Giles: Politics Is Getting Politicized
How well is our political system working these days? Not surprisingly, Sunday Morning contributor Nancy Giles has an opinion on that.
It's official: Politics have become politicized. How else can anyone explain that the will of the people is being ignored by our elected representatives?
A Washington Post poll says 67% of Americans would not approve the additional $190 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A USA Today/Gallup poll shows that more than half of Americans think the war in Iraq is getting worse; and 60% of us think the war itself was a mistake.
But the war goes on, our brave troops continue to be wounded and killed, and it's costing billions more than the country can afford.
And despite the 81% of us who are in favor of expanding "S-CHIP," providing health insurance to 10 million kids who don't qualify for Medicaid, and the three-quarters of us who would be willing to pay more taxes to make that happen, this program was vetoed by President Bush, and Thursday the House fell thirteen votes short of overriding his veto.
I don't get it. The people have spoken, and the elected officials are ignoring us! Don't they work for us?
Can't we fire them, right now?
I know this is simplistic, but couldn't we take a teeny bit of that, oh, 10 billion bucks a month that's going God knows where in Iraq and make sure more American kids have health coverage?
Will somebody look at the books, like the fake president's accountant did in the movie "Dave"? His plain ol' accountant-guy logic pointed out ways to cut the fat and get money where it was actually needed. Why can't life imitate art?
And I'm still offended that the major Republican presidential candidates didn't show at last month's presidential forum with a panel comprised of journalists of color. But at least some of the candidates showed up. Univision, the Spanish-language network had to cancel its forum due to lack of interest.
Now even if blacks don't usually vote Republican, Hispanics do, and what about the white people that might just be offended by Republicans blowing off the black and Hispanic vote? I wonder if that pointing and smiling at the end of their other debates is them going, "Hey! A black person! A Hispanic! Shoot! Maybe I should have gone to that debate after all!"
What's a person to do when staying informed with what's going on in the world makes you ill? What pill can I "ask my doctor" for to help me cope with political weariness?
According to the Giles poll, 100% of this one person has had it.