There once was a time, long, long ago, when politicians campaigned vigorously and then, when they were elected, they spent a good bit of their time actually trying to pass legislation that was good for the country as a whole. This included working with members of the other party.
I doubt if any readers under 40 remember such times, though. These days, politicians spend all their time fund-raising, campaigning, and actively trying to block anything that the other party wants to do. It’s kind of like two gangs of bullies on the playground. One group wants to play stick ball and the other wants to play tag, but they spend so much time trying to ruin the other side’s game, they don’t get to play and, worse, they muck up the playground so much, that the kids who don’t belong to either gang can’t play anything either.
Most of us American voters are like that third group of kids. The politicians—most of them, but especially those in a certain party that many of you know very well—are so busy politicking, they hardly ever get around to doing things that benefit us.
As a writer, even though I have definite political beliefs, I am on the mailing lists of political groups of all stripes, so I can have a good idea of what’s going on all over the place. So, I know that what the pols are mostly doing is begging for money because most of the emails I get are asking for money—lots and lots of money.
They do and say some really outrageous things to scare you into donating too. Take an email I received this morning (for the second time this week):
|
Friend
– ********************************************** |
|
|
**********************************************
|
While this looks
and sounds like a survey asking your input, it’s in reality another
solicitation for donations. When you click on the link ‘RESPOND HERE’, you’re
taken to:
Which is
basically asking you to pony up money. Worse, this guy is from one of those
State’s rights states, who is always screaming about keeping the federal
government out of his business—until he wants the federal government to force
people to do things the way he wants them to. He makes it sound like the dozen or so cities that allow foreign residents to vote in local elections,
usually school board elections if they have children in school are undermining American
democracy. The fact is that people like him, who once required poll taxes and
literacy tests for minorities, and who fought for decades to deny women the
right to vote, are the ones who are undermining our democracy.
If you get an email like this, and you’re not a writer looking to see what every side is doing, my advice is delete it without reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment