It is off
season, off track voting day here in western Maine. My wife and I were talking about it last
night. Young people tend not to vote: they
are too busy and not particularly interested.
For the young, voting falls someplace beneath getting laid, getting drunk,
getting married, having kids, working to make ends meet…
I hate to admit it but I didn’t vote until I
was almost forty…getting laid, drinking, hell raising, military deployments… and my wife was almost thirty before she
voted: just living life seemed too complicated to worry about politics – which everyone
knows you can do nothing about anyway.
We vote
now. It comes with age. Though I am still not convinced that it
solves any problems. I always vote for
the less objectionable politician. (Obama
was the exception: I really liked him).
But, the government is so packed with politicians whose only aspirations
is to remain in office at all cost – that the best you can do is to hope that
the less objectionable party remains in control.
Politicians
spend the majority of their time raising money to finance their campaigns to
convince you to vote for them. Their
allegiance is to the wealthy donors, and not to the voters. The title Senator and Congressperson is as
close to a royalty class as there is in this country – and politicians will say
anything and vote anything in order to secure their position.
The
government has always been an oligarchy disguised as capitalism and run by the
wealthy overlords, and it will always remain an oligarchy.
‘We The
People” (us) are only duped into believing that we have some control on the
outcomes. Bush became President, though
he did not win the popular vote.
Congress is full of gerrymandered Congress Persons. To say the system is rigged is a fair
conclusion.
Political
parties vie for control by placating and manipulating their selected demographics.
Then when they get in office the party
serves the overlords and the politicians live to secure their own positions.
A government
“Of the people, for the people and by the people” can only exist in a utopian socialist
world. Of course, true socialism can’t exist because
the people in charge would vie for power and fuck it up.
I will go down
and vote today, because that gives me the right to complain.
Either way,
we will inherit the wind.
the Ol’Buzzard
Further to your comment on my blog, yes, I remember Joey Smallwood too -- what a character he was! Always liked to call himself "the only living Father of Confederation" which he was. At least til he died too!
ReplyDeleteI might live long enough to see a woman in that office, not that it would be an improvement.
ReplyDeleteI have voted since I first was eligible at 21.
ReplyDeleteOn Real Time last week they nailed it. Those on the right are hardcore voters and those on the left have become disillusioned because when they vote and even if the person they vote for gets elected, nothing seems to change.
You've hit the nail on the head..
ReplyDeleteYou've hit the nail on the head..
ReplyDeleteVoting is only the last part of a sound democratic process. Too many people think making an X every few years entitles them to Nirvana. It doesn't work that way.
ReplyDelete