I am so darn sick and tired of the apathetic, crybaby, complaining Americans who want to blame "The Government" for all the ills in American society. You know, the ones who keep yelling that we are supposed to have "government of the people, by the people, for the people" and yet they have no clue how our system of government (called federalism) works.
These are the same type of people who blame the "terrible" two-party system for the "crooked politicians" in office and corruption in government.
There are so many people who scream for more "Independents" to be elected. What would happen if all "Independent" candidates or even a lot of "Independents" got elected? They would all have different perspectives on the issues, different ideas on that in which our government should be involved, different approaches to obtain solutions, and so on and so forth. How would they ever agree on anything, good or bad?
Do these complainers not know how a republic, a representative democracy, works? I mean, come on people, the United States is not a direct democracy; nor does the U.S.A. have a parliamentary form of government.
For goodness' sake, I wonder if all these supposed outraged Americans ever took the time to truly be actively involved in the political process. How many of these crybabies actually vote, or better yet, how many of the "We need more Independents" proponents have ever gone out and actively worked for an "Independent" candidate? How are independent-minded aspiring politicians ever going to be elected if "The People" do not work on behalf of "Independent" candidates?
The moaning groaning typical American and those people involved in the Tea Party movement need to bone up on the American politics, the American electoral process, and on the basics of American Government.
In the United States, it really is "government of the people, by the people, for the people" - the people being those who actively participate in electoral politics. All the others are just mindless drones.
The American people get the government they deserve. After all, it is the government that got into power by a vote of the people.
2 comments:
Amigo Roland,
As usual a well thought out and provocative, timely post; and it kinda meshes with Amigo Tim's recent post.
As you mentioned, declaring yourself to be an Independent isn't enough these days, you have PARTICIPATE.
And that means finding candidates whose actions are consistent with the constitution and WORK to get them elected.
Next, you must make sure that they stay faithful to what the constitution stands for, and that takes eternal vigilance...
We must regain control and never let our representatives wrestle that control from us ever again.
Roland,
I completely agree with the concept that political apathy is at the root of many of the ills attributed to government. People seem to have plenty of time to Tweet, text, and Facebook; but none to participate in the process that they decry. For this generation, the concept of Independent is divided up into two camps: those who care but are fed up with bloated political parties that have themselves become self-perpetuating bureaucracies, and those who have succumbed to the allure of the "look at me" societal phenomenon and don't notice or care about anything but themselves.
The two major parties could both do with a bit of housecleaning, but we will never be able to get it from an unknowing, uncaring electorate. Likewise, we do perhaps have too many professional politicians in both parties, but the "closed shop" of incumbent job security will never be changed by those ignorant of the process.
Perhaps the lack of knowledge that you speak of about government is the answer as well as the problem. Perhaps some of the apathy that we all decry is simply a product of the ignorance you speak of. Perhaps it's time to once again teach young people about the process in school and at least attempt to re-educate the next generation, in the hopes of revitalizing the process.
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