Why even vote?

There is something about today's political process that really alarms me.
First though, I need to make it clear that even though I tend towards being a Republican, I consider myself more of an Independent.

Any of you who follow my son Donald's blog have no problem knowing where he stands on political issues. It sometimes amazes me when I find myself agreeing with him, because even though I think we fundamentally agree on quite a lot, I usually think he goes to extremes.

My two oldest, Donald and Heidi, are both very interested in current politics.

Heidi sees things from more of a liberal to middle of the road view and Donald is pretty much a rabid conservative.

And me? Well I usually don't know enough about what's going on to have many strong opinions.

Politics are just one of those things that I have minimal interest in. Kinda like sports. I really have no idea, nor do I care to know, who plays in the Super Bowl, the NBA Playoffs or even The World Series, (that is baseball isn't it?).

You see, this is how I choose to look at it; I think that Don and I live a pretty average life. There are actually several versions of what I would consider an "average" life.

We have lived through a bunch of them.

First, we got married. That put us in the"young marrieds with no children" category.
I got pregnant almost immediately. We had no insurance to pay for any of it. I looked into Government programs to see if they would cover us and was told no. So we spent our first year of marriage saving our pants off.

We lived on such a tiny shoe string budget, that my big present to Don that Christmas was a six-pack of Pepsi.

We got through this time just fine. We had saved up enough by the time I gave birth (to Donald) that we were able to pay off the entire Doctor and Hospital bill on our own.

Fast forward five years or so.

We had three children and a Mortgage. Believe it or not, right now, isn't the first time that banks have offered really sleazy home loans. We fell victim to one of those loans where we paid so much in interest that after three years we not only had no equity, we owed more on our home than the day we had signed the closing papers.

We were eventually able to get a "Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure" that got us legally out of the house, with fewer black marks on our credit rating than a straight Foreclosure would have.
This is when we also found out that just a few months after we got our loan the powers that be decided to make those sorts of loans illegal.

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Around this time, we found ourselves up to our eyeballs in debt. Some of it had been for frivolous spending, but much of it had been to keep our heads above water because our house payments had gotten so high.

We never went to a debt management place, we just got rid of our credit cards and payed them all off.

So after eight years of marriage and five years of being Home Owners (our first house was sold to buy the house with the bad loan) we found ourselves renters again.Renting a house put us into another "average category".

I guess it could be called the "Married, four kids, one income, no equity" category.

We have, over the years, (sometimes through no fault of our own, sometimes) been in many different versions of normal.

We have had, all in all, a pretty darn good life together so far. For this we are very grateful.

My point of all this, is that I can't really think of anything that any sitting President has ever done, to drastically affect my life. I'm sure that there are many people who don't see it this way. As far as I can see though, my life has been much more affected by: my children, the schools they have attended, our church, Don's job, and the many mistakes that we have made and the many good things we've done.

I guess a stickler could say that every one of these elements I have mentioned have been affected in some way by whichever President was serving at the time. And I might even be able to agree with that to a certain extent.

I can honestly say however that I can't think of a single thing that has ever happened, because of a President, that has profoundly changed my life. Feel free to be appalled by this reasoning. I'm just telling it the way I see it.

Well that has been how I have seen things for most of my adult life. I have just recently started rethinking the "No Interest In Political Issues" attitude.

There is an issue that affects our political system that really does anger me.

It would be the Media.

I can't seem to get through the day without hearing, either on TV or while listening to the radio, that Obama is leading by ten points in this poll. Or that after "this" latest action, McCain is up in the polls by three points.

On the Today Show. On The View. On Fox News. On CNBC. It doesn't matter what source you are getting it from. They all have polls and they all seem to be insinuating that the contest is already as much as decided.

I hate that.

Yes, I happen to be one of those who is aware that most people in the News and Entertainment Industry are liberal thinking Democrats.

I'm also smart enough to have figured out by now that a large majority of people are "sheep". I'm not saying they are stupid,( although I'm also not saying they aren't) but I think too many people prefer to not have to think for themselves. I addressed this in my last post on gas prices. Most people seem to be more than willing to follow anything that employs some kind of gimmick.

Gimmicks aren't always limited to stupid Grocery Store or Radio Station promotions.

Here is how the Dictionary defines gimmick (I love my dictionary).

Gimmick: CONTRIVANCE, GADGET, An important feature that is not immediately apparent: A catch: A new and ingenious scheme.

I don't know about you but that definition sounds to me like a gimmick is more than an annoying marketing device. I think that these daily Presidential polls are nothing but gimmicks. It seems to be pretty much common knowledge that numbers can be skewed to show any result you want them to show.

That of course would include polls.

So if these current polls showing, at the moment, Obama ahead of McCain by quite a lot, I think it's reasonable to assume that they are being used, by the Media, to discredit McCain. There are probably also polls out there showing McCain pulling out in front.

Those are usually shown on FOX News.

Well who cares? Who is going to look at these Polls and think to themselves, "Hmm, it looks like the race has already been decided, what's the point of voting for my choice of candidate when it looks like he has already lost?

Who would think this way?

A LOT of people would think this way!

In recent years this has been shown to be true by the media announcing early polling results on election day. The more the polls show one candidate clearly coming in with the biggest numbers, the more the supposedly "losing" candidate is likely to lose votes. Votes he would have gotten without the interfering media. I'm pretty sure that "new rules" have been put in place to not allow early poll results to be shown, so as not to affect zones where voting has not yet finished.

This proves that people can quite easily be swayed by what they see and hear over the TV or radio.

I'm sure that is why there are so many new polls every day. This year's Election is being decided now. By the Media. It's looking more and more to me like there isn't much point in regular citizens voting on November 4th.

If the situation continues, I'm starting to feel that there really is no point to voting. Maybe we should just give each candidate a few months to court the media, and whoever can do the best job will be our new President. Chosen for us by TV reporters and Newscasters.

After all, aren't they the ones with the finger on the pulse of the Nation?

Yeah, I know.

That would be absolutely Outrageous!

What sane country would ever choose their leaders that way?


Ummm, America?