Crusty Old White Men- Do They Really Represent Me?

The title of this post fairly well summarises my thoughts and feelings. Of course the title is a rhetorical question. The answer is that they DO NOT represent the majority of us, the American voters, “their constituency”. Which begs the question- How the heck did they get that job? And that answer is a simple one- it has to do with advertising, and the fact that the American memory is about as long as their 30 second political ads.

Crusty old white men- representing all of us. Is that Mr. Pink in the background?

But back to the crusty old white men. The image, above, which prompted this rant came from the weekend Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks back.  These career politicians are sitting in Washington making decisions for you and for me, decisions that can and do affect the rest of our lives, and the lives of our children. How do they get away with that? How is it that we put so much “trust” into their ability to “represent” us? How- and better yet, WHY, do we give them that power? These are questions that could take days and weeks to fully explain, taking us far back into history.

The simple answer to the all-important WHY question is that we have been trained, have been indoctrinated into our political system from childhood. The fact is that we believe that our system of government, which we call Democracy, is democratic, just, and appropriate. I personally think that it demands some critical attention. For the record, I do not associate myself with either of the political parties (point of note: a two party system is not Democratic). If we must use labels, label me Libertarian, or Constitutionalist perhaps.

Still believe they represent you? When was the last time you heard from one of them? When was the last time you sat down and talked to one of them? When was the last time they asked you what you thought of Obamacare, abortion, gun control? Probably never. My old Webster’s dictionary states that if someone represents you they “act or speak officially for you.” How can they do that if they have never asked you about your thoughts on an issue?

I think my point is made. I really don’t have an answer for the problem… but a good place to start would be a “none of the above” box for every office represented on an election ballot. Then we would truly have a choice, and I think we would see that a lot of voters would happily abandon the status quo.

 

Colorado Government and Online Sales Tax

I received an email from Amazon.com this morning informing me that my account had been terminated due to the greed, lack of foresight, and, well, stupidity of the legislature of Colorado. No other state has such legislation. Its seems that the state wants to tax online sales, and Amazon will have no part of it. So they just shut off all accounts in the entire state! I guess they can do that, they are Amazon after all. (If in the future all restaurants will be Taco Bell, then all retail stores will be Amazon. This is a movie reference, citizen.)

So, I just wrote to my state representatives, and the governor, expressing my discontent with this legislation. (I did not use the word “discontent” as I am not sure if that is legal any longer. See text of Patriot Act.)

The process was not without glitches. The online form to “communicate” with the governor did not have a box for text. You could communicate, but only your contact information. Comments were not allowed.

After sending my first request with nothing more than that, I returned to find a box labeled “explanation” which I concluded must be the “comment” box.

In my comments (“explanation”), I outlined the illogical nature of the title of the box and suggested that a box for comments be labeled “comments” in my next email to the governor.

Now that I think about it, I may have forgotten to include my original comments, being so focused on the “comment” issue.

How does that text messaging abbreviation go? Oh yeah, WTF?

It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a conspiracy fact. Either that or we are truly surrounded, and governed, by idiots.

Babylon must fall.