Politics as usual?
First off, I wish to state that I'm a registered Democrat. That does not mean, however, that I always vote on party lines. But after the recent victory in the liberal state of Massachusetts by the Republican Scott Brown, I started to think.
As I have spent more time reading and being on the web, I have discovered a certain truth: politicians do not truly care about representing their voting constituents. They remain true to their "supporters", the corporations or lobby groups that provide campaign funding. But they truly never listen to the people, the ones who actually voted them into office. For example, George W. Bush pursued a course of military action in Iraq that was actually very unpopular with the American public. And now we have had a congress that has provided great amounts of (literally non-existent) taxpayer money to bail out failing corporations, which was not popular with the voting public. We have a new President who's been pushing a health care reform package that has been shown to be very unpopular by the public. And we have that illustrious congress who again have shown their disregard for the voting public, and are pushing through this ill-conceived and very costly legislation.
So, it was a no-brainer for the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to vote for a candidate - a REPUBLICAN candidate, who simply said he opposed the health bill. Now, is Washington listening? Do they hear that message that came in loud and clear from the voters of Massachusetts: do NOT continue to pass the health bill!
But no. They'll continue to force the legislation through, albeit a bit watered down. John McCain said today that they should not pass a watered-down version, but go back to square one, and I agree. But with all the other problems that we have right now, health care reform should be placed on the back-burner.
However, one element of this election that was true politics: Scott Brown said on Wednesday, AFTER he was elected, that there was a need for some sort of health care legislation. Go figure....
As I have spent more time reading and being on the web, I have discovered a certain truth: politicians do not truly care about representing their voting constituents. They remain true to their "supporters", the corporations or lobby groups that provide campaign funding. But they truly never listen to the people, the ones who actually voted them into office. For example, George W. Bush pursued a course of military action in Iraq that was actually very unpopular with the American public. And now we have had a congress that has provided great amounts of (literally non-existent) taxpayer money to bail out failing corporations, which was not popular with the voting public. We have a new President who's been pushing a health care reform package that has been shown to be very unpopular by the public. And we have that illustrious congress who again have shown their disregard for the voting public, and are pushing through this ill-conceived and very costly legislation.
So, it was a no-brainer for the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to vote for a candidate - a REPUBLICAN candidate, who simply said he opposed the health bill. Now, is Washington listening? Do they hear that message that came in loud and clear from the voters of Massachusetts: do NOT continue to pass the health bill!
But no. They'll continue to force the legislation through, albeit a bit watered down. John McCain said today that they should not pass a watered-down version, but go back to square one, and I agree. But with all the other problems that we have right now, health care reform should be placed on the back-burner.
However, one element of this election that was true politics: Scott Brown said on Wednesday, AFTER he was elected, that there was a need for some sort of health care legislation. Go figure....
Comments