Since the honeymoon of the Obama administration came to an end, which was maybe a month or so after inauguration, I have become wildly disappointed in my country’s political format. That is probably because I never really had any expectations since my politically conscious life began (I am 26 as of the date of this entry so 2008 was only my second presidential election I could vote in). But after the momentum of Obama’s win in 2008 for the first time since I had started following politics I felt like good common sense and collective caring about our fate and each other might actually prevail. Things didn’t quite turn out that way. Apparently, even though a majority of country wanted this man in office so he could do his thing and set the country and world straight, there were plenty of people who just wanted to defame him and keep the focus away from the essence of any important issue and focus on less sensible things. Between Fox News and the contagion of ignorant or intentionally distracting people across the conversation the country went astray. From birthers, to death panels, to anything Sarah Palin (a woman who probably doesn’t have the resume to qualify for a reputable grad school) talks about, we missed the point which is how to make anything better. The intent of the opposition was wonderfully satirized by the Onion (what isn’t) in this article http://www.theonion.com/articles/my-constituents-care-way-more-about-political-game,16887/.
I still can’t fully blame Obama even though he led the Democrats as they squandered “the largest majority any party has seen in decades.” It was more a matter of him having a false belief that the moral high ground would help him past the kind of opposition he was going to face. He was prepared to debate any real topic with anyone, but miscalculated how many false rumors he would have to stomp out before he could get to the topic at hand which by then was old news and didn’t matter. He probably didn’t have a good core of politically experienced savvy game players in his circle, which is his fault, and he completely lost control of voice of the Democratic Party where somehow all of them came out looking incompetent. And overall that was a bit naive of him and I should probably treat him more harshly for not playing political games as well, but my conscience says that's not a good reason to disapprove of someone. We can, however, definitely blame the republicans who have yet to propose any useful legislation in the last two and a half years.
But more than either of the two parties we can blame the media driven political system that we’re currently enrolled in. One that leaves only two options, pick between the “I like to think I have a conscience, but like most people there is a lot of confusion in how best to express it” party and the “I don’t care about having a conscience because there are more important things at stake” party or relegate yourself to a simple life where you don’t fancy yourself no politics. None of these options really seem that appealing do they? Especially not after I slandered them. So assuming we’re not taking the final option, which is really the better choice for the weak stomached and anyone who has any regard for personal sanity, it is my belief that it might be a good idea to alter the two party system as it is what is truly to blame for the congestion. After all, politicians just play the hand they are dealt under the rules of the game that they are playing. Some suggest that the two party system is entrenched and there is no way to uproot it. I, for some unknown reason, am a little more hopeful than that. The way to start this process is to alter our election voting format.
