Election Day

Nobody feels like their vote counts because the person they’re voting for doesn’t count on them.  The modern-day political system in America changed dramatically on 9/11, and now it’s constantly a fear based cycle.  If you elect Johnny Nopants he’ll let illegal aliens urinate on your dog while you’re at work paying for his welfare check; he’ll let Obama kill your sickly grandmother; he’ll erect a mosque next to your church and eliminate the bacon on your burgers!  Although I can’t remember an election where people didn’t slander their opponent, it’s to the point of absurdity and nearly hilariously irrelevant and incorrect.  Jon Stewart’s rally was a seminal, groundbreaking idea of pure equality.  His speech at the end of the D.C. rally was directed at all those who use their inner prejudices or sometimes even racism to thwart political opponent’s ideas.  We are all Americans and we will always disagree on everything.  We need more than two parties whose collective feet are held to the same fire by the powerful oligarchic corporate system.  Tobacco, Gun, Environmental, Oil, Car, and Coal lobbies as well as others are financing 21st century political agendas.  The representatives and senators, in theory, are to represent the people’s interests; but they inevitably wind up supporting their next campaign by allowing corporate interests to guide their goals.  It’s possible that government has grown “too big to fail” and cannot be changed without a radical revolution that ousts anyone in the current structure and replaced with a new political organization.  Invariably, those newcomers would become drunk with the proverbial power and we are back at square one.  It’s not hard to find the complacent or the indifferent in America today.  It’s also not hard to find radicals or the hard-liners either.  We seem to be polarizing ourselves not by our own ideals, but by the very political scheming of the candidates themselves.  We may be pro-choice but also pro-death penalty.  We may be anti-war but also interested in national safety.  We don’t all fit into a particular partisan schema.  We blur lines, we cross over–but now, we must choose sides because we can’t possibly have both Republican and Democrat ideals.  “Either you’re with us or against us.”  Thanks W.  It’s just not always that simple, but that’s what his presidency was all about–shooting from the hip, going with the gut.  The feeling I got from Jon Stewart (who under appreciates (perhaps no longer, after the rally) his role in the news media and political world) is that we are all one people who want to help each other.  Nobody wants to work hard and get taxed high so another can be idle and eat from another’s toil.  The welfare system would seem to work if those who aren’t gifted with doctor, lawyer or physicist brains were given a little bit of monetary help by those who were.  The rich can spare a little wealth to help the person who serves their food or takes away their garbage or mows their lawn.  Have you ever seen someone throw a quarter in the cup of a homeless man?  We can throw a few quarters together toward helping people a step away from homelessness.  Get a job, any job, then you can get help from those who don’t need help.  There must be a point where you don’t need more money.  When one person can afford six cars or three homes, he/she can afford to spread some wealth around.  Don’t break their bank, just spread the bread.