POLITICS

I vote and I take it seriously. I read the material, I listen to some of the interviews and I can’t help but hear the ads. Some I have heard so often I might be able to quote them. To me, the ads are useless. They rarely say anything. I know what they think of their opponent and what a terrible job the enemy would do if elected, but I have no idea what they would do if elected. I don’t think it is just I, but it seems the only purpose of ads is to sling mud. The voter learns nothing.

When they do say something about what they have done it is filled with half-truths and the sense that they have super powers, and that no other person contributed to that vote. They alone are able to propose a vote at a single motion. They are able to spend money at the drop of a coin. They can spend money beyond our means without a thought. They alone are able to change the world the world at the whisper of their voice.

I know what they think. But do they know what I think?

I want an option on the ballot that says “None of the above.”
I want more choice than the two party systems provides. They are both screwed up. That’s not choice.
I want an honest politician. I know, I dream.
I want someone who cares more about the people and not about themselves, their retirement, their pension and their salary at the expense of the voted.
I want someone to stand up against absolutely stupid earmarks such as the study of the sex habits of the tetsy-tetsy fly — Just an example.
I want someone who has the guts to help the people and not the mega corporations. Why do they need help? Let them get a loan like I have to.
I want someone to forget about party loyalty and vote for the greater good.
I want someone to stop trying to prove their party is better, did more or had the only solution. You both stink. Help people, fix essential structures, and protect us.
I want someone who knows the difference between levels of government and stays in their own realm.
I want someone who understands that the economy is going south and really is working to turn the direction. Stop fighting and fix the system. And stop blaming everyone else.
I want someone to finally do the right thing. That may mean being lonely, standing against the system, or turning their back on the normal way.
I want the campaigning season changed from all the time to three months or less or fine the suckers for harassment.
I want a limit on ads. I do not want to see the same ad three times during the same program break. I want a moratorium on mail. Save the trees.
I want to see politicians stop trying to get me to hate their opponent by ragging on them without getting to the business of figuring out what they can do, if anything. I want peace from politics.

I’m sure I want more. I may have even sounded political and rattled on without saying a thing. I am so tired of the system I think all politicians should be limited to a single term. If they can’t do anything in one term why do we think they can do more in multiple terms? What makes them better by spending their career isolated from reality? It seems that all they learn it to shaft us even more. Do what we have to do when we lose our jobs or have our wages cut. Drop things out of the budget. Spending my way out of debt has never worked for me.