I've only got to get through today and tomorrow and then I'm on vacation. Looking forward to that. I had a strong push last week, and I'm doing ok keeping up with stuff this week, but have to admit, the closer I get to the end of the week, the harder it is to fight the temptation to just coast through the rest of the week. My mind is already checking out, I have to keep grabbing it and dragging it back to work.
Looking forward to election season being over. In order to get elected, politicians need to say a lot of things. They have to lie, really, and by necessity. If they don't make promises, they simply won't get elected, so I can't blame them too much, I guess. For instance, it seems a president simply doesn't have enough power to do half the stuff they promised to do when they ran for office. It's beyond my wisdom to know if that's a good or bad thing, but it ends up becoming so hard to find anything real about any of these guys or what they say that it just makes me extremely apathetic about the whole thing, and I'm probably not alone in that. I can never even imagine the sacrifices people throughout history have made, and continue to make, to ensure that I can freely have my say in these elections, I have tremendous respect for that. So when my reaction to election season is irritation and apathy, there is a secondary effect of feeling quite guilty regarding my apathy. It's a bit of a conundrum.
I suppose it's frustrating to be president, knowing how little control they really have. Bush #2 had an amazingly huge surge in his approval ratings right after 9/11, if I recall correctly, and it didn't have much of anything to do with anything he did, it came about because of a huge surge in patriotism and a (I would say healthy) desire to unite against the enemy of our country who had just attacked us. Then there's the economy stuff. Big banks screwed us over big time, and somehow Obama gets a black eye for the state of the economy. I know the president has got some power, but seriously, what control did he have over the big banks being all big and evil? If that whole mortgage fiasco hadn't happened, if the economy and unemployment hadn't gotten whacked in the knee by The Bank of Tonya Harding (I'm tired), how much higher would his approval ratings be right now?
So I don't know. The fight for democracy has cost many lives over many, many years. Even today, young Americans are overseas getting killed to protect this nation, yet I sit here in my comfortable basement, completely apathetic to the presidential election because I can't make sense out of any of it, it's just a mass of confusion and people arguing over semantics because the substance is full of lies and false promises. It's hard to educate myself about the issues when I just don't trust any of the sources, so what "facts" do I believe as truth from which I can base any opinions or decisions around?
How the hell did this happen, I came on here to rant about work and then somehow started thinking about the big debate last night, and ugh... I'd better just put this down and start working.
Hell, at least you're thinking about it. Who, among those that think, wouldn't be disillusioned by this bitter, ugly, gut-clawing, awful process that we call democracy. The stakes are so high that not only are the gloves off, but truth, perspective, wisdom, and good sense are out to lunch as well. You talk about the lack of power the president has and you're right. But the power he has is worth billions of dollars to many. Why? Because he's able to tip the scales for an individual easily and significantly. And it's individuals, like corporations and rich people, that will pay dearly for that kind of backing. The economy? Fuck the economy. Those two men on the stage yesterday aren't thinking about the economy. They are thinking how they can become THE focus of influence for the next four years, starting January 2013.
ReplyDeleteSlinging influence, being a chief, having the Midas touch... well, that's worth fighting for with lies and other inconveniences, isn't it?