I'm sorry to the American people. I know. I should care because this affects all of us. Honestly, though, I couldn't care less about the mid-term elections.
I'm well educated, and I even earned my Masters degree from an excellent University in a single year while working full time. In fact, I got my first job when I was 14, I've worked full time since I was 16. And I can't care about the mid-term elections because I just don't have time.
The economy is in the toilet; it's like that pet fish that died, but doesn't have enough weight to go down the drain. So you flush and it spins, but Mr. Pickles III just won't sink enough to get sucked to the Great Sewer Beyond. If it would just hit bottom, you'd be able to start anew, but right now the bottom seems forever away. No one, no matter how good, can change this, though. Not over night, not even in months.
The midterm elections will affect health care. Clean energy. Taxes. I care about these things. I recycle more then I throw out. I am both made poor and am dependent on my health insurance. I am taxed over 22% of my income, get nothing back after filing taxes, and my husband and I earn less then 50k a year. I care about many political issues and understand thoroughly how they affect my household. I’m just so damn tired of those sitting on Capital Hill.
I'm sick of the general hate mongering and "have-mores" of the GOP. They have their own network, FOX News, can't they just leave the rest of us alone? Can I get a restraining order against both the TEA Party and the GOP? And the Democrats are great at talking, yet actual execution of change, the genuine process of “doing” seems to stump them. I'm not going to stress over Obama's approval rating because I voted for him, I have my opinions about him, but he's either going to step up to the plate or not be elected again. And, besides, his approval ratings have yet to reach the lows of Bush.
Will Pelosi lose her job? Will the House change sides? Maybe. But we know what to expect if either occurs, don't we? We got where we are because of those in control 4 years ago. We know what will, or rather won't, happen if others stay in. We’ve been promised change and progress for years by different politicians. It’s like watching a beauty queen wish for world peace: it’s a great sentiment, but how much faith can we be asked for before we just believe it’s a joke? I would love to see Tancredo cause the election of Hickenlooper in Colorado. Mulvaney in South Carolina is trying to get Spratt out on the basis that Spratt hasn't done anything to help the downturned economy or create new jobs, but I don't believe for a second that Mulvaney himself would do anything to help either of those problems. And in all honesty, as poor as I am, I hope the tax cuts are allowed to expire.
Ultimately, however, politics have been a stalled sitcom in my life, all talk and pathetic laugh tracks without a compelling story line to keep me indebted.
If there was a chance of the Super Friends or the Justice League taking over the House, I would care. I would be sitting up, rapt with attention and enthusiasm. But that's not going to happen. Instead, it will either go to people who don't do anything for me or my demographic or it will go to people who want to aid our situation, but can't just seem to get anything done. And I have to work all the time, two jobs, to make ends meet, so the last thing I want to hear when I get home is a news anchor talking at me regarding mudslinging and opinions of politicians. If I could trust any of it to be true I would watch, but if politics was an honest game, lobbyists would cease to exist causing Hell to freeze over.
Apathy sickens me, so it looks like I’ll be hating myself for a while. I don’t understand the miracles people expected when Obama got into office. Yes, I agree that some change could happen quicker, but we live in a Democratic Republic; Obama is neither king nor dictator. This means, he has to listen to all sides, make decisions, but go through a lot of steps and paperwork to get things done. And on many issues and bills oppositions in the House and Congress can postpone him or veto issues all together. I won’t go into “pork” or “filibusters”, but if you care about mid-term elections you should know those terms intimately. Obama has shown that he’s capable of being tough once in a while and I hope to see him become more so in the future. It would do this nation good to see our President actively, aggressively pursuing aid for our national struggling spirit, and making things happen. Our housing market, unemployment, health care is not a single problem and all will take time, yes, even more time, to clean up and straighten out.
So, I’m continuing to wait, will vote, will pay my taxes, work to the bone and life will go on, regardless of the outcome of mid-term elections.
I just can’t listen to the political squawking any more.
Keeping my sanity is far more important right now.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Little Kate
Cranky Cuss
Emily Holleman
Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
I have a phd in political science, and it's only made me that much more apathetic to the electoral process.
I like everything you said.
[And I'm totally with you, as it were, re: the museums]
I knew this was far from true, and ended up in a screaming match with a group of them. Well, Gore saved the country by conceding to a Federal Court made up of States Rights advocates, who overruled Florida's State Supreme Court. However, the Right would have staged a coup if they didn't get their way ... don't kid yourself, folks, so we owe the country to Gore. I'm not a big Gore fan, especially of ex-Tipper, I am a music fan- but, the evidence is conclusive that after saving the country Gore set out to save the world, and has had a big impact on the air we hope to continue to breathe, and the sea levels us surfers like right where they are for now.
I won't go into Bush's failures/disasters/Constitutional crimes.
Vote mid-term, we may get another Justice, and they may overturn the ridicules "corporations are people" ruling.
Sure, Will Rogers was right about dems not being an organized party, that is because progress comes from all sides. The Right, and their Status Quos, are simply Clan/Habsburg legacies designed to keep serfs down and, they love this word, keep TRADITION in place, no matter that it is the tradition of Abu Grahaib.
Please vote little sister
so just hunker down and keep a good supply of canned goods in the pantry.
(Well said)
Disappointment will always be a feature when layering a two party (two choice) system over the wide marketplace of opinions. But you're winning when the tide is flowing your way -- and losing when it's flowing away.
One way to alleviate the frustration is to adopt a 100 year plan. If you look 50 years back and imagine 50 years in the future, progress looks pretty successful.
But like any epic, the individual battles must be fought if the ultimate goal is to be reached.
Great post.
Bottom line is, much as I despise politics and most politicians, I must stay involved, and above all else, I must VOTE for the lesser of two evils, while praying for change I can believe in.
Didn't you know most politicians ARE beauty queens? Great post. Thanks.
At first I wanted to give you thanks for at least getting the title phrase correct (instead of the idiotic "I could care less") . And actually it appears that's all I'll be able to compliment you on.
First of all, I think it's great that you took it upon yourself to go to a university and graduate. But shoving your degree in the reader's face as a way of proving how educated you are and then capitalizing the word "university" and saying things like "I recycle more then I throw out" doesn't exactly drive home your point. (The word is "than", by the way.)
Next, I'm no fan of the Republican Party either, but it would have been nice to get at least a single example of this "hate-mongering" you speak of. Otherwise you sound no better than these talking-points leftists who can't offer anything other than "Republicans are greedy hick rednecks who only care about rich people." Then again, maybe you ARE one of those people. But either way, you would gain much more credibility with the reader if you would at least provide some type of support or example of what you're talking about when you make accusations in that way. And just as a personal aside, I would actually prefer a country of "have-mores" to one of "take-mores"...which is about all I've heard as a solution from the Democrats. And as for Obama/Bush approval ratings, if you really want to compare...the latter spent 8 years in the White House and didn't get below 50% until his third year. Obama has been in office for less than 2 years and was below that point before the end of his FIRST year. I don't think this is a wise comparison game to play.
I also find your diction quite ironic...for it is PRECISELY the political storyline that has kept you and every other American indebted...at least in a financial sense. (And just so you know, the Super Friends basically ARE the Justice League.)
Ms. Couch you seem like an honest enough person and it sounds like you just want what's best for everyone. This is actually the sentiment I get from most of my left-leaning friends. But as a right-leaning friend once said "the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."
I can understand and appreciate how much you have to work and how little time you must have between that and family. But I would like to reach out to you and extend an honest plea for you to dedicate at least some time, 10 minutes a day even, to reading into the economic truth behind the kinds of policies that are promoted by government officials (from both sides of the political spectrum). I would like to recommend the book "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt. It is not a difficult book, and is written completely for the layman. No complicated terms or economic formulas and jargon that so many use to confuse the general public so that they, the elite, can do what they want with other people's money. I trust that if you honestly read this book with an active mind, you will begin to understand the politics of Washington in a much clearer way. You won't like them any more than you do now, but you'll at least find it a little harder to be apathetic.
John