I’m irritable and grumpy and really not in the mood to write a happy post. But then, I’m tired of hearing myself complain. So where does that leave me?
Avoidance. That seems like a perfectly immature solution. I’m going for it.
To avoid complaining about the health issues that are on my mind, instead I’ll list my top 5 (in no particular order) concerns going into the next presidential election. After all, politics is always a good topic to vent about.
- Obama’s healthcare plan could be repealed. I sure don’t agree with all of it, but it’s the best we have right now. It worries me that some of our candidates believe that anyone who can’t afford healthcare should be left to suffer and even to die. It worries me that they don’t see the need to outlaw preexisting condition exclusions. It worries me that they think our current system works. Just because it works for them, doesn’t it mean it works for the rest of us.
- Abortions could become illegal, or legal but almost impossible to get. The laws in some states scare me. To think that a woman must be counseled against an abortion before she can receive one, or that she must be forced to listen to the fetus’s heartbeat, is just downright scary. A woman should not be forced to carry a baby against her will. What kind of society would enforce that? It’s especially heinous considering how difficult some people want to make it for women to receive contraception and Plan B-type medications. Believe it or not, not every fertile woman wants to have a child. Expanding these laws to work around Roe v. Wade would be unacceptable.
- Homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia could become legal. Well, more than it already is. What really angers me (besides the politicians railing against “the gays” who themselves turn out to be gay or bi) are the many politicians who say they “have many close friends who are gay” and they “have nothing against gays” but then denounce same sex couples as having “unnatural lifestyles” or something equally absurd. Psst…. you really do have a problem with “the gays,” even though you still want their votes.
- Immigrants, both legal and illegal, could become scapegoats for every single problem in this country. Well, even more than they already are. Shocking as it may seem, immigrants did not cause the current/recent recession, immigrants are not preventing a rebound in employment numbers by stealing American jobs, and immigrants did not come to this country in order to scam our welfare system. Yes, there is the occasional immoral immigrant, just like there is the occasional immoral U.S.-born citizen. But overall, these are people who came to this country for a better life. Why did your ancestors come here? Unless your ancestors were Native Americans, your ancestors immigrated to this country at one point. They may have come by choice or they may have come against their will, but they weren’t born here. The vast majority of us are descended from immigrants. Get over it.
- We’ll continue to see nothing but infighting, status quo, and bandaids. I’m so sick and tired of see a group of rich white guys, with a few women and minorities thrown in for good measure, fighting for their side to win, even at the expense of the American people. I’m fed up with seeing real solutions to real problems being watered down to the point of being made almost useless. I’m aching to see something more than just incremental changes. Where’s the real thing? Let’s tear apart our broken systems and rebuild them to be better. You know that whole “all [people] are created equal” clause? I want to see our politicians act as if it’s really true. I want to see our political system fixed so that there’s no longer an incentive for politicians to pander to rich people and large corporations. I want to see a system that appears to at least have the potential to actually work. I’m not seeing that right now.
For once, I want to vote for the best candidate, not for the least bad one.
A few people have suggested that I run for office myself. They weren’t suggesting a presidential run, of course, but something more like a state representative position. I gave three good reasons for not doing it: (1) my health (2) lack of money (3) I’d want to speak my mind, and I honestly don’t think anyone can get elected by speaking their mind. I really wish that wasn’t true.
This next election scares me. I just don’t like the direction we’re moving in. I hope that by some miracle, things improve. Oh, that reminds me, I didn’t have room to get into my views on the separation of church and state and where that’s headed. A future rant to look forward to….
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Chronic Rants 
I just wish we could get money out of politics. When I see how much money is spent on election it makes me want to throw up. I try my best to vet each candidate and have found several good websites that show how they have voted on issues (I can then check to see if they vote the way I would want them to vote on key issues important to me), another on who has donated to their campaign so I can evaluate pay back in the future as it always must be done and is usually done at the expense of us…the tax payer. It is just sad how politics has taken such a nasty road the past 10 years. If we could get money out of Washington that would be a great start for me.
Whatever happens in Washington, at least you’ve done your homework and you’re doing what you can to make an educated vote. That’s a fantastic start.