Current mood:

content

politics
I try to stay away from politics as a topic of my semi regular rants, but today I could not resist. For over 200 years fillibustering has been a way for the minority in congress to stop the majority from doing something they felt was irreresponsible. Both sides have used it, and loved it when they were minorities, bith sides have been annoyed by it when they were majorities. This is still true today. Senator Robert Byrd recently was attacking the current Republican push to do away with the fillibuster, so they could get any judicial nominee they want to a floor vote, when he invoked the iconic Adolph Hitler as an example of someone changing the law to suit his needs and further his agenda.

While I am not saying that this was particurlarly smart on Mr. Byrd's place, I am irritated by how the republicans seize on this opportunity to change the focus of debate from the original topic to what a racist/idiot Mr. Byrd is.

Please do not think that I am irritated at the GOP alone. I know full well that had the dems been in controland trying to do this (something certainly not above them) and had any republican senator made similar remarks, they too would have been shouting from the rooftops.

What irritates me is that intelligent discourse is barely present in Washington. Name calling, backstabbing and politicking abound, and apparently keep our nation going, but actual give and take debates are practically non existant.

I have been fairly liberal since I was in high school. However I find myself liking some of the changes Georgy porgy is pushing during his second term. I love the social security reform. I get to control the growth of my money? That rocks! I would also like to see a revamping of the income tax system looked into. I am not educated enough on the topic to have a real strong opinion, but it seems like the two sides get so animated any time it gets brought up, that new ideas HAVE to come from the president for either side to get traction. Wouldn't it be cool to have a government where they thoroughly and even handedly research the possibilities of a problem and then publish the results to everyone before having some intelligent debate featuring experts from both sides and finally a vote?

All you heard from either side during the last election was sound byte politics. Clearly both Bush and Kerry believe that that is the way to get elected, and that Americans don't have the patience to listen to actual debate. Perhaps they are right, but I would love to see a candidate come along who is middle of the road, open to ideas from both sides and who doesn't sling mud.

anyway, gotta work.