Politics at its Worst

It is that time of year when seasons are changing, temperatures are rising and once every four years the presidential campaigns are heating up like the temperatures outside. I don't share my political views with folks so don't expect to see that here. Nope, I am not going to bore anyone with my views on this or that candidate. Here is the closest thing you are going to read from me as a political viewpoint. If the GOPs and the Dems would expend as much of their effort talking about how they can change, or think they can change this country to make it a better place for the average citizen and spend less time insulting one another, fighting amongst themselves about political strategies, less time attacking each other and more time telling us why they are the best candidate and how they are going to strengthen our nation, then this whole process would work better. 

My father use to say we should put those people who are arguing about nothing, back-biting, bragging about their own accomplishments which no one else seems to want to mention, in a room, and give each of them a blivet and let 'em have a good old fashion free for all. Let the two who come out the cleanest, battle it out in the polls in November to see who wins. H

What is a blivet you ask? For those of you who may not know, my father explained it this way: a blivet is a 50 pound burlap sack, stuffed with 100 pounds of horse manure. That seems to be what most of them are shoveling our way now...a sack of manure so let's let them fight it out with an overstuffed sack of it.

I have been listening to their pitches for what seems like an eternity now. They haven't shown me much. What I want to hear is what they are going to do to make my life better and to make the lives of other people like me better. What happened to decorum, kindness, politeness and treating others as we would have them treat ouselves? I know what has happened. We have sunk to a nation of sound bites. We express ourselves in 140 +or- character unpunctuated spurts of gobbledygook. The media is no better.

It is time that our politicians should stand their ground on their principles and compromise on the details of how we can accomplish our goals.  Not every issue is based on principles. Now days most issues that are important to politicians are those that somehow surface from the whims of pollsters who can manipulate their questions to get the most bang from the publicity their results may or may not e politicians, rather than embracing substance, are drawn into this little game of grabbing headlines. We don't find statesmen much in Washington anymore. Nope, we find puppets to this issue or that issue or this cause or that cause. 

We all should be depressed by what we see in this election cycle. Are you better off than you were a few years ago? Do you really think any of this litter of candidates have a roadmap or a plan to improve your life? I sincerely hope that the winner of this presidential race can make this country a better place for ALL of us, but I doubt that is going to happen.