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Edited on Sat May-20-06 05:49 PM by Humor_In_Cuneiform
It seems people are very quick to judge and write off office holders who don't vote, say, or do what they want them to.
I have observed this phenomenon.
At times I speculate as to whether different age groups are more likely to do so.
As I've tried to just observe (and not judge it myself) this quick to judge phenomenon, I can't help but think that it may come out of the sense of powerlessness so many feel in this age of the Dubya administration and all that goes with it.
My undergrad degree was in Anthropology, so thinking about societal trends in thought, belief, and action is kinda second nature to me.
It is understandable that so many of us have felt varying degrees of a sense of powerlessness. In the aftermath of the Florida non-recount of 2000 is where it took a huge turn for me.
The next major experience of such was when we got dragged into war with Iraq. Despite all the protests around the world, and all those in our own nation who at the very least wished to allow the UN inspectors to finish their job, despite all this...
It was all too clear from Dubya's rhetoric at the time that he was absolutely determined to go to war. It didn't matter what happened in the real world, he always said the same thing. Saddam isn't complying enough, blah, blah, blah.
Another source of the sense of powerlessness comes from recognizing the tactics employed by the GOP and Neocons and Rove in particular. That sense of powerlessness and questionable hope had gotten worse and worse. I imagine we all experienced doubt as to whether it would ever turn around.
As Paul Krugman wrote, it was going to take the coming of "the great revulsion" for what has been going on under this administration. Within the last month or so he wrote a column indicating he believed we've reached The Great Revulsion.
And I agree.
But still anyone aware of the electronic voting problems and the endless dirty tricks, and lies knows that very little can be assured in our current electoral system.
The Rush Holt bill has over 180 sponsors, more than half the House, but still it doesn't to the House floor for debate and for a vote.
Now we're left to wonder if the NSA and other spy programs are being used to spy on candidates opposing the current administration in order to put them at a disadvantage.
We watch headlines that are simply beyond belief for us as Americans. We are appalled by the torture, secret prisons, the lack of rights for detainees, the infringement on our own civil liberties, most recently as we learned the phone companies have turned over massive amounts of information about us and our fellow citizens to the government.
And yet despite the ongoing outrages, we feel powerless to change things, at least to change them quickly.
Yet many of us labor on, thank goodness, both with protests and within the electoral and governmental system to change the government.
We do this even though we have no assurance that our efforts will lead to an election in which votes are actually cast and counted as intended.
An election in which people are not arbitrarily denied the right to vote by some archaic voter suppression legislation enacted in various states.
It is a tribute to the passion and dedication of those who continue to work and struggle in the face of all the obstacles to bring about change.
However the Office Holders that are judged very quickly are likewise operating under the same set of circumstances. For that reason, I tend to not be quick to judge them myself.
But I don't blame my fellow citizens who are just so impatient, tired, sick and tired, outraged and need a way to focus all that energy.
That impatience, that energy is the stuff of which major change is made.
Major change never happens without a great deal of passion for the change.
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