Perhaps it's just the culture in Utah, but I suspect, having seen the way citizens of this nation conduct themselves on the national news, that it may be a nation-wide thing.
Anyway... Everywhere else where I have lived, while people tend to support one political party or another, they generally don't get so attached to their party that they'll throw logic out, and vote only for their party and against the opposition. And to be fair, most other countries I've lived in have multiple parties, not just two major ones.
Granted I haven't lived that many other places, and I've never been really involved in politics, but that's the impression I've gotten both here and abroad.
So with all that aside, I found the following posting rather interesting...
Well Done America
People might bitch and complain about the leadership in power at any one time, but when you consider the posting above, voter turn out and how money talks louder than the voice of the people, I think it's fair to say we've wasted our shot at democracy.
Nope, it's not just in Utah.
ReplyDeleteAmerican politics... stinks. (This is a family blog, right?) Corrupt from top to bottom. The candidates we see are puppets, being controlled knowingly or unknowingly by a host of people who would never run for office themselves, because they know they are so slimy the American public wouldn't let their kids sit near them on a bus. Any good ones will try to work with or fight the system and eventually realize the futility and drop out, or try to fight the system and be eaten alive by it, or try to work with the system and eventually become part of the corruption themselves.
The parallels between organized religion and politics are scary, btw.
clink
Well said!
ReplyDeletePerhaps the problem in Utah is that the line between religion and politics has become increasingly blurry - actually forget that, it's completely gone, but I suspect the same may be true in other states with fundamentalist type religious majorities.
Well, in the UK (the country, not your world) there are essentially only two parties - the Labor Party and the Conservatives (Tories). There is a sort-of third (the Liberal Democrats) but they are pepetually IN third, so they don't really hold enough seats to achieve anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, there is back scratching and political scandal and a fair share of egocentric scallywags but, for the most part, there is definitely a greater engagement with the electorate as a whole. Whether that's because British people are more politically engaged that Americans or because the system is set-up to literally place less red tape betwen the public and their elected officialls, it's difficult to say.
All I CAN say is that a lot more gets done in Britain. Like it or hate it, stuff moves through the legislative branches out there. Meanwhile there is an entire system and related industries devoted to stone-walling legislation out here.
It makes me sick.
You just don't realize what a dysfunctional country this is until you live here. I had no idea America was like this until I moved here 15 years ago and, on the whole, I would have to say sorry but I'm awfully disappointed.
Sorry, I love lots of things about America and Americans, but that's my overriding conclusion.