My view of politics

Hmmm. Has anyone ever noted how the word politics sounds? First there is 'poly' which, if I remember tends to mean 'many' or 'lots'. Then there's 'ticks' which brings to mind those nasty fat little blood suckers you can find on your dog or on your own person if you go hiking through rough country. So we end up with ' lots of, or many blood sucking, nasty little bugs'. And, sadly sometimes that is how I tend to look at the politicians of both main parties and even some of the minor parties that are trying to drum up support. Nasty little blood sucking varmints just ready to jump on the average citizen and suck them dry.

Yeah, I know. Most politicians get into the frey for 'noble' reasons. They want to do something about some injustice or blight or whatever. Then the reality of the thing hits. The real give and take of politics. I would be suckered in, I am sure. All despite my high faluting so called values. Why? Simple.

Lets say I ran for some office or other on a 'green' (or blue, or pink or purple) platform. I'm sure it wouldn't be long before I found out that in order to get the votes for the 'green' laws I wanted passed I'd have to promise to vote, or even actually push for a favorable vote for some other law that I didn't particularly like. Maybe I'd have to agree to back some orange, yellow, or beige law or watch most of my lovely little green laws either die in committee or be voted into oblivion.

And if I went in trying to actually CHANGE some things! Oh, boy, would the bureaucracy get on my case. If there is one thing a bureaucracy hates it is change. Just try changing one line of a church, business or government form. (All bureaucracy's love forms!) Or worse, give them an answer on one of those lines that is even just a little outside the box of what they expect. My personal favorite is when the paper work asks me for my race, or what I believe my race to be.... I like to answer 'Human'. They may chuckle or smile, but they always come back to, "Now, really miss. We need to know if you consider yourself to be ...." and I know that if I stick to 'human' there will be a price to pay.

As for the politicians we have in office now. Sigh. I'm, as you may suspect, a little pissed at both parties. Yeah, one wants to, apparently, have more control over the kind of medical treatment I will be able to get. But the other seems to want me to shift for myself unless I have enough cash saved back to pay either ridiculous medical costs out of my own pocket or equally ridiculous insurance costs. Insurance that I have no certainty that a Doctor will take or that will require that I go to specific doctors who may be, well, just too darn far away for me to get to. (Like in Dallas or Rockwall) And I'm really not sure about this idea on requiring everyone to have health insurance. That could end up hurting the really poor and even others as badly as the requirement for car insurance.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I don't want to get in an accident with someone who doesn't have insurance on their vehicle either. However, I'd also like to point out that while folks in the cities just might be able to ride a bus, train, or even take a taxi to work...There ain't none of that there stuff out here in the country. Where I live. Where a lot of the folks that work in the cities live. A goodly number of those folks who live here while working in those cities, even local small towns, work for a pay that just barely meets their needs for the rent/mortgage, food, utilities and maybe either a car payment OR insurance but NOT both. But they still have to get to work so they can pay the mortgage, for the food and utilities. All while work can be anywhere from 15 to 60 miles away. One way! Way too far for a bicycle, or a horse (which is all I felt I had at one point! but lets not get into that.)

That's a position I doubt very much any politician in DC has ever been in or considers when making up these 'universal' laws.

Sometimes I really like the wild story idea I had a few years ago. It went something like this (I'm leaving out the characters and other details): Some congressional intern suspects the congressmen or senators don't read all of the law put before them. So in one bill that the intern knows will be passed because it's for either a raise for the politicians in office or because it's for paying government workers, he / she inserts a sneaky little paragraph or two that makes an addition to all, and I mean all, ballots for the presidential election. This addition allows that if you don't like any of those running for the office or feel it makes no difference then you can vote to use a lottery to choose the winner. Only the lottery will include everyone in the United States who is of age for the office, of sound mind, and with nothing on their criminal records above a felony. Needless to say, the character I have 'win' this lottery is a peppery old country gal with strong opinions and a complete lack of any party affiliation. Hmm sorta sounds like...never mind.

In any event, sometimes I begin to think that's how we should elect all of our government officials and that we should limit all of them to only one term in office. That way every one would face having to do their civic duty for good or ill. It would certainly be an incentive to teach how government works in school. Yes, you could end up with people in office with really radical ideas, that way, not to mention from all economic levels. But at least you wouldn't have folks in office who had to remember who had helped them get that office, whether it be the Republicans, the Democrats, Exxon Mobil or the big ticket drug companies. Yeah, you might also have more folks trying to influence those who won these lotteries, but, lets face something here. If you knew your representative was chosen by lottery and that, simply by living where you lived, in your district and being of age, sane, and not jail bait you could be next in line to clean up their mess...wouldn't you keep a closer eye on what they did?

One things for sure, it'd sure as heck cut back on the mud slinging, muck raking and finger pointing we have to put up with every few years. Plus all that cash spent for all the advertising? Just think what it could do if it were donated to better causes or even dumped into the National Treasury to be put against the national debt.