The X on the Political Problem

The Windsors of America

The problem with American politics today is the same reason we broke away from England so many years ago. Politics today are in a state or entitlement.

We are no longer looking for the best and the brightest to run for office, instead we seeing the American version of Royal succession. This was blatantly obvious with the election of George Bush, but it has been a pervasive part of American politics for the better part of the 20th century.

Look into some of the politician’s making headlines today and you will see some type of family connection that helped them into this inner echelon. Just as an example, Al Gore who presents himself as the “environmental every man” came from Congressional seed.

Now I’m sure your saying “When has it ever been different, look at the Adams family (hehe).” To that I say fuck you. When the Adams boys were elected the country had a population of about 100 people. The younger Adams probably was the best man for the job because there was no one else in the country that was literate.

But when you have a population of several hundred million people your pool of candidates opens up exponentially. Yet, we are seeing these entitled children slide into our top governmental positions simply because they have the right name, not the right qualifications. Speakin of qualifications…

Millionaires are not the Middle Class
Why did the middle class get its name? Because when you draw a bell curve these are the people that fit squarely smack dab in the middle. If we use the latest statistics the average American’s household income is $40,000 a year. Go one to two standard deviations from this middle point and you are looking at a range from $10,000 to $80,000.

How can someone who comes from a million dollar family begin to understand what the average American is going through? Quite simply, they can’t, especially those individuals that had this money handed to them. Why then do we continue to pick these individuals to represent us?

Where are the Harry Truman’s of our modern age? Where are the people who worked for many years, saw what the everyman is going through and decided to help by getting into politics?

Instead we get people who have never had to work handed a seat of power and then turned into career politicians. Mark my words we will one day see “Paris for President”, simply because she will have the funds and the clout to run.

There Should be no Career Politicians
Everyone gets complacent in their job. Human nature thrives on change. Anyone who holds the same political position for more than ten years needs to get the hell out. You are no longer in touch with your constituents. Even if you came from “everyman” stock you have been rubbing elbows with the upper echelon long enough to forget who you truly represent.

Electoral College is Retarded
Why do we still use the Electoral College? After all I don’t use garters to hold up my socks. I’m not going to work every day in a horse and buggy. Back when America was new the popular vote would have been too difficult to tabulate in a timely manner, the Electoral College made sense.

In this age of mass communication and 256 bit SSL encryption there is no reason we shouldn’t be using the popular vote. Why don’t we? Fear!

Fear from that upper crust of giving that direct power to the people. Anyone who thinks that the electors aren’t bought is delusional. Campaigns can and have been tampered with (just look at 200 & 2004 for proof).

So Who do I Want?
I want a candidate I can believe in. I want someone who I feel is smarter than myself and more importantly will come up with solutions to our country’s problems.

The last election was a serioeus of two men telling me what was wrong with the country and firing barbs back and forth that the other’s party was responsible. I don’t care who is responsible and if I want a barometer of what’s wrong in America today I’ll log on to www.cnn.com .

We are electing these people to fix problems, but unfortunately anyone who runs doesn’t seem to have those answers. It’s less about politics and more about PR and sound bites.

I would love for a third party to step up. Unfortunately they become too radical with their platforms and end up scaring Betty and Joe American in Iowa. Also, campaigns are about money and as I stated earlier a majority of America's funds are resting in the coffers of the Democrats and Republicans.

What willc hange it? A revolution! Face it, we're due. The rabble rousing of the 60's was only a predecessor to a larger change to come. People will only tolerate bullshit for so long before they pull themselves out of the mire.