So yesterday Massachusetts held a special election to replace the late Senator Edward Kennedy. This is historically one of the bluest states in the country, so all the talking heads on tv were carrying on about how the seat going red means bad things for the democrats and their agenda.

For month, the democrats have been trying to get a health care reform bill written. I think the best incarnation of this bill was the original one. Before things had to get modified and stripped to appease all the people they needed to vote on it. Instead of it being true reform, it’s basically just turned into a huge bonus for the insurance companies. Mandating that people buy insurance, telling insurance companies they have to cover people with pre-existing conditions, etc.. but then not putting any kind of limits on what they can charge for policies wasn’t reform. Not in any way, shape or form.

Now fast forward to this election. If anything, this was a HUGE opportunity for them to sneak out the back door on this issue. Allowing a republican to grab that seat borders on brilliance. This way, they don’t have to pass this bill that is just down right awful now and they can all point their fingers at Brown and say, “It’s all his fault! You never got the reform you wanted because the republicans wouldn’t allow it!” Since most people have short memories, they’ll say.. Hey. Yeah! The dems were working away on that and the republicans stopped it cold. They won’t remember that the bill they are going to pass, has no public option, no limits on the costs, nothing to really help the people who aren’t insured, get insurance and see a dr. Pure genius letting that seat go red.

On to the fact that all I’ve been hearing lately is how 2 democratic governorships went red, this senate seat went red, and all that equals the american people getting fed up with dems and their policies.

Let me take a moment to remind everyone that New jersey was a huge mess. They have a massive debt load as well as the highest taxes in the country! The roads are awful. Yet they love spending money down there on nonsense like high paid city and state workers and officials. Someone drank the green kool aid and thinks they poop money now the way they spend it. Unfortunately it’s the tax payers who are funding all this massive spending with no end in sight.

So imagine if you will, that you live in NJ and your property taxes are $14,000 a year.  You’re paying an outrageous mortgage on a 50 yr old house that needs constant repairs on top of it. Your car insurance is outrageous and that there’s so many people on the road, that it takes 1/2 an hr to drive to a store 5 minutes from your house.

When election time comes, who are you going to vote for? The guy who’s been running things all along or a new guy in the hopes he can fix some of the crap you have to deal with every day of your life? Forget what party either of them are representing.  That’s not part of the equation at all. Of course you are going to go for the new guy. Status quo you know. And it sucks.

California has a Republican governor. Do you seriously think he’ll get re-elected when he runs again? They could put bo bo the trained seal on the ticket next to him and bo bo is going to win.

People are tired of the status quo. I think that’s the thing these politicians and talking heads on tv are totally missing. We are going to vote for the new guy in every election until someone actually gets it in washington. It’s not about huge corporations sending you on free trips to their beach house. It’s about representing the american people. That’s why you have your job. You are OUR voice. You are there to say, Hey.. maybe dumping chemicals in the river from the acme factory is a bad thing and we need to pass environmental protection laws. Maybe paying $4 a gallon for gas is a bad thing and we need to pass some more green energy initiatives. Maybe having kids graduate high school with a 5th grade education isn’t good and we need to make sure education is properly funded and encouraged. Maybe!

These things are no brainers to us. But all the life politicians in washington are insulated from the problems of us “common folk”. When do you think the last time was they even pumped their own gas or had to cut back somewhere so they could afford to pay the electric bill that just went up 50% for no real reason other than greed? When was the last time your senator ate hotdogs and kraft mac and cheese for dinner? I bet none of them could even answer those questions. If you go to a town hall meeting and ask, they will stare at you blankly and might even ask.. what is kraft mac and cheese???

See, it’s so far beyond republicans and democrats and tea partiers at this point. No one in washington gets YOU. No one feels the trials and tribulations of life like we do, because they are not forced to live them like we are. They make back room deals that screw you and put money in their corporate sponsors pockets and they smile and shake hands on tv almost as if they are laughing right in your face.

I’ve never agreed with republican policies. They are to focused on war, nation building, giving tax cuts to the rich all the while stepping on the little guy. But somehow they manage to get huge outpourings of support from the type of people that should be running the other way when a republican comes towards them. They are masters at getting the american people to vote against their own self interests.

But even though I’ve always leaned democratic, I’m starting to get fed up with them too. There are far to many social programs out there that are abused by people for life. They don’t work a day for what they have. They just get sec 8 to pay for their house, food stamps, welfare, WIC, etc etc. all while dealing drugs or some other illegal activity. I see these people at the store all the time. They have more jewelry and expensive clothes than I could ever afford and I work for a living! They put their cart full of soda, chips and junk food on the belt and pay with their food stamp card, so I know they aren’t working for what they’ve got.

On top of that, when it comes to actually helping people as in this health care reform bill.. they waffle under 2 seconds of pressure and strip out anything that could actually be called reform. It seems to be the liberal way. Oh no! I can’t have you mad at me! Of course I’ll take that public option right out of there so you’ll be my friend again. I never really cared about helping people. I just want all the politicians to like me!

Unfortunately in life, you’re never going to have everyone like you.. no matter what you do. So sometimes your best option to get things done that need to be done, is sticking your boot up someones ass. Trust me, they still won’t like you, but now they’ll respect you.

This election is the most recent, but it won’t be the last that votes out the status quo and gets some fresh blood in. The american people are tired of being screwed over and we are going to vote and vote and vote until someone gets the job that really gets us. At least I hope we do.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 10:22 am and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.