Song Lyric of the Day:
The pen with a bent wrist crooked king / Sign away our peace for your war, one word and it’s over / Dropping your bombs now / On all we’ve built / How does it feel now to watch it burn, burn, burn? / Raise your weapons, raise your weapons and it’s over
Deadmau5 / “Raise Your Weapon“
I almost never blog about politics. I have before, but I haven’t in a long time. Why is that? I think it’s mostly because I’m not a political pundit — it’s not my area of expertise or interest. I stay up on the news, I make my decisions based on facts and my core beliefs, and that’s pretty much it. I’m not out to change people’s opinions and beliefs. Just because I support gay marriage rights and a woman’s right to choose and believe in the death penalty doesn’t mean I’m not going to respect you for having a different opinion. As it is, even though my leanings are decidely liberal, a lot of my close friends are conservatives. Make of that what you will.
But lately, I’ve found this ridiculous debt ceiling crisis to be a truly depressing commentary about the U.S.’s political climate; it’s essentially highlighted the absolute worst of our government in the most unflattering light possible. Republicans and Democrats have been proclaiming they’re bipartisan for ages, but it’s really just a load of crap. For so long now, the mentality in D.C. has been the us vs. them attitude. And by us vs. them, I mean Republicans vs. Democrats (and vice versa). It’s not about what’s best for American society as a whole — you know, people like you and I — it’s all about which side can gain the upper hand by passing/vetoing laws, cutting/adding spending, starting/ending wars, providing/denying healthcare, and so on. Our elected officials — the people we have elected to office and whose paychecks we pay through our taxes — could care less about what will benefit their constituencies. We re-elect those we think are doing a good job. We elect new people we hope will do a good job and deliver on their promises. But in the end, they’re all failing us. And it feels like we’re powerless to do anything. Do you think our senators, congressmen/women, and assorted higher ups (including you, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President) would willingly take pay cuts to help with the debt ceiling crisis or to benefit our economy in general? Hell no, they wouldn’t. Because it’s all about what they want, constituent peons be damned.
We the People no longer exist. And I find that too depressing for words.
