Why do Politics Suck?

Hello and welcome to the first post on what will eventually be a Blog and Podcast about the amazingly absurd and painfully counterproductive world of politics in the 21st Century.

I have always been tuned in to the current state of the Nation and have always had plenty of commetary on the stupidity of those our citizens elect to “lead” us. During the Bush Jr. days, I had a small personal blog where I would vent my frustrations with the system and found that occasionally I got a few laughs and more than a few “right-on’s”. With the gigantic 2008 election, I thought for sure that the United States had finally swept in a Congress who would act on behalf of the kinds of people I knew and not the rich, and perhaps put the country back on the road to its lost stature of a place where the American Dream was within the reach of everyone. Barack Obama had run on a platform of “hope” and “change” (I have no doubt that you know why I put those words in “quotes”) and the vast majority of middle-class and even poorer-class Americans were sure that we’d finally found our Superman.

Obama was going to shut down Gitmo, end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, look into the crimes of Bush and Cheney, give us all universal health care, rebuild our infrastructure, boost the economy, hold the rich accountable for their share of the burden, and basically give us all the ice cream we wanted, paint the nation in rainbows and declare unicorns our national symbol.

2 years later, Congress has basically taken the mandate to work for the middle class that got them a super-majority and somehow interpreted it as a mandate to cower and cry and give in before anything actually was accomplished. The President has fallen off that mile-high pedestal and took much of the country along with him. The Republicans have made it their mission to de-throne him in 2012, and he seemingly does not have the courage or the desire to fight the good fight for the rest of us.

Add to this the circus that was the 2010 midterm elections with the insane “tea baggers”, an unemployment rate hovering just below 10%, record profits for bankers and investors, an environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico perpetrated by a multi-national oil company and the total paralysis of the President and indeed the entire Democratic Party, and it would seem that the time is right for someone to make sense of HOW and WHY the situation is as dire as it is.

With the help of some contributor friends, I hope to create a review of the issues from the point of view of some regular, average, working people. We are not journalists or academics. We are not affiliated with any media outlet. We are not extremists or “Beckkies” or socialists. We are simply here to look at the news and how we and the rest of the “middle” in America will be effected.

I hope you enjoy this and I look forward to reading your comments!

Selena

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