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Unfortunately, politics is not theater, and that's why we should take it seriously. Decisions made by politicians affect your life, and no matter how much of a theater buff you may be, you can't say the same thing about a movie or a show.
This is exactly right. We can laugh at our politicians all we want, but stupid decisions or decisions intentionally made that hurt us eventually leave us screwed over. Special interests are using the system to benefit themselves. The laughter is from the politicians and special interests laughing at us.
The laughter is from the politicians and special interests laughing at us.
They'd be doing a little less laughing if more people got up off their butts and voted on Election Day. Listening to talking heads on television oohing and aahing about a Presidential election with 6 million votes for this candidate and 5-1/2 million for that one makes me sick to my stomach. Eleven million votes cast in a country of more than 260 million? There are an awful lot of people complaining about things who don't have any right to be doing that.
I've posted here many times in regard to my view that American politics have slid into the realm of theatre, and quite possibly, it is only those unworthy thespians in DC that benefit from the charade. After all the mudslinging dies down we are still unable to agree on much. Should we take politics seriously, in light of the last few decades of political bungling from both parties?
One of the things that I find disturbing is the attempt to distance oneself from DC. It is a ploy that is used to drum up support for an election. This isn't new and theatrics aren't new. Media is not new. This is something many kids first encounter in elementary school and, unless one did not graduate from 4th grade, we have had this material. Therefore, we have all had the same material that says when the bs starts and ends.
However, there are several times that we have an issue come up on the board and I pose the question, "How do you change it?"
The answer that I am looking for is often a basic one, how does something become a law? What authority does an elected official of a specific office have? It is never answered.
Because people can't be bothered. People would rather cry. People have let someone else sit on the tv and ask the wrong questions rather then drumming up the right ones. I don't think that DC is a world away, I think people have distanced themselves from some of the basics and in doing so they can discuss it in terms that they don't have to accept responsibility.
They'd be doing a little less laughing if more people got up off their butts and voted on Election Day. Listening to talking heads on television oohing and aahing about a Presidential election with 6 million votes for this candidate and 5-1/2 million for that one makes me sick to my stomach. Eleven million votes cast in a country of more than 260 million? There are an awful lot of people complaining about things who don't have any right to be doing that.
Election day is way, waaaay too late for people to get off their butts and vote. The last three times I considered voting, I discovered that in my congressional district, it was a one-man race, with no opposition to the incumbent. Only one name on the ballot. (In every election, more than 10% of all Americans are disenfranchised by this practice. Including, in '08, the entire state of Arkansas.) As for president, what would have been the point of me voting in the '08 election? In Texas, if the race were close enough that either party needed my vote, every other state would have already been a Dem landslide, so what would have been the point of me voting?
In a year or so, the national media will start prepping their camera-ready contenders for the '12 election. In the ensuing year or two, the same media will swift-boat the ones they are no longer enamored with. We'll then be left with the two who are least likely to rock the boat, and the swing states will set out to rig their elections. What do the voters have to do with it?
One of the things that I find disturbing is the attempt to distance oneself from DC. It is a ploy that is used to drum up support for an election. This isn't new and theatrics aren't new. Media is not new. This is something many kids first encounter in elementary school and, unless one did not graduate from 4th grade, we have had this material. Therefore, we have all had the same material that says when the bs starts and ends.
However, there are several times that we have an issue come up on the board and I pose the question, "How do you change it?"
The answer that I am looking for is often a basic one, how does something become a law? What authority does an elected official of a specific office have? It is never answered.
Because people can't be bothered. People would rather cry. People have let someone else sit on the tv and ask the wrong questions rather then drumming up the right ones. I don't think that DC is a world away, I think people have distanced themselves from some of the basics and in doing so they can discuss it in terms that they don't have to accept responsibility.
"People can't be bothered", this reminds me of the times I have read of someones suspicions that those in the Nazi camps didn't really try hard enough to overwhelm their captors and seek their freedom. I guess they weren't taking personal responsibility for their diminished position.
Some folk's are always going to see the American political construct as the ostensible participant democracy the school texts have portrayed it to be, and some will see the futility in making any attempt to address their concerns in light of the fact that money talks, and, talks loudest.
DC is indeed a world away for most of us, the obvious charade of legislation creation in the interests of the masses brings me to my conclusion that most of the political dancing in Washington is for the benefit of those who really pay the way for our elected leaders.
I've posted here many times in regard to my view that American politics have slid into the realm of theatre, and quite possibly, it is only those unworthy thespians in DC that benefit from the charade. After all the mudslinging dies down we are still unable to agree on much. Should we take politics seriously, in light of the last few decades of political bungling from both parties?
I believe the "theatrical" angle in politics is no different than any other business or dealings in life. Many people do play that game for a wide variety of reasons to get the attention they want.
When people say that politicians today are this or that way in my opinion is incorrect. I have looked at past political figures, newpapers, historical cartoons, etc. and they are pretty much the same you see today and the same when people talk about them in yesteryears and today. We tend to idialize the past but looking closely, people are the same i.e. we have distrustful people, conspiracies theorists, disgruntled citizes, etc. Many of these people tend to be the leaders in convicing people politicians are so bad. Do not take me wrong and that exists but the bottom line is that I do not think it is any different today than before.
"People can't be bothered", this reminds me of the times I have read of someones suspicions that those in the Nazi camps didn't really try hard enough to overwhelm their captors and seek their freedom. I guess they weren't taking personal responsibility for their diminished position.
Some folk's are always going to see the American political construct as the ostensible participant democracy the school texts have portrayed it to be, and some will see the futility in making any attempt to address their concerns in light of the fact that money talks, and, talks loudest.
DC is indeed a world away for most of us, the obvious charade of legislation creation in the interests of the masses brings me to my conclusion that most of the political dancing in Washington is for the benefit of those who really pay the way for our elected leaders.
Even closer to home, one's individual vote doesn't matter, and the outcome is generally predecided. There are no surprises.
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