These recent Senate electoral races have me so annoyed I don't even know how to explain how I feel. I grabbed a copy of the New York Times this morning, for several reasons. first, the school is handing them out for free, so why not? Second, it makes me look very socially privileged and very much like an intellectual to sit in a coffee shop with my tea and reading the New York Times, not once glancing up at the television blaring "The View." Third, print journalism is dying and I feel like I need to read up on paper as much as I can before it all dies out. To take it a sociological step farther, the function of my newspaper reading had the latent function of a very attractive, bearded young man and I exchanging a quick but suggestive glance at each other. Functional latent functions are often the most exciting.
But back to the topic! I was reading the article Election Likely to Increase Political Divide Over How to Solve Federal Deficit, where the current Republican and Democrat divide over economical policies were briefly explained and heavily criticized (yet another theme of modern American journalism). There are two problems with the bipartisan system, the two being that Republicans and Democrats just do not have any desire or knowledge as to how to work together among their differences. Second, the Democrats have become a bunch of divided wimps, and they are relying only on their majority to get anything done.
Republicans and Democrats have always had different motivations in Congress and in politics in general. However, we live in an age where there are too many social groups and even more social issues for our country to survive through a bi-party system. Republicans now have their hands too deep in corporate pockets, and their minds too stuck in pre-historic notions of organized religion to make any sort of concise, rational, responsible political decision. Democrats, on the other hand, also have their hands too deep in corporate pocket, but won't own it. Unlike the Republicans who can make strong claims against abortion, Democrats do not scream and yell enough about the lack of individual freedoms. Republicans are appealing to the public as the family-party, whereas Democrats (bless them) are coming off as political radicals, and no one in America likes a radical. That's just how that boat floats. And the two have no incentive or desire to work together to make the majority of Americans (who are moderates anyways) happy. The great divide of Republicans and Democrats is only a facade, folks. Don't buy a word of it.
Second, I'm reading here that "Democrats differ among themselves on whether to extend all the Bush tax cuts... or just those for households with annual incomes below $250,000" (pg. A18). Great, so now even the team with no backbone can't even figure out if they want legs or a back. Either way, most Democrats, along with economists, agree that "with unemployment stuck at nearly 10 percent, more stimulus spending is needed" (pg. A18), so pretty much lets hand out checks of money our government doesn't have, so we can spend the money we should be saving to pay off all the money we've already spent but don't have, so that later our grandkids can pay off that debt. All in the meantime, we won't have healthcare or Social Security. I hope everyone in my age range has started saving up for retirement, because Social Security is going to become a thing of the past.
I love America, but sometimes I just wonder how much of the majority is going to have to suffer, and how much of ourselves we are going to have to eat before we start really get some chagne going.
No comments:
Post a Comment