I am really ready to declare all of Washington incompetent.
I know, I know, this sounds like everyone…and anyone right now. However the current state of affairs has me more frustrated than any Mother really should be about politics. It has been said many times before, but I must say it again: these politicians are acting worse than my children.
And instead of me making cutesy comments about giving them all a ‘time out’ or telling them to ‘play nice’ I’m going to speak with a bit more adult directness:
Enough already.
I’m not impressed that our President’s love for America was questioned on a national stage by Republican candidates for office during tonight’s debate. This is not a time to pander to the lunatics and fringe of the country, this is a time for solutions to very serious problems. Calling into question if our PRESIDENT is pro-American is not only ridiculous, but a time waster in this day and age.
I am also not impressed that some Democrats might sit with some Republicans at the President’s job’s speech. Are you kidding me? This is the best bi-partisan move you can come up with? My daughter’s 1st grade can manage to sit boy, girl, boy, girl without tantrums and you’re proud you can sit with someone from across the aisle? Whoopdefuckingdo.
It really is no wonder we can’t seem to pull ourselves out of this economic crisis and get the country moving again. You all are throwing insults back and forth and getting giddy when you sit together. I’m sorry but I expect better from adults tapped to lead this nation.
Speaking of which…this whole ‘attack on science’ nonsense that is going on needs to stop. If only to show the children of the country that our adults are not babbling idiots. If you want to attack how best to deal with what scientists discover, have at it. But attacking science is beyond the pale. And has me more worried about the state of the US than anything else.
We have become a people who demonize teachers, teamsters, scientists, academics, and even first responders. We have sunk to making fun of the President because he gets too wonky, and rail against educators because they dare ask to be compensated for taking care of our most precious resource.
The poor have become mockable as ‘Get a job!’ echos throughout townhalls. The sick and disabled shunned and left for dead, their ailments considered a sign from God in the survival of the fittest.
And in Washington, DC these topics of discussion might as well be the same as what happens when your family gets together for the holidays; with no one agreeing and your crazy uncle making veiled racist and sexist jokes while carving the turkey.
The thing is…Congress and these Governors aren’t supposed to be like my family gatherings or a townhall. They are supposed to be a bit better than that. Knowing some of their constituents might be a little off their rockers, and making sure they are sane and at the very least leaning towards the middle- so that everyone has a voice.
No. Instead I have to explain to my six-year old and eight-year old why the man on the tv hates the leader of our nation so very much. And why the woman on the tv hates gays and lesbians and transgendered people. Even they pick up on the not-so-subtle bigotry behind their nasty words, dripping with a polite tone.
I shouldn’t have to tell my kids that some people think others do not deserve to have the same rights, and I sure as hell shouldn’t have to explain to my kids why some people think their mother doesn’t deserve the benefits she receive to feed and clothe them. Or have to tell them that when the big earthquake hits our California home, some of these people on stage don’t want to send us help.
It is no longer a matter of wanting to put these politicians in a time out, they needs to be expelled from playing. I am embarrassed at the state of discourse and political policy in this country and disgusted at how far we have sunk.
I am not without fault. My anger at how ridiculous this has all become bubbles over frequently, pushing me to lash out at the uneducated and at the conservatives I encounter.
How dare they. How could they. How stupid are they.
When science and reason fall under attack, my manners escape me quicker than I’d like.
I wish I felt some remorse, or that I could tell my kids I am sorry. Instead I find myself telling them that Mommy needs to fight harder for them. Yell louder. Demand more. Demand better.
I hope I am teaching them that some things you just don’t tolerate. You stand up for the poor. You stand up for the sick. You stand up for those being denied basic rights.
You do not settle on these issues. There is no compromise for common decency and common sense.
I also expect others, in Washington, to do the same. It is time to say enough.
This has gone far enough.
Indeed. I can’t watch politics right now because the words that escape my mouth are not appropriate for mixed viewing…mixed meaning anyone other than me. My daughter catches me talking back to the tv with snark. This is not the America I want for my kids, this is not the America I want for me and this is sure as SHIT not the America my father, and grandfathers served to protect as soldiers in our military.
It’s as if all the crazy people have taken over. SCIENCE IS BAD??? WTF!!!
I couldn’t watch the debate. I couldn’t bring myself to. I enjoyed reading twitter, though, but OMG it still made me mad. How the hell are we planning on electing people like that?!?!?! Ugh. Who are these people that can contemplate that.
I blame TV ratings actually, the crazy people bring drama, drama brings viewers, viewers bring ratings, ratings bring more advertising dollars, so they put on more crazy. That and a need to prey on people’s fear and insecurities…which brings out the crazies…
I couldn’t watch, either, though the twitter stream was enough for me to want to bang my head on the desk. I think your approach is healthier, so I’ll just say
Yes, this, exactly.
My first question is why are we being polite at all? It’s beyond infuriating. I hate to take the same tack as the folks who have drug us down to this level as I prefer to think I am a better person that that. But, at the same time, I cannot help but think the screeching and arm-flailing is all they can understand.
WHY, in the nation that put the first man on the moon are we having discussions about evolution? WHY are we still beating the straw man of a woman’s right to have a safe abortion? WHY are we even discussing gender or sexual preference as a prerequisite to equal protection and rights under the law? WHY have we let religious fanaticism hijack our national identity?
WHY, WHY, WHY?
WHY are we even worried about some faceless “terrorist” in a faraway, sandy place when the real terrorists are on stages, stumping their hate.
I have a headache.
You know that you and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on politics Erin – but I absolutely concur with this post. In fact, I think I can go so far as saying “in almost 5 years of reading your blog – I agree with this post more than any other you’ve written” when there are politics involved and stand behind that.
“And in Washington, DC these topics of discussion might as well be the same as what happens when your family gets together for the holidays; with no one agreeing and your crazy uncle making veiled racist and sexist jokes while carving the turkey.”
That’s beyond brilliant and sadly, tragically apt.
I can’t even bring myself to watch coverage of politics in this country because there’s only about 2 months out of any given year that the well-dressed, highly opinionated, sound-byte oriented person on the television isn’t using a press opportunity as a soft-peddled campaign moment…. and those 2 months are usually when the Congress is in recess. Then they’re back home appearing on local television instead of national news.
I heard the most bizarre thing on NPR while driving home this afternoon and thought of you immediately. It was a well-known Republican political analyst who was saying that the bizarre statements falling out of certain would-be Republican presidential candidates about science & evolution were all good entertainment, but that as soon as the actual voters started showing up, they would fade into mist because you couldn’t put someone up against Obama that only appealed to the far-right Republican base – since you would lose all of the GOP that were the wealthy, college-educated, prone to believe in science older Reps as well as the ones that are fiscally conservative but not prone to irrational displays of hatred…
All I could think was: “Well what the hell America? Didn’t we set ourselves up for this? Haven’t we been subjected to the loudest, the most strident, the most outrageous, the most virtiolic ‘candidates’ for well over 2 centuries now? Haven’t we always given them press time, air play, camera time, sound bytes, blog posts, and whatever is next because they entertain some fringe element of our society with nothing better to do? Haven’t we promoted the lunatic fringe upward through the ranks via apathy in the face of fanaticism, absence in the face of rabid loyalty, and disinterested in the face of all-in when it comes down to it? Whether far right, far left, far I’m-not-sure-I-have-a-side-but-mine… we have let the fringe drive the bus while the rest of us kept saying “driver, slow down a bit would you? Your sharp turns are throwing us all over the place back here” instead of demanding that somebody stop the bus and back it the hell up while we had a little chat about playing fast & loose with other peoples’ lives.
It seems like every 4 years, the 2 major ‘parties’ trot out what they think is the least objectionable guy to the other side and stir up his loyal followers and say “see? He is our party’s candidate! How we love him!” and then the great apathetic, absent, disinterested masses show up for a few months and vote the lesser of 2 evils in their minds and goes home to complain about what could’ve been done if it weren’t for those danged lunatics who kept trying to drag their party too far to the other side. And the loyal followers go home expecting that with such a huge bunch of people behind him, how could he fail?
I could write a book on social theory that would describe it to a tee and no-one would believe such a society could persist, let alone thrive.
I’m ready for some candidates with ummm oh, you know, less experience getting the Miss Congeniality award and more getting the ‘yeah, I don’t have to like him – but he gets things done. He starts in the middle, works on the things we all can agree too – THEN works his way out to the knock-down-drag-outs.
Yeah, that an $1000000 house? and I’ll have a really expensive house.
Amen. America is slipping down the rabbit hole… I cannot even think about what is on the other side. Honestly if I had the resources I’d be gone. Yes I know that is a cop-out. It’s just exhausting, the worry. I’m in Perry-land, it’s even trippier down here. I hate him so much, don’t even get me started!
How do we make this happen? How do we make it stop? Someone figure out how and I will get my hands dirty helping.
All I have to do is read any comment section after a political news article and I lose all faith in humanity. There’s so much hate in every corner and I just don’t know what to do. I know I’m too sensitive, but everyone should be. Everyone should care. The politicians, the commenters, it all sickens me.
Erin, can you find a couple of wealthy brothers to fund your new political party? I would join it.
Why can’t politicians answer the f*cking question already? Beyond the maddening social conservative rhetoric and anti-science propaganda that blows my f*cking mind, I was disgusted by the fact that not ONCE did any of the candidates actually answer the question that was asked of them. It’s clear evidence that they care solely about their own agendas, not the concerns of the American people.
I want the Republican masses – not the lunatic fringe – to stand up and say, “THESE PEOPLE DON’T REPRESENT ME!” My dad and my oldest brother vote Republican. I love them, but I don’t know how they can support their party when THIS is what they provide as candidates.
I could respect the GOP more as a whole if they tried to offer up candidates like former NY governor George Pataki, who has toyed with the notion of making a run for the White House. He’s a moderate, non-whack job who wouldn’t terrify me if he got voted in. These existing candidates who are in the limelight scare me. And for the love of God, stop making things like abortion and gay marriage the center of a Presidential platform. These things do not affect the daily lives of a majority of the people in these country (except for the ones the Right want to condemn) – the focus SHOULD be on fixing the economy, finding solvency for Social Security, ensuring the security of our national infrastructure, making affordable healthcare more accessible, and raising the U.S. to a higher standard of innovation.
AAAAAA-MEN!!1!
I have a theory about this. The GOP is letting all of this go on right now BECAUSE it is distracting and it forces the president to deal with these folks as if they are serious candidates. I don’t think, though, that the GOP is serious about putting any of these folks (exception Huntsman) up for the highest office. I suspect well see a more main-liner like McCain with the hope that a lot of us who are disappointed in Obama will vote for the seemingly sane Republican option.
I know a lot of people who, if given a reasonable Republican option (read not the folks from last night [again, exception Hunstman]) would cross the line and vote Republican in the upcoming election. My parents are two of them. They both crossed the line and voted for Obama — Dad’s done it twice before once for Kennedy and once for Kerry; it was my mother’s first Democratic vote EVER (according to her). With what they have now, he says he’s voting for Obama again, but if they give him a reasonable alternative . . .
You know Erin, the politics are sad to watch for me – I come from seeing my country (south africa) pick itself from a mess and honestly when I see the biased comments flying around I am shocked. I worry that it will stop shocking and become the norm. And without people realizing it, this injustice will be the way things work. It scares me. It is so wrong and so unfair.
From the outside looking in, I gotta say, your country sure has forgotten about the humans that make up humanity. That almighty dollar rules the world, it seems. So sad.
Sadly, I have to say that my gut tells me the R party will go with whoever they think can win, regardless of their stance on issues like science, abortion, etc. I think they are that desperate to win. Only if they see the election going down the tubes for them with the R Wingnuts will they stop and reconsider.
There’s no one to blame her but the R party as a whole, for letting this EVER get this far. It began with Palin, and her outrageous and sometimes hateful rhetoric. And it seems like it’s set the bar for what is acceptable to the R party ever since. I mean, look, you see candidates like ROMNEY, for God’s sake! bending to the Tea Party rhetoric, and changing some of his own long-time stances on issues. I’ve said it forever and I’ll say it to my last breath: religion has NO place in politics!! and when Palin started the religious stuff, then the rest took up that refrain and now look what we have, outrageous legislation on morality issues, which have taken women’s rights back 100 years and threaten the very civil liberties of women, gays and people of color. They speak of persecution of gays, making lists of atheists; voter disenfrancisement; racism out the yahoo. Some days I wake up and I cant’ believe what I’m seeing!
I don’t know where this will all end. I’ll say this much. Huge kudos to Huntsman for standing his ground and standing up for science. The only sane one in the bunch.
as a conservative it is amazing to me how you folks on the left are completely blind to the propaganda that feeds your anger.
The average conservative is not opposed to science. Some are opposed to a scientific theory which is apparently held to with a fervor equal to religion. Evolution has occurred and will continue to occur for the foreseeable future there is no doubt about that. Some Christians are irritated that evolution is crammed down their children’s throats in a system that does not even allow them to celebrate Christmas because of a misguided fear that it will offend some kid or more likely parent that is sensitive to the notion that some people believe in something as arcane as a God.
Conservatives question the presidents belief in America because he has worked so hard to destroy something that we value. Independence. Conservatives like myself are of the opinion that it is more harmful to coddle and artificially sustain a lifestyle which encourages a lack of effort on the part of the recipient.
It has been proven time and again that the shorter unemployment benefits last the quicker people return to work. They may not get the job they want but when faced with the reality of hunger people will do whatever they can to make it work.
Obama’s america has become like a parent that won’t kick their 32 year old child out of the home. The democrats are the screaming child saying i can’t make it on my own and the republicans are the father that has finally had enough. If you don’t earn it, you don’t deserve it.
if you want nationalized health care approach it honestly, tell me what it will cost and who will pay for it. don’t just come up with promises and tell me you are going to pay for it by eliminating fraud when we all know this will not work.
ps, ii love you guys. đŸ˜‰
A friend of mine send me an email “I read this post, and I thought of you!”
I was honored that she knew me so well. đŸ™‚
Seriously, politics makes my head want to explode. It’s embarrassing watching adults act like this!