The election is over. Big day come and gone, and now it’s time for the dust to settle. And like many Americans, I’m reflecting on what has happened the past few months, and finding myself really annoyed. And since I have a blog, when I get annoyed, I feel like ranting sometimes. So in no particular order, here is what is annoying me.
The election process-Ok, really? This is 2012 and we can’t have an election that runs smoothly? Is it reasonable that so many Americans waited in line for long hours to cast their vote? Especially since in some districts, races were very close. American Idol has figured out how to garner millions of votes in a short time frame, we should be able to also. It’s crazy that we don’t have a uniform set of times, procedures, policies and so on. In this day and age, there is no reason an American should have to give up an entire work day to vote for President. Move it to a Saturday, so schools don’t have to close. The entire actual election process in this country is complex, archaic, and disenchanting voters. We should be louder about this.
Election spending-How many times did you hear the phrase “most expensive election in history” regarding either a local or national race? It’s disgusting, when so many people in the USA and around the world are going without. That election funding rule/law needs to be overturned–the one that prohibits unlimited spending by special interest groups. We’ve obviously demonstrated as a people that we can’t handle it responsibly.
Negative ads-I’ve seen so many politicians denounce negative attack ads. And they all still do it.
Pundits-Why can’t they all go out and find a real job? Why do so many people take what they say as gospel and truth? When will they stop yammering on and on?
Gerrymandering-When are some districts/states/locales going to make redistricting a priority? It’s so obvious that so many districts were not drawn in a logical manner, but according to how the votes would go. There’s one rep in this area, and his district “snakes” (that was the media’s word, not mine) across 5 counties. Five. In Pennsylvania–have you seen how big and populated our state is? There is no reason to have that in a rural area, much less suburban Philadelphia.
Career politicians-Back in the “good ole days,” men left their vocation for a year or two or six to serve their country as a politician. Their fathers and brothers held down the business and maintained it while they took this ‘noble cause’ and did their service. Then, when their term was up, they returned home and jumped right back into the business. That doesn’t happen today. And when you are a career politician who doesn’t have a job/vocation to return home to, you do what is best to keep your job. And that’s not necessarily what is best morally or for your constituents. I wish we could change this.
And now that’s 6 things. Ooops, sorry. Told you I felt like ranting. Ok, to balance it out better, here are some things I am happy about today.
I am very happy to see more women winning important positions, including the first Asian-American woman and a woman with significant disabilities. I am happy that more minorities are voting in elections than just a few years ago. I am happy that while our country appears to be divided, that to me, it does feel like we are on the mend–and I am glad that at least Americans are passionate about politics again. We need to get involved, we need to demand more and better from our legislators.
Have a good day, and remember, we’re all in this together.
