political rant
i wrote this on my myspace blog a while ago and just re-read it tonight and still feel exactly the same way, so im posting it here now.
'the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.'
-bukowski
maybe i've been watching too much daily show, but doesn't anyone else feel that our political process and our government in general is just one big joke? but not even a funny joke, the kind of joke you tell and ends with tears instead of laughter, or maybe a huge cock in your ass. maybe im just turning into that old guy sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper and repeating "worlds going to hell...." but a friend of mine was telling me today she got her primary vote stuff in the mail and the first thought i had was 'why the fuck would you want to even vote?'. here is what bothers me:
a) voting - it seems like 95% of the public is completely uneducated about what they're voting for (me included). i mean, sure, the president is an easy one, but but do you know who would be the best school superintendent strictly by their names and no party affiliation listed? do you really know what votes your senator has made this year and if they should stay in office? should there be a mandatory popular vote next time to approve lowering of taxes, even if the governor and senate agree they should be lowered? do hospitals really need more money, enough to warrant raising taxes or are they working okay as they are? do you know what the full effects would be of limiting legal damages against large companies?
the average person doesn't know any of that. sure, you can research it and find out, but who does that? who really has the time.
and then even if you do all of your research and cast votes you are confident are the "right" ones, it may not be counted anyways. so many "voting irregularities" and bullshit all the time. theres this website that i read during the last election and there was so much seedy shit going on at election offices and those electronic voting machines failing, etc etc that it was ridiculous.
one thing i do agree with is that when our government was formed, basically, the founding fathers thought the general population was too stupid to have an actual direct democracy so they gave us a representative one instead.....but, then again, it's not like you can put much faith in politicians....which leads us to:
"anyone who is capable of being elected president should on no account be allowed to do the job"
-douglas adams
b) politicians - so, we vote (and we may or may not have some glimmer of understanding of what we're voting for....and our vote may or may not be counted) and we elect people to do the business of the government for us....but how are supposed to have any faith in them when almost daily there are new scandals and underhanded bullshit? and that's just what we do hear. think about all the morally questionable shit that no one finds out about. and "campaign contributions" are just legal bribes....yet no one seems to be outraged or care. personally, i dont trust any politicians. they're all just there for self-interest and power and greed. does anyone actually believe that most politicians have the countries best interest at heart?
but they're supposed to be smart and understand all the issues for us, right? but then you find out that they don't even read all the bills they vote on, and most of the time they just vote yea or nea along their party lines.
"sit down, my son...we don't read most of the bills..." - congressman john conyers
d) so much bullshit gets attached to things like budgets or military spending bills that no one wants to vote no for because it would be "unamerican" or whatever, so they just go through without any debate or anything. it's so fucking underhanded. $50 million in tax breaks for oil companies or some bullshit just because they gave some senator a huge campaign contribution. but it never gets debated or even read because it's attatched to the budget. what if that $50 million was put towards feeding homeless people or for teachers salary or new schools or free clinics or even stopping global warming? really the money is needed much more anywhere than where it really goes.
e) instead of actually trying to help people, it seems like so much time is spent on bullshit like legislating morality. burning flags ....or gay marriage? is that really going to help make the country so much of a better place that days need to be spent debating it and writing up bills, etc? it seems like there are a million better uses of government resources than deciding if 2 people of the same sex can get married or if someone can ignite a piece of cloth....more important shit that could be focused on.....higher priorities that might actually make the country a better place....might actually stop the suffering of some people.....
"the only difference between republicans and democrats is how fast they drop to their knees when big business comes around." -ralph nader
f) almost everyone i know, for the last few elections, has voted democrat for president, not because they really are inspired by them but just because they think they'll only get fucked in the ass a few times instead of on a regular basis....how fucking sad is that? personally, i would vote libertarian or green party but i dont think my vote will matter since neither of those parties have a shot in hell of getting elected, so i just end up voting democrat, but what i'm really doing is just voting against a fucking republican. how pathetic is that? that all voting has become is "instead of voting for what i actually believe in, ill vote for the sorta evil guy instead of the really evil guy"....
so, to sum it up, i honestly think i might be done voting for a while....the whole thing just leaves me completely without faith in anything related to politics and i honestly dont feel my vote will do anything or make one iota of difference....it all just seems like a total joke.....and i cant believe that most people aren't outraged at what a fucking joke the whole thing is....but i guess its because there are such things as alcohol and sex and movies and religion and sitcoms and masturbation and drugs and music and addictions and cancer and taxes, etc etc....its easy to just get distracted by one of the other things and forget about all this bullshit....
'the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.'
-bukowski
maybe i've been watching too much daily show, but doesn't anyone else feel that our political process and our government in general is just one big joke? but not even a funny joke, the kind of joke you tell and ends with tears instead of laughter, or maybe a huge cock in your ass. maybe im just turning into that old guy sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper and repeating "worlds going to hell...." but a friend of mine was telling me today she got her primary vote stuff in the mail and the first thought i had was 'why the fuck would you want to even vote?'. here is what bothers me:
a) voting - it seems like 95% of the public is completely uneducated about what they're voting for (me included). i mean, sure, the president is an easy one, but but do you know who would be the best school superintendent strictly by their names and no party affiliation listed? do you really know what votes your senator has made this year and if they should stay in office? should there be a mandatory popular vote next time to approve lowering of taxes, even if the governor and senate agree they should be lowered? do hospitals really need more money, enough to warrant raising taxes or are they working okay as they are? do you know what the full effects would be of limiting legal damages against large companies?
the average person doesn't know any of that. sure, you can research it and find out, but who does that? who really has the time.
and then even if you do all of your research and cast votes you are confident are the "right" ones, it may not be counted anyways. so many "voting irregularities" and bullshit all the time. theres this website that i read during the last election and there was so much seedy shit going on at election offices and those electronic voting machines failing, etc etc that it was ridiculous.
one thing i do agree with is that when our government was formed, basically, the founding fathers thought the general population was too stupid to have an actual direct democracy so they gave us a representative one instead.....but, then again, it's not like you can put much faith in politicians....which leads us to:
"anyone who is capable of being elected president should on no account be allowed to do the job"
-douglas adams
b) politicians - so, we vote (and we may or may not have some glimmer of understanding of what we're voting for....and our vote may or may not be counted) and we elect people to do the business of the government for us....but how are supposed to have any faith in them when almost daily there are new scandals and underhanded bullshit? and that's just what we do hear. think about all the morally questionable shit that no one finds out about. and "campaign contributions" are just legal bribes....yet no one seems to be outraged or care. personally, i dont trust any politicians. they're all just there for self-interest and power and greed. does anyone actually believe that most politicians have the countries best interest at heart?
but they're supposed to be smart and understand all the issues for us, right? but then you find out that they don't even read all the bills they vote on, and most of the time they just vote yea or nea along their party lines.
"sit down, my son...we don't read most of the bills..." - congressman john conyers
d) so much bullshit gets attached to things like budgets or military spending bills that no one wants to vote no for because it would be "unamerican" or whatever, so they just go through without any debate or anything. it's so fucking underhanded. $50 million in tax breaks for oil companies or some bullshit just because they gave some senator a huge campaign contribution. but it never gets debated or even read because it's attatched to the budget. what if that $50 million was put towards feeding homeless people or for teachers salary or new schools or free clinics or even stopping global warming? really the money is needed much more anywhere than where it really goes.
e) instead of actually trying to help people, it seems like so much time is spent on bullshit like legislating morality. burning flags ....or gay marriage? is that really going to help make the country so much of a better place that days need to be spent debating it and writing up bills, etc? it seems like there are a million better uses of government resources than deciding if 2 people of the same sex can get married or if someone can ignite a piece of cloth....more important shit that could be focused on.....higher priorities that might actually make the country a better place....might actually stop the suffering of some people.....
"the only difference between republicans and democrats is how fast they drop to their knees when big business comes around." -ralph nader
f) almost everyone i know, for the last few elections, has voted democrat for president, not because they really are inspired by them but just because they think they'll only get fucked in the ass a few times instead of on a regular basis....how fucking sad is that? personally, i would vote libertarian or green party but i dont think my vote will matter since neither of those parties have a shot in hell of getting elected, so i just end up voting democrat, but what i'm really doing is just voting against a fucking republican. how pathetic is that? that all voting has become is "instead of voting for what i actually believe in, ill vote for the sorta evil guy instead of the really evil guy"....
so, to sum it up, i honestly think i might be done voting for a while....the whole thing just leaves me completely without faith in anything related to politics and i honestly dont feel my vote will do anything or make one iota of difference....it all just seems like a total joke.....and i cant believe that most people aren't outraged at what a fucking joke the whole thing is....but i guess its because there are such things as alcohol and sex and movies and religion and sitcoms and masturbation and drugs and music and addictions and cancer and taxes, etc etc....its easy to just get distracted by one of the other things and forget about all this bullshit....