The politics of politicking and the price we paid

When I was young I was swayed towards the same political party that my parents belonged to, as I think most young people are. It didn’t take long before I realized how I differed from the standard Republican in that I didn’t appreciate the way Republicans conducted business or a number of the things they stood for. I also found that I didn’t care much for the Democrats for pretty much the same reasons and the Independents always seemed a little “out there” and I never felt that I could really trust them.

This left me in a dilemma of which side should I belong to? The Republican machine that generally wants government smaller; which also makes it easier to sneak things past the American people. Or the Democrats that want big government because we as a people aren’t smart enough to take care of ourselves. I choose both yet neither; which I suppose makes me an Independent.

In recent years the independent vote has become more and more of a key factor in elections as more and more people realize how disingenuous their party of choice really is and turn independent.

Both parties claim to have “the peoples” best interests at heart but do they really? I see a lot of big talk about increasing jobs, education, higher wages, lower taxes, being more non-partisan, etc when they are running for office or reelection but after they secure that position that they promised would bring all those things to the American people it turns into the same ol’ politics as usual.

I remember how emotionally moved I was after 9/11 when that group of those Senators and Congressmen started singing patriotic songs together on the capitol steps. Even though 9/11 was a horrible event I had hopes that out of this tragedy our politicians would put aside their partisan biases and truly come together, enlightened and finally as one. It didn’t take long for my hopes to be quickly dashed. Within a week I started seeing the finger pointing blame game as one party tried to pin 9/11 on the other party. The bottom line honest to God’s truth of it is that 9/11 is both parties fault! If they spent the effort working together that they use in trying to one up the other side we would not have near the problems we currently have in our nation and most likely 9/11 would not have occurred.

I’d love to be able to present an answer to this problem but I can’t think of a realistic one. The only advice I can give is when you vote make sure you understand who and what you are voting for and don’t ever just vote along the party line because it’s easier than doing the research yourself. -HD