Only path to change is through voting
Is it 2012 yet? We are already being bombarded with campaign sound bites and the slowing of government to a less than glacial pace as the election “nears”. I, like so many fellow Americans, am extremely disappointed in our elected officials in Washington. The sad part is, we are again confronted by (so far) a range of less than ideal candidates for President, and the “choice” of voting for many of the same faces in Congress.
As far as Presidential candidates, we have a Governor from Texas who sees nothing contradictory about accusing the Secretary of the Treasury of treason, having, only weeks before, publicly threatened to have his state secede for the Union. There is the current President who rode into town on a wave of hope for change and popularity and looks set to leave town unable to solve the mess he was handed, and, arguably, deepened the problem by inadequate responses. Not one of the other candidates so far looks stellar either, if we are brutally honest.
For Congress, may I suggest special wrath on behalf of the voting public? Intransigence for the sake of political posturing has wrought enormous damage to our country. The silliness is sickening when we look at the level of pettiness they indulge in, and the result is hundreds of unfulfilled Federal posts, legislation that has not been voted or set aside, notably in the areas of immigration and regulation. As for the economy we all know that they have done nothing to help us except bicker until our debt was downgraded. True, there are some who are still willing to try to reach a middle ground, and they deserve our attention, and maybe our vote. But they are few and far between.
Part of the problem, I suggest, is that the two party system is simply too small to hold all of the diversity of opinion that is America today. Personally, like many of my friends, I find that there are ideas on both sides of the aisle that I can identify with, but there is no party that can represent all our opinions. As the parties become more radicalized, we find we can identify with neither - hence the growing number of Independents in America today.
Here is my suggestion for 2012: vote. Please just vote. Vote for someone new, someone who will not be beholden to ideology but to ideas. Vote, perhaps for a hopeful independent who can reach across party lines. Use your vote to express your frustration at those who have done so much to damage our country and deepen its woes, instead of serving the Public. If EVERYONE were to vote, then we could begin to hope that a new vitality had been injected into our Democracy. If each of us got a little more involved, perhaps we can get the professional politicians out, and the People (with a capital ‘P’) back in. After all, we are the ones meant to be running the country, not the political parties, their ideologies or small radical groups in their midst.