Begin cynic rant.
What I’m going to say is going to make some people angry. That’s okay because I have to read a lot of other things that people say that get in my craw. First Amendment right (that’s free speech for those that don’t know).
Today, Americans get to participate in the illusion of choice. Choice that voting for one person over the other is going to allow their belief of what they want their government to look like will be represented by a politician. Afterall, we live in a constitutional republic right? Unfortunately, this choice isn’t like in The Matrix where Neo chooses between the red pill or the blue pill. Our choice doesn’t have dramatically different outcomes. Its more like the choice between a red M&M and a blue M&M. You get the option of getting to eat a piece of candy that has the prettier coating to it that you like. Once you eat it, there is no difference.
Unbelievable amounts of money get spent by candidates to get elected (or not) for a position that, according to the associated government salary, doesn’t make that kind of expenditure worth it. I am not convinced that most of those campaign donations come from average middle class working people. The reason people donate to a campaign is because they want their interests represented. Once a politician is in office, their campaign backers guide their decision making. This is so donors will give financially to their campaign again next time, along with other financial benefits that are hidden from the public eye. Seeing as how our country doesn’t have term limits, politicians make a career out of a position that was intended to be held by someone that represents their average constituent and then returns to normal life.
So you can get out there and cheer for your red or blue or green or what ever color team your person plays for. Regardless, who gets voted into office is going to be bought off to be represented by someone who has more money than that average politician’s constituent.
It always comes down to money. The ones with alot of it, get to have more of a say than those with little of it or none of it.
End cynical rant.
This is the first election where I didn’t see a single campaign ad or get a single recorded phone call asking me to vote one way or the other. Flyers in the mail got filtered directly into the recycle bin where they were never looked at or brought inside. Not watching live broadcast TV prevents marketers from convincing me to follow their ad. I didn’t sign up for a political party. I don’t sign up for free give aways or give customer loyalty programs my phone number. In the end, the only annoyance of the election I had to put up with were the ridiculous political signs all over town. I don’t read them, but I acknowledge that there is something ugly over there.
When it came time to fill out my mail in ballot, it was the first time I had seen most of the names on the ballot. Our state has a website set up for candidates to put up some information so voters can educate themselves before making a decision.
Some observations:
- The candidates that don’t bother to submit any information for would be voters to find out about them get zero consideration from me. If you can’t get your S together enough to do something as simple as a simple bio and a link to your website, you have no business presiding over me in government.
- The candidates that have a link in their profile to a website that no longer exists also get zero consideration
- The candidates that only have a Facebook profile without a website get less consideration. Lazy.
- The one candidate that claimed to have worked in IT but had a website that only loaded a blank page, got zero consideration.
- The candidate that had a broken link to his website and only had a Facebook page which contained rants about the evils of vaccines, got zero consideration.
- The candidate running for the Democratic party that did his best to hide his association with the Democratic party and only offered hope and change type promises on his website without details of how said dreams were going to happen, did not get my vote. He also claimed that as a state representative he was going to increase wages for firefighters and police officers. Last I checked those folks are employed by municipalities, not the state. Good luck having say over that. And by the way, how are you going to pay for that if you did get that changed?
All that being said, I still believe in an America where we are awesome. Better than any other country. And if you don’t like that, go pound sand. While our rights are being taken away like a lobster being cooked in hot water, there’s still no other place I would like to live. Except maybe the America of the past.