They don't call us yankees for nothing. Isn't yanking one out kind of a great analogy for America and the sad state of our politics? Stroking egos back and forth 'til somebody pops?
Yesterday was midterm election night, and there is no greater display of ignorance and shit-show-ery by United Statesians than an election in which less than a quarter of the overall population votes.
As the night waned and the Republican torch was relit in a symbolic we-won-the-power-back-fire, I couldn't help but notice my liberal friends groaning in disdain. Yet, were last night's election results really that big of a surprise?
No one has been happy with the past congress not accomplishing a whole hellova lot. The economy, despite what the Obama cronies will tell you is NOT that great, and the job market is still nowhere near where it used to be.
I'm a socially liberal person, but even I can see that spending more and more money will never get us out of the extreme debt our nation is in. The democrats, for the most part, do not understand this concept or at least haven't mastered the republican art of trickery in hiding their monetary indulging.
These days, relating to someone's pocket book (or just buying votes with corporate dollars) is the way to win an election. You can be as social-issue friendly as you want to be, but the personal issues are rarely what keep people away nor do they actually sway people to vote. Remember proposition 8? How many people voted for prop 8 in California that also voted for President Obama?
Maybe more social issues should be put onto the ballot. Last night, marijuana legalization barely failed in Florida, but won in two cities in New Mexico, medical usage won in Guam, and Oregon, Alaska, and D.C. passed legalization efforts. As of last night we now have double the amount of states with legalized marijuana for personal consumption. Right here in Cali voters approved of lessened criminal sentences for drug and minor crime offenders--one of the few platforms in which repubs and dems seem to agree upon.
I am certainly not a political expert, but I am glad the election results turned out the way they did. (Though I still wish we would embrace a three party or more system like the rest of the world. Life is not black and white. Why be forced to vote for one stooge versus another?) Now that the Repubs have control of congress, the president now stands in their way with his veto, and the conservatives do not have a vast enough majority to override the prez's check and balance. What does that mean? That these two lame parties are going to have to work together. There will no longer be a rhetoric of "It's the president's fault." Or "It's the republicans stalling." Or else, like this election showed, it's out with the old, in with the new. Or..well, out with the old, in with the old. Or out with the new, in with the new.
Kind of like last night's erections.
