Nope, didn't do it and likely won't be doing it this year. This is for two reasons. First, we forgot to update our voter registration information when we moved last year and have no clue where to go to vote.
But secondly, and more importantly, the voting system just isn't working right now. It's not that the politicians that are chosen by popular vote aren't chosen, or that our vote doesn't count because every single vote DOES count. The problem is when the elected official gets into office.
Elected officials quit listening to their constiuents a long time ago. (Did I even spell that correctly?) For example, we have been screaming, teachers have been screaming, for years now about this "No child left behind" bullshit. This is the bill that says "You get no federal aid if you don't use standardized testing and if your students don't pass what we say they need to know with a certain score."
The problem that ensued was that school administrations started forcing the teachers to teach the test. That's it. Our kids are learning ONLY what is on those damned tests and nothing else. But no matter how much we scream about it, no matter how many educators and sociologists yell, that damned thing still isn't getting repealed.
Then they take issues that need resolution, and they twist and turn them into something horrid and horrible. Guess what? I voted for Obama BECAUSE of the health care reform he promised! It really is needed. But the way that it got twisted up so badly... *sighs*
Or how about the all out personal attacks going on? When my kids behave in this way, they are disciplined for it but it seems politicians are encouraged to behave like a pack of raging hormonal teenagers. None of them are able to show any amount of class or breeding. And that says a lot when it's coming from me, of all people!
Now to you my reasoning may shound childish and immature and that's fine. As for me, I know that once they get into office, their ears are closed. They are going to do what they want, which will be whatever will further their own careers. There will be more government instead of less government, and yet the places we need government at will be ignored.
There will be less outrach programs for things like food stamps and health care. Laws put into place to protect children will be ignored, or over written by laws put into place to protect parents no matter what they're doing with the children. Single parents and people who simply can't afford health insurance will still be sick all of the time. The economy? Do we really want to start on that? We've been in a recession for so long now, that it is no longer a recession. It's the new norm. And yet, jobs are still being farmed out overseas.
Show me a politician that wants to set up single parent programs that HELP single parents in their quest to be able to support their kids. Show me parenting programs that will take a mother and her child into a group home environment and TEACH that mother how to be a mother. Show me programs set up to pay farmer's to give their food to food banks, instead of paying farmers to not plant their crops that year. Show me a health plan where everyone, no matter how much or how little they have, gets decent healthcare.
Show me the politician that is willing to live the same as a homeless perso, sleeping in the elements and digging through trash for food, just to see what their lives are like. Show me the politician that is willing to put his bank book away, and support their families on $200 or even $600 per month so that he can relate to povery! Show me the one that is willing to live on minimum wage, no overtime, no insurance for a year, so that he can related to 80% of his constituents!
I've been told that one of the signs of a good leader is if that leader is willing to get down in the trenches with those he's attempting to lead, and experience what they are experiencing so he knows what they go through and can appreciate their viewpoints.
Show me a politician that's willing to do that. Then talk to me about voting or politics.
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