The Politics of Politics. Time to vomit.


 

I’ve been away from this page, but I’m back for a little political commentary.

The politics of politics.  Not a redundancy, but the politicization of everything.  I get the goal of politics is to get your party elected so that you can set the policy that bets represents your constituents and supporters. But that has been coopted to the point where every issue becomes fodder for Beltway pundits looking to score points.  This is not a new phenomenon, the underside of politics in this country  has a rich history, a history as deep and wide as corruption.  Maybe because it is happening today, we seem to think it has worsened.  Perhaps. I think we are at the dangerous nadir of an ignorant misinformed electorate, unfathomable money in politics, the end of democracy, the establishment of an oligarchy, and the politicization of every possible issue or scandal, real or imagined.

I love politics.  I love the gamesmanship, I love campaigns and elections, and I love the strategy.  I hate politics.  I hate the endless babble of beltway talking heads, I hate the idea of fundraising off of a crisis, I hate the pettiness, and I hate the cheerleading media.  I miss real courage in politics.  I miss the idea that our elected officials would put nation first and re-electability second.  If Paul Ryan was courageous, his budget would include income increases, reduction in defense spending, and Medicare and Social Security reform.  Instead his budget was a sop to big Republican special interests.

I hate the role of religion in politics.  The last thing we should care about is how many times our president goes to church.  I saw this week that 53% of people would not vote for an atheist.  I find this strange in that somehow being an atheist is more dangerous than a candidate saying “I feel like God wants me to run for President.”  The idea of religion setting government policy is a dangerous proposition, the theocratic oligarchy.  Sorry, but no good has come from running a country in the name of God or other deity. If the founding fathers realized that God did not belong in the Constitution, it certainly doesn’t belong in public policy.

With the exception of Fareed Zakaria’s GPS, I avoid Sunday Talk Shows.  I do not watch any of the MSNBC, Fox News, or CNN political shows.  I watch BBCA and AJAM for my news and analysis.  Why?  I am tired of the BS, and I am tired of the noise.  I am tired of CNN having a liberal and conservative on to spar and yell.  I am tired of professional pundits on political talk shows spewing the same old drek.  I am tired of the corporate masters running network news and cable news.  I am tired of the evening news being a cross between Extra and pharmaceutical infomercials.

I will never support a Republican candidate that kisses the ass of special interests and social conservatives.  Democrats that run from the Affordable Care Act are gutless.  Congressional oversight?  Might as well make the Keystone Kops the FBI.  The only thing that the electorate gets right is the low approval ratings for Congress; too bad they keep re-electing the same clowns.   

I am disappointed in the ignorance of the electorate and how misinformed the public remains about domestic policy and foreign affairs.  The American people  don’t want to get  entangled in any more foreign wars, yet give the president poor grades in how he has handled Syria and Libya. 

Corporations are people, money is speech, and pollsters set policy.  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.  I feel the bile rising to the back of my throat. 

When’s the first 2016 debate?  I can’t wait.

Oh by the way, the candidate that said “I feel like God wants me to run for President.” was George W. Bush.  How did that work out?

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Secular American Jew and a Love for Israel

As many of you know, I have dedicated many postings to the State of Israel on a range of topics including: it’s history, the present day government, the Jewish-Palestinian question, and the region in general.   Growing up in a liberal conservative Jewish household (the oxymoron is quite common as American Jews were almost exclusively political liberals and the conservative branch of Judaism the most common) and attending Hebrew school as a kid you obviously build an affinity for the State of Israel.   I do not remember the Six-Day War of 1967, but I have vivid memories of celebrating Israel’s 25 th anniversary in 1973 and the Yom Kippur War later that year.   As a ten year old attending Yom Kippur services I saw the worried looks on my parents and the other adults at the shul as members of the congregation would periodically step outside to get news reports from car radios and transistor radios (We still drove and used electrical appliances during the high holidays, though several fam
Read more

September 10, 2001 was a Monday

Where were you on September 10, 2001?   What were you worried about?   What occupied your thoughts, worries, hopes, and dreams?   What were you excited about?   What were you interested in? September 10, 2001 was a Monday. Cindy and I were still laughing about the recent visit from the Three Amigas: Leah, Roseanne, and Valerie, and the adventures of Sedona, a certain screen door, a forgotten carrot cake, and breakfast for champions.   We were also dealing with a 1995 Chevy Blazer that seemed to be on its last legs, surviving our first Arizona summer, thinking about what to remodel in the house, dealing with the concept of a Home Owners Association, thinking that my best shot at a World Series game maybe with the fledgling Arizona Diamondbacks, and looking forward to a visit from Scott, Lori, and the boys. But what about America?   We knew nothing about a tiny town in Pennsylvania called Shanksville; Guantanamo Bay was the setting for A Few Good Men, and we still taped shows and listene
Read more

Sunni and Shia: So who are the bad guys again?

Baby faces vs. heals?   Cowboys vs Indians?   Good guy always where the white hat.   “Dig is he a good guy or bad guy?”   Bad guys always, looked, well, bad. You’re either with us or you’re against us.   Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are the axis of evil. Americans, for the most part, have a pretty simple outlook on conflict: just tell us who the bad guys are and we’ll know who to root against.   We tend to lump similar races and peoples into larger buckets, mostly due to the media’s inclination to treat us like potential Jeff Foxworthy competitors.   But the world is anything but simple and as I have written previously, the Middle East is as confusing and confounding place as you can find.   During the Iran and Iraq war of the 1980’s most Americans took the position that “…as long as they kill each other, I’m good.”   When civil war ravaged Afghanistan, we joined the side of the Mujahedeen because they were fighting the Soviets and the Soviets were our archenemy, a position they occupie
Read more