Don't get me wrong. I love may aspects of politics. The ecstasy of a victory after a long, hard fought race. The exultation when finally a significant achievement is reached. It is, after all, the thought that in my lifetime I may yet see a moment like Brown vs. The Board of education, the Civil Rights legislation of the mid 1960s or the great social programs created during the New Deal. It just seems that there are always so many roadblocks in our path. The failure of the Health Care initiatives in the 1990s still pains me today. With that being said I have made a list of 10 things that I have come to hate about politics.
1) There is fundamentally too much power in the hands of just 9 men and women. I am, of course, referring to the United States Supreme Court. When the nation was first formed there were 9 justices representing about 1 million people who lived, as a rule, only through a generation until they were replaced. Today, however, we still have 9 justices that represent 300 million people and live through not 1 but sometimes 2 and even 3 generations. They no longer are representative of the nation. They have become Elitists.
2) Money is much more influential than people. A million dollars, in most cases, is far more valuable to a candidate than several thousand volunteers.
3) There are too many voters who only care about 1 issue. I personally believe that a number of bad politicians have been elected because of a focus on 1 issue. There is more to our country than any single issue.
4) It is sad, but true, that lies, innuendos or half-truths are often more effective than the simple truth and the electorate is swayed as a consequence.
5) It is frustrating that many people, politicians included, will not care about a specific problem until it reaches critical status. Our energy problems have their roots way back in the 1970s and yet only now, it seems, do we have the collective desire to find solutions.
6) It is frustrating that real change is hard to achieve when a small group of people, sometimes just an individual politician, can stop it. I, for one, detest filibustering and think it should be allowed in only rare cases.
7) I hate how pundits, politicians, the press or the average Joe distort the past in order to deceive the electorate about the present.
8) I also hate that too many people in the present do not learn about the past so that they cannot be deceived about the present.
9) I hate how people try to turn all political questions into simple yes/no or black/white equations that have simple, easy answers. Life is complicated, what makes people think that politics, with everyone's different ideas, is not complicated?
10) And on the 10th Day of Christmas, it truly saddens me when I think about how people often analyze political candidates in terms of package rather than performance. I don't care who Thomas Jefferson slept with since that doesn't effect me whatsoever. The Louisana Purchase, though, still resonates today. The same can be said for Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and others. Their personal lives are not what makes my life better or worse. It is the legislation and programs they create that continues to effect me and others each and every day. All right my rant is done.