Here are some of my random thoughts about the election/feel of the country right now.
#1Spending- Most papers are reporting today that spending on this election for both parties is around four billion dollars. I can not tell you how much this annoys me. What could we REALLY change in this country if we used that money to feed the poor? Create a few jobs? Update our schools? Clean up the streets? Why do elections have to cost SOOO much money- and mostly on negative ads that attack their opponents? If I ever run for office I wouldn't accept any donations- I'd tell my supporters to give their money to the charity of their choice. (Yes, I know that's not realistic, and I'll prob never run for office, but in an ideal world...)
#2Jon Stewart/People are Good- I watched the video of the serious part of the Restoring Sanity Rally. And... I agreed with him. I had actually been thinking about the same topic for a couple of weeks. 95% (totally made up number) of Americans are good people, who want to live their lives and want others to be able to do the same. They want everyone to have food, and shelter, and education, and freedom. Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives- they ALL want everyone to be happy. They just have different ways of bringing that about. Democrats put more of the responsibility on the government; Republicans put in on the people and charities/religious establishments. I think it should be somewhere in the middle. But we all want children to eat, have a coat, and a bed to sleep on. No one party has a monopoly on that. I think the disagreement on HOW gets in the way of actually getting IT done.
We're all different, we come from different places, but most us work together, support each other, and contribute to our community. The other 5%, I contend, are either crack pots or power hungry. They seem to be the ones stirring up division and hatred, slinging lies and extreme positions. And they have the money (see point #1) and so their voice is heard the loudest.
#3If the Republicans win, is it a good thing? Ok so you probably think that I'd say yes to this, the right leaner that I am, but I tell you what- I'm scared of it. I'm scared because I don't trust them much more than I trust the Democrats. The Republicans have screwed up this country just as much as the Democrats. I'd love for them to do the things that they say they will- bring spending down, create jobs, bring down the deficit, take the corruption out of the government... but once they taste that power, will they too become part of the 5%? Are they already part of the 5%? Will the ideas work? Will the ideas even have a chance when President Obama has veto power? Will it even matter, since I predict that the election wins will just swing from party to party every 2 years as the American people voice their disappointment?
The one thing this election for sure has proven is that Americans want change- not from dems or the GOP, but from the government as it is run today. We are tired of Washington not playing by the rules. We are tired of nothing being fixed. And we are tired of the money used to not fix it.
Still, you should go vote tomorrow. It's your right and you should use it.
