Diary of A Mad White Man:
It's November 2012. Which means, among a slurry of other things, time for another fun filled presidential election. And one of the few things that pisses me off more than people who suck at driving, people who order frappuccinos at Starbucks, and people in general, is the way the electoral process has veered an insane tangent from it's original trajectory.
The two main contributors to such a tangent are (no duh) the voters and the votees. My main hatred is aimed at party bias. "I hate Republicans because they suck" and, "Democrats are total idiots". Blanket statements that do nothing but slam a party aren't helpful to anyone. I was actually in a car with a coworker on a lunch break, and even though she though that Republicans were Liberals, and Democrats were the Conservatives, she blatantly hates Republicans with an undying lust. Fucking really?! Your brain can't remember who is who and yet you still blatantly hate? No. That's not okay. Both parties have valid points, that's why the bipartisan system works. You can't only have an all-right or an all-left government and still have it work, you need two sides to the coin to create bipartisan agreements that work for all the constituents and their (somewhat) individual needs. Sometimes, the economy needs higher taxes to pay for deficit spending, sometimes big business needs breaks to boost jobs. Uneducated voting is worse than not voting. Watching reality TV and spending all your time on Facespace and Failblog is not how you actively participate in government. Even if it's just Wikipedia, research candidates, research propositions and previous bills. Don't be ignorant or just believe what campaigns tell you, they're just trying to win popularity contests.
What's even worse than the voters though, are the candidates themselves. Every member of Congress ran a publicity campaign funded by private interest groups. Whether they were just well-to-do families, or large corporations, or the Koch Bros., everyone putting their dollar in the pocket of a politician is doing so for personal gains. And the politicians gobble this shit up like Jell-o. "I'll shake your hand and kiss your baby and promise to throw your ideas up in front of Congress if you help fund my running campaign." Millions of dollars are thrown at platforming, then once they get elected, they spend a majority of their time planning next year's election and maybe pass a bill about keeping our children's toys lead-free. Now, don't get me wrong, I would hate to have a child that got lead poisoning, we need to keep lead poisoning away from adorable chubby babies. But Congress needs to address more pressing matters. Please don't pass laws about online piracy when we're trillions of dollars in debt and have horrible relations with other countries. Unemployment rates, public school funding, yada yada yada all need to be addressed before you side with Lars Ulrich and sue Sean Parker because there are millions of audipohiles who don't want to pay 20 bucks to Time Warner for an album.
Every once in a while, a bill does pass that does something huge. But sadly, a lot of them are only passed because, once again, funding goes into the right pockets. Proverbial pork barreling greases the wheels of our government. Monsanto gets to patent specific strains of life and sue small private farm owners because they paid off enough members of Congress to pass a lawn. Corn is a government subsidized crop, not for ethanol or clean energy projects, but for feeding cattle (which increases the cow's chance of receiving E Coli by somewhere between 25 and 30 percent) than by getting fed grass. Congress subsidized corn because cattle companies paid representatives a heap so they'd have lower feed costs in the future. It's why you can get a Big Mac for 25 cents but a quarter pound of broccoli is 4 bucks. Representatives are ruining the health and lifespans of their constituents so they can have a beach house and a yacht. It's how the system works. It's not effective, but it's successful nonetheless.
A lot of people's response to government not working is one of two choices, A) Vote for a third party, or B) Not vote at all. I'm sorry, but voting for a third party is actually worse than voting for the candidate you hate less, and is worse than not voting at all. Mitt Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts with around a 49%. I know it's close to half, but think about that for a second. He was elected to run a state even though 51% of them (i'm guessing here based on personal experience) fucking hated him. But there were enough of the people who hated him that voted for a third party rather than O'Brien, and so instead of an almost dead even race with the democrat pulling ahead by 1.3%, Romney won by about 5%. Were the people who voted for a third party happy that Romney won? Did they like or hate him more than O'Brien? They technically helped him win, so they must have wanted him over her. I really hate to admit to it, but third parties are kind of useless. Unless they can somehow run, and get a majority of voters (not gonna happen, sorry) they just take away votes in close elections and skew the results. It's not right, but that's life.
Just a quick blip: after watching the presidential debates, I'm disgusted that women's rights are still an issue for the president of the USA. Women got suffrage in New Zealand, Finland and other countries over 100 years ago. Now, that's like saying that African Americans got equal rights after the abolition of slavery. In theory, yes, but white men are retarded and there's still racism today. Equal rights didn't really kick off until the 60's and 70's. So, we'll say America gets a little leeway for being a new country, blah blah blah, oh wait, it's fucking 2012, and we have computers in our phones and all this other bullshit. Everyone should be on a level playing field by now. It doesn't matter if you're black, white, Asian, Native American, male, female, trans or anything else, you should get the exact same treatment and respect as everyone else. Despite saying there's a separation of church and state, America is an insanely Christian nation, and guess what, Christianity kind of misses the mark on a lot of topics.
Anyway, Romney. Throw away whatever you label yourself as. Left, Right, Green, whatever. chuck it out the window. Romney wants to spend more while cutting taxes. He and his sick little bastard Ryan want to cut reproductive rights. Even if you're a Republican, you should be ashamed for thinking the country should be ran by this man. Regardless of your party, he is not a qualified candidate to run a country. It doesn't matter that his father was in Nixon's cabinet. It doesn't matter what Bane Capital does or doesn't do. He has a horrible platform and should never be put in charge. I honestly thought he was a joke when he first started running. But it's stopped being funny and he's still here.
It's November 2012. Which means, among a slurry of other things, time for another fun filled presidential election. And one of the few things that pisses me off more than people who suck at driving, people who order frappuccinos at Starbucks, and people in general, is the way the electoral process has veered an insane tangent from it's original trajectory.
The two main contributors to such a tangent are (no duh) the voters and the votees. My main hatred is aimed at party bias. "I hate Republicans because they suck" and, "Democrats are total idiots". Blanket statements that do nothing but slam a party aren't helpful to anyone. I was actually in a car with a coworker on a lunch break, and even though she though that Republicans were Liberals, and Democrats were the Conservatives, she blatantly hates Republicans with an undying lust. Fucking really?! Your brain can't remember who is who and yet you still blatantly hate? No. That's not okay. Both parties have valid points, that's why the bipartisan system works. You can't only have an all-right or an all-left government and still have it work, you need two sides to the coin to create bipartisan agreements that work for all the constituents and their (somewhat) individual needs. Sometimes, the economy needs higher taxes to pay for deficit spending, sometimes big business needs breaks to boost jobs. Uneducated voting is worse than not voting. Watching reality TV and spending all your time on Facespace and Failblog is not how you actively participate in government. Even if it's just Wikipedia, research candidates, research propositions and previous bills. Don't be ignorant or just believe what campaigns tell you, they're just trying to win popularity contests.
What's even worse than the voters though, are the candidates themselves. Every member of Congress ran a publicity campaign funded by private interest groups. Whether they were just well-to-do families, or large corporations, or the Koch Bros., everyone putting their dollar in the pocket of a politician is doing so for personal gains. And the politicians gobble this shit up like Jell-o. "I'll shake your hand and kiss your baby and promise to throw your ideas up in front of Congress if you help fund my running campaign." Millions of dollars are thrown at platforming, then once they get elected, they spend a majority of their time planning next year's election and maybe pass a bill about keeping our children's toys lead-free. Now, don't get me wrong, I would hate to have a child that got lead poisoning, we need to keep lead poisoning away from adorable chubby babies. But Congress needs to address more pressing matters. Please don't pass laws about online piracy when we're trillions of dollars in debt and have horrible relations with other countries. Unemployment rates, public school funding, yada yada yada all need to be addressed before you side with Lars Ulrich and sue Sean Parker because there are millions of audipohiles who don't want to pay 20 bucks to Time Warner for an album.
Every once in a while, a bill does pass that does something huge. But sadly, a lot of them are only passed because, once again, funding goes into the right pockets. Proverbial pork barreling greases the wheels of our government. Monsanto gets to patent specific strains of life and sue small private farm owners because they paid off enough members of Congress to pass a lawn. Corn is a government subsidized crop, not for ethanol or clean energy projects, but for feeding cattle (which increases the cow's chance of receiving E Coli by somewhere between 25 and 30 percent) than by getting fed grass. Congress subsidized corn because cattle companies paid representatives a heap so they'd have lower feed costs in the future. It's why you can get a Big Mac for 25 cents but a quarter pound of broccoli is 4 bucks. Representatives are ruining the health and lifespans of their constituents so they can have a beach house and a yacht. It's how the system works. It's not effective, but it's successful nonetheless.
A lot of people's response to government not working is one of two choices, A) Vote for a third party, or B) Not vote at all. I'm sorry, but voting for a third party is actually worse than voting for the candidate you hate less, and is worse than not voting at all. Mitt Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts with around a 49%. I know it's close to half, but think about that for a second. He was elected to run a state even though 51% of them (i'm guessing here based on personal experience) fucking hated him. But there were enough of the people who hated him that voted for a third party rather than O'Brien, and so instead of an almost dead even race with the democrat pulling ahead by 1.3%, Romney won by about 5%. Were the people who voted for a third party happy that Romney won? Did they like or hate him more than O'Brien? They technically helped him win, so they must have wanted him over her. I really hate to admit to it, but third parties are kind of useless. Unless they can somehow run, and get a majority of voters (not gonna happen, sorry) they just take away votes in close elections and skew the results. It's not right, but that's life.
Just a quick blip: after watching the presidential debates, I'm disgusted that women's rights are still an issue for the president of the USA. Women got suffrage in New Zealand, Finland and other countries over 100 years ago. Now, that's like saying that African Americans got equal rights after the abolition of slavery. In theory, yes, but white men are retarded and there's still racism today. Equal rights didn't really kick off until the 60's and 70's. So, we'll say America gets a little leeway for being a new country, blah blah blah, oh wait, it's fucking 2012, and we have computers in our phones and all this other bullshit. Everyone should be on a level playing field by now. It doesn't matter if you're black, white, Asian, Native American, male, female, trans or anything else, you should get the exact same treatment and respect as everyone else. Despite saying there's a separation of church and state, America is an insanely Christian nation, and guess what, Christianity kind of misses the mark on a lot of topics.
Anyway, Romney. Throw away whatever you label yourself as. Left, Right, Green, whatever. chuck it out the window. Romney wants to spend more while cutting taxes. He and his sick little bastard Ryan want to cut reproductive rights. Even if you're a Republican, you should be ashamed for thinking the country should be ran by this man. Regardless of your party, he is not a qualified candidate to run a country. It doesn't matter that his father was in Nixon's cabinet. It doesn't matter what Bane Capital does or doesn't do. He has a horrible platform and should never be put in charge. I honestly thought he was a joke when he first started running. But it's stopped being funny and he's still here.