Saturday 24 May 2014

Do you really want change in the government?

With the US Congress's approval rating approaching single digits it would be easy to think that Americans are ready for change.  Sadly many Americans just don't give a shit.  31% of Americans it seems and that is 31% that admit it.  Forget about the 31% the say they support the GOP and 37% that say they support the Democrats but really don't give a shit.  We just finished having primaries for house and senate members and even though 67% of people poles said they want their representative voted out 45% of people when faced with a change said they approved of what their representative was doing.  So Congress's approval rating is 11%, 67% of people said they want their representative voted out but then when faced with a change 45% said they actually approve of their representatives.  If you made it past 1st grade maths you should see those numbers don't add up.  Note they aren't from different poles.

So what does this mean?  It means people are afraid of change.  Especially change that they control.  Most people would rather sit back and do nothing then go forward and cause a change to the system even when they admit the system is fully broken.

These mid term elections often receive less then 40% turn out of eligible voters and numbers show that even though more people say they would support democrats (37%) over republicans (31%) the truth is that among likely voters the numbers are about 50/50.

The issue here is Americans are getting lazy with our involvement in government.  We like to say that we support this or that political view.  We'll share face book posts like crazy but when it comes to actually making an effort with our government it becomes just all to hard for most Americans.  This is a major reason the ultra rich have been so successful in taking away the rights of common citizens.  Today you are a second class citizen behind the rich.  The facts show that it doesn't matter what you and I want with regard to political decisions but if you are part of the top .1%, not even 1%, then the politicians almost always vote in your favor.  Corporations are now first class citizens that are above the law.  They are allowed to avoid paying taxes by shipping profits to countries like the Bahamas.  They are actually paid by our government in the form of subsidies, tax credits, interest and risk free loans and many other forms of corporate welfare to the tune of hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars a year even while making record profits.

Mean while many of those same corporations continually chip away at your rights as a citizen.  You don't need to be paid a living wage.  You don't need health care. Your vote shouldn't count as much as people richer then you.  You should not be allowed to sue them if they've done anything wrong to you.  They should not be held responsible for the actions taken by their executives.  They should be able to force their will on you and your property without any recourse by you.  They should be able to dictate what content and news you are allowed to view/ hear.

If you've made it this far congratulations for making it through another one of my posts on the growing inequality in our world.  Of the few that made it this far most of you will move on to sharing some useless post on face book and watching videos of kittens on YouTube and put this post out of your mind.  I hope I've actually caused at least 1 of you to actually think about the situation so that maybe just maybe down the line this might be just one of the things that eventually led you to actually care about the country you live in.  To not just say you love your country but to actually do something to fix your country.  I wish I could bet that you would but I'd loose that bet far more often then I'd win.  Sorry but my faith in you is not that great and I wish for you to prove me wrong.

If you want a place to start then go and see how you can help reclaim our government that is supposed to be of the people by the people and for the people. Not just for corporations and the rich that control them.  If it is just all to hard just donate $10 to help those that will make the real effort.

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