Who are we kidding?
So, I walked in and sat down at my desk this morning to see a link to this article sticking out at me in an instant-message from my friend Jason.
First of all, it made me laugh my ass off. But after all of the laughter subsided I damn near started to cry, because there is a lot of truth in this article. Maybe not about Jimmy Carter being the answer to all of our problems (although it doesn't sound too bad at this point), but it definitely reminds you that the slate of candidates that we have to choose from are mostly full of shit. I only say "mostly" because I think that the usual "second tier" candidates offer the most amount of hope for the type of radical change that we need- namely, either Ron Paul in the Republican party or Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic Party (unfortunately, neither fared to well in the last primary: Paul=8% and Kucinich=1%)... apart from them, the other candidates talk a lot of bullshit but I don't think that things are really going to change that much when they get into office.
As far as the republicans go, most of them want to continue the war in Iraq and much of the rest of our current foreign policy. On top of that, we have to deal with the usual rhetoric of the Evangelical Christians blindly endorsing a candidate just because that person says the two magical words- "Jesus Christ". Thanks again to all of you who think that that is the most important thing about a candidate. I mean, it really worked last time, didn't it?
I remember the election in 2000. I was going to church regularly at the time and I couldn't believe the amount of politics that was getting mixed up into our services. Our pastor actually encouraged every to go out and vote for Bush. I also spoke to people from other churches at the time, and nearly all of them gave me the impression that it was the same way where they were. There must be a good study in all of this somewhere, because I would think that for any one candidate to grab hold of the Christian community in the country basically guarantees them at least 10% of the national popular vote.
I know I'm going off on a tangent now, but this really upsets me. In a Democratic society, citizens are supposed to be educated and able to make informed decisions on who they want to vote for. Our vote is supposed to be based on where a candidate stands on the pressing issues of the day, and not on whether or not your pastor tells you that a certain candidate has been picked by a higher power. The fact that this is happening all over the country without a second thought is just madness. I mean, I definitely believe in a higher power (that's somewhere along the lines of being a Christian), and I think that people like this are doing nothing but harm to our country when it's already in a horrible mess.
Just because the Bible says that people in public office were appointed by God to be there doesn't make it so. If that were true, then that's an awfully bad representation of The Lord. It's my personal belief that Religion should in no way whatsoever be mixed with politics if we ever want to make any progress.
Since we're on the subject of what matters most to voters in this country, I don't think it's any secret that the average voter really doesn't pay attention to much of anything that's relevant. All that they really listen to is whatever is spoon fed to them by the major news networks, which is why people like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich aren't more popular than they are now. Those candidates who I think more closely represent to true views and ideas of the people of this nation hardly get the chance to make their presence known in any of the major political debates- that is, if they can even make it into the debates at all.
To support my theory, I found a great tool (that was recommended to a lot of people by the Dennis Kucinich campaign) which has the viewer state where he/she stands on a series of major issues, then once they click the "submit" button, tells them which candidates most closely represent their viewpoints. You can find it here. I sent it out to about 20 people that I knew and then asked them to respond to me with the outcomes. I don't have the exact figures tallied up, but I can say that Kucinich, Paul, and Edwards came up a lot, while not one of the major contenders (namely, Clinton, Obama, Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee) came up at the top of anyone's list. Interesting, huh?
Well, I would love to go on as there is always so much more to talk about, but I'd better stop goofing off at work.
First of all, it made me laugh my ass off. But after all of the laughter subsided I damn near started to cry, because there is a lot of truth in this article. Maybe not about Jimmy Carter being the answer to all of our problems (although it doesn't sound too bad at this point), but it definitely reminds you that the slate of candidates that we have to choose from are mostly full of shit. I only say "mostly" because I think that the usual "second tier" candidates offer the most amount of hope for the type of radical change that we need- namely, either Ron Paul in the Republican party or Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic Party (unfortunately, neither fared to well in the last primary: Paul=8% and Kucinich=1%)... apart from them, the other candidates talk a lot of bullshit but I don't think that things are really going to change that much when they get into office.
As far as the republicans go, most of them want to continue the war in Iraq and much of the rest of our current foreign policy. On top of that, we have to deal with the usual rhetoric of the Evangelical Christians blindly endorsing a candidate just because that person says the two magical words- "Jesus Christ". Thanks again to all of you who think that that is the most important thing about a candidate. I mean, it really worked last time, didn't it?
I remember the election in 2000. I was going to church regularly at the time and I couldn't believe the amount of politics that was getting mixed up into our services. Our pastor actually encouraged every to go out and vote for Bush. I also spoke to people from other churches at the time, and nearly all of them gave me the impression that it was the same way where they were. There must be a good study in all of this somewhere, because I would think that for any one candidate to grab hold of the Christian community in the country basically guarantees them at least 10% of the national popular vote.
I know I'm going off on a tangent now, but this really upsets me. In a Democratic society, citizens are supposed to be educated and able to make informed decisions on who they want to vote for. Our vote is supposed to be based on where a candidate stands on the pressing issues of the day, and not on whether or not your pastor tells you that a certain candidate has been picked by a higher power. The fact that this is happening all over the country without a second thought is just madness. I mean, I definitely believe in a higher power (that's somewhere along the lines of being a Christian), and I think that people like this are doing nothing but harm to our country when it's already in a horrible mess.
Just because the Bible says that people in public office were appointed by God to be there doesn't make it so. If that were true, then that's an awfully bad representation of The Lord. It's my personal belief that Religion should in no way whatsoever be mixed with politics if we ever want to make any progress.
Since we're on the subject of what matters most to voters in this country, I don't think it's any secret that the average voter really doesn't pay attention to much of anything that's relevant. All that they really listen to is whatever is spoon fed to them by the major news networks, which is why people like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich aren't more popular than they are now. Those candidates who I think more closely represent to true views and ideas of the people of this nation hardly get the chance to make their presence known in any of the major political debates- that is, if they can even make it into the debates at all.
To support my theory, I found a great tool (that was recommended to a lot of people by the Dennis Kucinich campaign) which has the viewer state where he/she stands on a series of major issues, then once they click the "submit" button, tells them which candidates most closely represent their viewpoints. You can find it here. I sent it out to about 20 people that I knew and then asked them to respond to me with the outcomes. I don't have the exact figures tallied up, but I can say that Kucinich, Paul, and Edwards came up a lot, while not one of the major contenders (namely, Clinton, Obama, Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee) came up at the top of anyone's list. Interesting, huh?
Well, I would love to go on as there is always so much more to talk about, but I'd better stop goofing off at work.
Comments
1.) In 5 years every car being produced must be a Hybrid.
2.) Starting next year all new homes being built must have solar panels.
3.) Starting today, any employer found to have illegeals working for them would go to jail for at least 4 years per count.
I haven't heard anyone mention anything along these lines at all. No one has any back bone so I don't vote REP or DEM.