fact that our political process is broken and are trying to act on that new knowledge by running right out and joining their neighborhood tea party.

First off, I want to call bullshit on some statements that I've heard over the years.

“I don't vote because it doesn't matter WHO I vote for.” Bullshit. I've said it before, I feel doomed to say it again... in the 2000 presidential fiasco, only 52% of eligible Americans voted in the presidential race, and that vote split pretty evenly between Bush and Gore (Gore actually got about half a million more votes than Bush did in the end). If the other 48% of Americans... or hell, even 60% of that number had gone to the polls and voted for Ralph Nader, he would have beaten the other two guys to a pulp in the polls.

“I don't have the time to follow politics.” Bullshit. If you have ANY leisure time at all (and most Americans have at least SOME leisure time now), then dedicate an hour a day... hell, an hour every OTHER day to keeping up with what's happening in our government. An easy way to do this (for me anyway, being a liberal) is to watch Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher. I'm not saying that I accept what these guys say at face value... I tend not to accept anything that ANYONE says at face value... but it does entertain me and keep me abreast of what's going on politically. Of course it helps that I recognize that these men are biased, and am able to take that into account when I go out and research this stuff.

“I don't follow politics because it's too depressing.” Bullshit. How depressing would it be if your doctor told you that you had terminal cancer with less than a year to live? Pretty depressing, huh? Would you rather your doctor NOT tell you that if it's true? Sometimes the truth isn't simply a hard pill to swallow... sometimes it's a three-inch horse pill lined with salt-covered spikes. But even then, sometimes we have to swallow it. It sucks. It hurts. But we have to do it.

“I don't follow politics because it's boring.” Bullshit. And so what? I mean, it's not that politics ISN'T boring... a lot of times it is... the excuse is bullshit. Politics, like the news and the stuff that you have to learn to do your job, and sometimes actually LISTENING when someone else is talking instead of just waiting for your turn while you tune them out isn't MEANT to be entertaining. It's meant to be informative. And many times, trying to add entertainment value serves no purpose except to dilute the message. If the president gave the state of the union address while riding a unicycle and juggling chainsaws, it would be more entertaining, but the information in the message would be lost.

I hear a lot of bitching right now, especially from people on the right, about how our government is bankrupting us. You know what? That's absolutely, positively correct. My problem with it? This didn't start with the Obama administration, and it won't end by replacing the democrats with tea partiers. This problem started a long, long time ago. In my opinion, it really started in the mid-fifties when the government started “borrowing” (read as “stealing” from social security for other programs. There was a surplus there because there's SUPPOSED to be a surplus there, and they swiped it for their pet programs.

This organized bankrupting of our country REALLY started with a vengeance in the 1980's, the so-called “greed” decade. Almost everything bad that's happening to our country now can be traced to the Reagan administration.

You had changes in the trade and labor laws that allowed American companies to start outsourcing our jobs wholesale, basically devastating the midwest and the south.

You have subsidies started, like those to the corn and oil industries, costing us millions of tax dollars per year.

You have a wrong-headed tax revolt begun to keep rich people rich and prevent the rest of us from ever getting rich, except by a fluke.

And you have the real birth of political apathy among the American people.

So how do we fix it? It's hard, guys. For starters, stop voting AGAINST and start voting FOR. The tea partiers are happy to point out the problems in our system without suggesting anything REAL that we might do to fix these problems. Start researching candidates... ALL of the candidates, not just the Dems and Repubs... instead of voting for whomever had enough money to buy the most compelling or the prettiest campaign ads.

It's our car, folks and it's time for us to take the wheel, instead of letting someone else drive and then bitching about what a lousy job they're doing.

Peace.

Rev. Randal