At every level, I am appalled at the American political system. We have managed to turn capitalism, which is a free-market economic system, into a form of government, our lives controlled by the almighty dollar. Elections go to the highest bidder, regardless of their actual stances. In seasons of election, I hear pundits filling people's heads with who is more attractive, who has more assertive body language and "who I'd rather have a beer with." Our senators and representatives are pocketed by all the big companies, no longer watching out for the American public, but the wallets of the private sector.
The Presidential balloting has become a popularity contest, and the only way to be popular in America is to be rich. Let's face it, money buys votes in the United States. Whoever can run the most ads successfully attacking his opponent is almost bound to win, it is impossible to run for President of the United States without already being a millionaire. I think the electoral college is the biggest culprit here. In order to win the appointment to office, one does not need the popular vote, simply to convince enough large swing districts to vote for them. For example, the 2000 election in which George W. Bush won the election without championing the majority. This was such a controversy, and why? Because elections aren't decided at the ballot box in our land of democracy, but by elected officials, who were voted in to represent us.
This essentially makes it the President's job to ensure that the richest 5% of Americans stay exactly that. Just look to the Wall St. bailout. Millions of Americans are unemployed, and the very corporations who ran us out of our jobs to keep their heads above water get $700 billion. Nice. In addition, his duties entail diplomatic missions to spread corporations and capitalism to other countries. To keep these systems in place pro-US capitalist dictatorships are established. (But it's okay because they run rigged elections every 20 years, so it's democracy) This allows companies to milk countries for cheap labor, depriving Americans of jobs, and encourages human rights violations.
Then, there's our Legislative Branch. We elect them every 2 years to represent us and instead, they bow to lobbyists. Lobbyists sole purpose is to solicit Representatives for their companies, buying themselves favorable laws with huge amounts of money, which is just about the only thing the Senate hears. In a Republic, officials are elected to represent us, yet the average age of our Congressmen is 60. (the average age of Americans is 35) Last I checked, most 60 year olds and myself don't think alike, so why do we continually elect these artifacts? Incumbent senators last forever because there is no voter education. All we know about these people who run for office are what they tell us in the debates where no one says anything.
And where can we catch these exhilarating farces? On the news of course! If you've been blessed with cable television, you may have as many as 5 separate news channels which heavily feature politics, such as Fox (faux) News, CNBC, and CNN. These broadcast stations (particularly Fox, in my opinion) have reduced American politics to name-calling, insults and flat out slander. Writers and talking heads carefully weave their own picture of current events in order to spin every event to put someone at fault. These pundits' sole reason for existence seems to be creating polarity amongst Americans, keeping us divided in this "us vs. them" atmosphere we are mired in.
We're so blinded by our differences that we cannot see we're all the same. We're all Americans and further, all human beings. If we were to ever unite as a people, we would overwhelm them and they know this. They keep us dumbed down in schools meant to produce worker ants who probably couldn't type without spell-check. Blind us with flashing lights and 3-D graphics. The way I see it, Americans are a people bound by ignorance, and a people oppressed has the right to free itself. Arm yourself.
