That title line pretty much sums up our current political system. We have the right wing on one side afraid that changing anything will somehow cost them or their constituents money, while we have the left wing assuming that if you take imaginary money and continue to throw it at problems they will somehow get fixed. Sure that might be a jaded way to look at it, but prove me wrong somehow. The beauty part is that you can throw the majority of the American people right smack dab into the center of this fiasco. They will suck up the bullshit and hope to goodness that you never make them critically think about it. The problem is that this just isn't going to work long term. I try to be "fair and balanced" with the way I look at both sides of the coin. I would always support a Republican Congress with a Democratic President or a Democratic Congress with a Republican President. The average person might say "But Pete nothing would ever get done." I say that only things that should be done would get done.
The point of my rant today isn't to blast how annoying politics are. The real motivation to write this morning (besides Neush's spot on comment to Thursday's post) are the crazy liberals and crotchety conservatives that I have to deal with on a daily basis. I want to take them all and shake them, but the liberals would cry and the conservatives would sue. You all know these two groups or people and probably feel the same way I do. The liberals actually come to work or post on facebook how riveting 45 minutes of Obama bull crap can be. You think that it is that riveting, then why don't you break down what he actually just said? That is my open challenge to you people. The conservatives subscribe to nineteen different news feeds and stream WLS straight into their being. That way once some ass hat like Mancow says a gay rights leader in Montpelier just peed outdoors; they can be the first to walk around telling everyone how bad the country is. Save it for home dipshit. You can go all Marshall Applewhite on your family, but it doesn't play with me champ.
Somewhere, somehow these people and our government need to meet in the middle. We are on our fifth President during my tenure on Earth. If you look just at those five, you will see that they all have good streaks and bad streaks depending on timing. You can track it over time. The ones that typically thrive in their terms, leave a shit pot for the next guy, then that guy doesn't realize his success until after office. Reagan and his staffers found a way to get people back into homes and stabilize the heartland. He had a solid tenure, but don't tell that to the Savings and Loan people. George Bush I was left in pretty good shape until the Middle East went crazy. He didn't have a long run, but the Clinton era doesn't have a rousing success without the Gulf war already being handled. Saxophone Bill had a good run in diplomacy and stabilized the economy for a good while. I hate to break it to some of the liberal lovers out there, but Buffalo Bill put into legislation in 1999 all of the lovely mortgage regulations that blew up the lending industry. Dubya oversaw record economic growth from 2002 to 2006 until the walls came crumbling down. It remains to be seen the lasting impression that the war on terror leaves, but I know that the world is a better place without Saddam. Our current prez has numerous issues to tackle and face, and he appears to already be helping our world image. We have many issues at home that need to be tackled, and he can't keep throwing imaginary money around to handle them.
Republicans didn't cause the economic crisis that we are in and neither did Democrats. We all got a little too greedy and a little too lazy. We don't have the dollars in our country to buy enough goods to solve this thing. We need to start making products that other countries want. That might start with shaking up the unions a bit. The democrats don't have the balls to even attempt going to bat with them because that might shake up those precious free votes. Guess what...if they aren't making products people want and they don't have the skills to be skilled laborers, then quit giving them raises all the damn time. On the flip side, half of you people in unions need to have a damn thought. I don't give a shit who your union endorses for any office. You were entitled to the right to vote from your forefathers because they believed that you might be able to form a cogent thought on your own. If you folks and a host of other groups in this country don't start carrying your weight, then I can't fault those people that want minimum requirements for voting rights.
While we're on this subject of politics, we might as well run the whole gamut. It isn't a topic that I like discussing very often or one that I follow on any sort of basis unless it is a major election year. I do feel the need to be educated when I go to the polls, but I don't feel the need to engulf myself in the daily miseries of additional political failure. How about this health care system that no one can figure out? I know more people have said this than burgers served at McDonald's, but again...what about Social Security? I don't need the government screwing something else up. They certainly can fix healthcare though. Start by going to bat with the price of union labor to build the insanely expensive technology that is required for quality health care, then offer more scholarships and lower state tuitions for medical students, provide stipends to teaching hospitals, and all of the sudden you've lowered the cost to provide health care which will in turn lower the price to the consumer. I know it isn't as easy as signing a bill to spend more imaginary money, but by God it might actually work.
Now that the imaginary money is starting to dry up, our government has a new plan to steal from the rich and give to the poor. I've got a better idea. Start tracking deductions and financial reporting of these rich friends of ours. If random guy wants to give $2,000,000 to state college for a new building, then he shouldn't get hammered on the back end by the government. Let's hit the idiot who builds a $2,000,000 home with a 1,000 sf office and calls it a business expense. If you want to start taking money from people, you might want to increase the tax on unearned wages. If Jeeves B. Richer wants to die with $10,000,000 in the bank, good for him, but his lazy ass relatives don't need all that dough. I'm not saying the government deserves it either, but if you increase the inheritance tax, people will use that money while they are alive for donations or to spark this failing economy.
When did an advanced education become the ticket to everything in life? No child left behind is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of and will continue to allow our country to fall farther back in the worldwide braintrust. What you're basically saying with this plan is that if you have 20 kids in 5th grade and 15 can multiply and 5 can't add, we're going to spend most of our time adding. That's awesome. I'm not saying send those 5 to child labor camps, but maybe we could have them get some school funded help before or after class. Until the system figures this out, you're going to have more unqualified drillholes home-schooling their "gifted" children and private school attendance will keep rising. It isn't a crime for Johnny to be a mechanic or Sally to be a hair dresser. They all work and get paid good money if they're successful. One good way to combat this might be to stop making people have a college degree just to answer phones and fetch coffee. Seriously people, how many of these sales jobs were originally designed for college graduates? This probably won't get fixed for another generation while the upper management still don't want to learn email and assume that anyone under 30 can't read or write. Don't hate...appreciate.
The best example of how this country needs to meet in the middle is the abortion debate. Everyone always wants to know where people stand on this issue even though it is topic 78 on the list of things to do while president. This issue will never die because people need it. Without abortion how will people on each side of the fence blindly hate people that they don't even know? I don't know what the right answer morally is or who deserves what rights. I just think that a good middle ground might be having a procedure available for a pregnant woman should her life be threatened by a continued pregnancy. I'm sure there are women that due to size, age, or other health risks could stand a very good chance of not surviving should they continue along the nine month process. Those people should have an option. That option shouldn't be a clinic within five miles of the fraternity house. If you don't know how to use a condom or a pill or other contraceptive, then save it Sally. Your options are to shut your stupid ass up and live with it. But Pete, what about mistakes or peer pressure or bad timing...what if I have a final coming up or if I'm not married yet? How did taking a life ever become a good option to answering these questions? Makes me sick. But once again, meeting in the middle would take too much thought. We need a winner and a loser in the pissing match called life. There always has to be the other side to blame, which is why I'm not optomistic for these two parties to join together anytime soon.
Weekend WondermentI have a pretty open ended suggestion for people looking for something to do this weekend. You should all feed your hobby. If you don't have one, you need one because it would make you a hell of a lot more interesting. Chefs out there should go get a new magazine or cookbook and make a new dish. Collectors should sort through some of their stuff to sell it, display it, or just tell some stories to someone. Artists should start a new creation or get the items that they need to recapture the glory. Athletes need to hit the playing field or court and prove they still have what it takes. So whether it be rock climbing, golfing, painting, or just plain old eating, get back to doing the simple things that make you happy. Don't let your hobbies go away. If you're still lost for ideas, head over to Best Buy or your local supplier and spend 3 days straight on Madden 10. I know most of you are doing that anyway right now and will probably read this post on Monday morning when normal life officially resumes.
