Its that time of year again. The time that most of us do not look forward to. Election season. Our airwaves will be filled with commercials spouting half- truths and outright lies. Politicians will twist statistics to make them look good. Town halls will happen but when asked a direct question the politicians will turn the answer into something they want to answer instead of answering the question asked. The good news is that it isn't a Presidential election year.
When I was young I was eager to participate in the process of electing our legislators and leaders. I looked at the issues, researched the candidates and with naïve heart went to the voting booth hoping to make a difference in the world. We even went to Caucuses and went to party meetings. As we attended these meetings and watched behind the scenes, reality came crashing down. We saw the back door deals made with those eager to run. We saw those deals be broken when someone new and with more money showed up. We saw how things were really run. We backed out of active political involvement and just voted knowing out votes don't make a difference.
Years later we find a candidate that didn't play like all the rest. He had an active plan, he answered the questions actually asked of him, he had grassroots backing and we once again became active. Then the political establishment came together to ensure he didn't win. He ran again and the political establishment couldn't stop him this time now it was the sort of third party within a party that claimed he was too much the political establishment candidate. He once again lost the election.
The majority of Americans are tired of politics as usual. We are tired of our leaders unable to get anything done because they are so polar opposites that compromise is just not possible. We are tired of our freedoms being eroded bit by bit and just accepting it as the status quo. We need real change. The problem is that in todays political world the people with the money get to decide the laws for the people without the money. Have you ever tried to break into politics without the right connections, the right background and the right bank account. Its not possible. If you don't have those three things you can't get your voice heard. We can grassroots all we want, but unless we have someone with money backing us we will get nowhere.
It is so sad, where I used to be eager to get out and vote I now dread going to the polls. I dread going to the polls because there are no candidates running who support my views or are willing to make changes to politics as usual. Those who are elected to make those changes get to Washington only to find that they are one tiny voice in an ocean and no on will listen. Those establishment politicians like things just the way they are and don't want to make any changes that will lessen their power structure. The only way for us to change this is to massively fire the whole lot of them and start over with completely new legislators. Then maybe the real people will have their voices heard and not just the special interests with the money to get the politician's favor. Yes I am talking revolution but a political one and not a violent one. I want to see a law that requires laws to be written in layman's language instead of the legal mumbo jumbo they are currently written in so the average Joe can't understand it even if they read it. I want to see average Americans in power and not the rich and privileged. I want to see politicians that have the country's best interest at heart instead of their own love of money and power.
This is a pipe dream. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have watched the current President break law after law, using executive privilege where it was not legal. Golf when there are important things going on in the country, go on more vacations than any other sitting President. We do nothing. It doesn't matter what party he belongs to. If he were a Republican party member I would say the same thing. Any American President who does not believe the laws apply to him regardless of party is a danger to the freedom that we hold dear. The longer we wait to do something about this the more danger we are of having our freedoms revoked. I am only one person. I drop in a vast ocean of others and I am powerless to stop the disaster I see looming ahead. Both major political parties are corrupt. Without some kind of major change in the power grid we will lose our sovereignty.
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