John McCain and Barrack Obama are politicians. They are running for the same office with the same tools, and with the backing of the same political parties that candidates running for President have used in the past. Yet they are a different breed of politician. There are politicians that are supposedly "crooked" and/or the "entrenched interests" that these two candidates have been attacking have more than likely endorsed and/or donated money to one of these two campaigns-if not both-yet they are different. No matter which of these two candidates win the election; they will be bringing to Washington with them a very large percentage of the Washington insiders that currently exist with them back to Washington. Furthermore, these two gentlemen really have no means of expelling the so called "entrenched interests" like the special interest groups or lobbyists; yet they both assert that they will change our political system. The more I think about this I get confused. The only logical way to change a system that is functioning is probably not by inserting oneself into the equation but perhaps by making at least an alteration to the process. Policy matters, however, are not the process itself but an offshoot of it. So maybe these candidates should be talking about how to change the functioning. There are different ways yo approach this and I'd be curious to see what ideas are out there other than the Dr. Ron Paul theory we all know and love. The more options to choose from the more possibilities.
John McCain may or may not be another term of George W. Bush, but he is definitely fundraising with him. Fundraising and yet not campaigning. Think about that for a minute. He will not be publicly associating himself directly towards the unpopular President, but behind closed doors he will be accepting money-large sums of money-from the President's friends are ardent supporters. These people not only like George W. Bush's policies, but are donating funds probably expecting some similar policies to come into existence-or be enhanced-should McCain win the election.
Barrack Obama realizes as do many perceptive human beings that there are problems in our country. He mentions them in his speeches and he states that he is empathetic, yet not all problems can be fixed with policy. Obama correctly proclaims that he cannot fix our problems without our help. He cannot directly solve the problems for 300,000,000 Americans. So the question might arise do we really need these candidates at all then? Should we be helping ourselves not because it is arguably the right course of action, but because no one can really help us more than we can help ourselves.
Is Barrack Obama really that different from Bill Clinton, or John McCain from George W. Bush. I don't think they are. Personality wise sure, but that doesn't matter in relation to politics. Politically they are similar in my mind because they both have an enormous donkey or elephant on their backs. The political parties in the current American system still have so much influence that irregardless of whether or not we had different candidates running for President than we have now their policies would be practically identical. Political parties are headed and run by politicians and made up of people. So could it be that maybe the problem is with the people?
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4 comments:
I agree that the "monkey or elephant" on their backs is a MAJOR issue. Every campaign brings a wave of hope for something better. Yet, it seems that the only thing new is the face in office. However, with as electrically charged as this campaign is, perhaps the "powers that be" will start to hear how fed up the American people are with partisan division.
Recently, Jon Stewart did a spin on McCain as the "reformed maverick." Just shows that he needed to play the game to get the where he is. Sad, but true. Change/Reform is going to need to be a collective effort from both parties...with out a doubt.
What I'm worried about is that this may just be cyclical. After some reforms take place and the public forgets about the reason why the reforms were needed; we could fall back into the same old problems. I think we need to tinker with the system. Obama is right we need change, but I just think that it might need to come from the outside of the system to make sure it is permanent.
The public is easily shrouded in a cloud of change, hope, and that a new wave of politicians will change the game. What I've always enjoyed about Barack Obama's candidacy is that he challenges US. For change and progress to come about it won't happen in the halls of Congress or with Obama's signature on a bill. WE, the American people have to exact the change we need to prevent us falling further behind in the world.
If anything has been proven by current incarnations of Congress and the Presidency they have recently had difficulty acting in the best interest of the American people. To change that, we need to get involved beyond using our vote for President this fall.
Agreeing with you that Obama-and no President for that matter can do anything without the people-can't change things for us without our help. Does he even need to be elected then? McCain can be elected and Americans decide that we just want to follow Obama's message anyway. Society must comply for any change to occur and succeed. Are the candidates irrelevant then?
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