Okay, 2014 election results. Not good. Of course, it does depend on which perspective you are looking from and through which rose colored glasses you are looking through.
It seems that people did get out and vote – that is, SOME people got out and voted. And yet again, another year where MANY eligible voters DID NOT GET OFF THEIR HINNIES AND VOTE!!
Am I ticked off, yes, I am. We, as a country, could have had much, much better results from our November 4, 2014 elections.
Now, we will continue to face horrendous voting restrictions for a great number of people, specifically where governors stated there have been many cases of voting fraud when in fact – it was not true.
We will still see many more situations where women will not have free choice with their body. And yes, say it – abortions and birth control measures. Planned Parenthood and other clinic shutdowns…
We will continue seeing K – 12 education highly screwed up – funding and quality of education – FOR ALL PEOPLE, not just the privileged, well to do and those of certain backgrounds and neighborhoods.
You do not need me to elaborate any more than that. We ‘may’ continue to see education dumbed down with no national standard. A standard ensures that if a family moves to any other state in the country, that family can be assured that their child or children can readily pick up where they left off back home, rather than going into a system where the students in the ‘new’ school district are further behind OR very far ahead of their own children.
Come on people, many more of you all were supposed to become more civic minded and vote. More of you should have been HIGHLY motivated to vote to change the abysmal or dismal conditions many of you find yourselves in.
But it seems that many of you DID NOT GET OUT AND VOTE!!!
This 2014 mid-term election cycle was supposed to be another catalyst for change from the way things are going in this country. We were going to work on the horrific amount of money going into all the various elections.
As you know, the amount of money going into politics has become unbelievable. The U.S. Supreme Court does not seem concerned enough to know that they may have made a mistake in sending Citizens United on with a pass and allowing virtually unlimited amounts of cash to slosh around politics via so, so many venues of open and dark money outlets.
Do not be mistaken, the average person with a decent education, job and background – that average person IS locked out of raising “a decent amount of money” to enter politics and win and be a voice for their constituents.
We will continue to see all these politicians spending so much of their time raising money for their campaigns (and lucrative war chest for AFTER they leave politics) rather than working harder for the people in their communities, districts and states.
People! You could have made an immediate impact from this point on by GETTING OUT TO VOTE – but, you did not.
We could have started changing the sadly bad trajectory this country is on. But, instead, we now have:
- A politician who cut taxes for the state, drastically to the point where the state is in a blood red hole – and oh yeah, the education system’s finances were gutted to stupid levels
- Another politician who believes people should be able to take up arms against legally federalized officers of the U.S. government (kinda sounds like a Sovereign Citizen type individual instead of a clear headed politician)
- Another politician in a southern state who implemented draconian voting restrictions
- A politician who managed to get unions reduced to, well, nothing – no bargaining powers, no teeth to have any kind of effective negotiations for their members – all the while that state clamped down on what people can earn AND this politician has aspirational aims of someday running for president…
- Another, sheesh, you get my drift – I could go on and on and on with other examples of politicians going back to the nation’s capital but they should have been booted out
We needed more people in office who are collaborative and willing to compromise to get things done.
And yes, we actually need to spend more money to improve things NOW instead of waiting another decade to spend the money when it is ALWAYS more prohibitively expensive to make changes and fixes.
There were quite a few people and organizations in this country that tried to get people out to vote and to vote with their head and what is right for the country, not just a few of the well to do or people of certain walks of life or even skin color.
But, it seems many people voted after paying more attention to rabble rousers who blatantly stoop to using a great deal of innuendo, veiled slurs and outright lies against others – just to gain YOU as a listener to their vitriolic conversations instead of truths and actual facts.
Again, yes, you can listen to whomever but PLEASE do your own research too. Listen to more and different viewpoints, different TV and radio stations – get as many DIVERSE viewpoints as you can, even if they are hard to listen to or to stomach.
Only by listening to multiple channels of information can you make an informed decision. Listening to one TV outlet or a single radical radio station or reading a niche newspaper is not the way to informed decision making.
It seems that many voted without using their own wonderful brain and critical thinking and analytical capabilities.
And, I am truly willing to bet that quite a few of those who DID deem it important enough to vote did not do their own fact checking and research. Nor did too many people (out of the eligible millions), I wager, debate things, not argue, with others around them. Debate and discuss with people who are of different make-ups, you know, different:
- Race,
- Age/Generation,
- Gender,
- Education,
- Income brackets,
- etc., etc., etc.
JUST others who are different and diverse from you for an open and honest debate…
So now, well, again – WE ARE SCREWED for the next two years. That of course is just my own opinion but we, as a country, get those in office who have no head for:
- Fairness,
- Science,
- Forward thinking,
- Logic,
- Equitable politics and
- Getting the important things completed and not just getting the job done for those who pay the most or are the most vocal (read as extreme).
People! Take a truly critical look at who was voted into office and what they did for their states, their districts and what their endgame could be. There are many politicians who are not interested in fully representing their complete constituencies. Those politicians are really only interested in working on representing a small percentage of the total. The small percentage of the total encapsulates the highly vocal minorities and very well to do.
Many of us will be simply amazed if anything of a significant nature will get done in the next two years, after the past six years of blocking a President primarily because of his skin color.
What will happen to certain politicians if the next President is a woman…? Will you go ballistic and implode? Will you want to start the process all over again, that of taking your ball home and sulking in the corner instead of ACTUALLY WORKING on things for the future and progress of the entire country?
We, Americans, only gain the politicians who we vote for, that is, if you made the effort to vote and voting critically instead of selfishly.