I'm Apathetic. It's All Copasetic. (LJ Idol)

I should care about politics.

 

I should!  That's the way I understand it, anyway.  The elections are all over the news, folks EVERYWHERE are talking about who's running for this and that and how they're either going to ruin everything or fix everything... and I should care.  I'm CERTAIN I should care.

 

But the fact is, I don't.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not COMPLETELY apathetic.  I mean, I pay attention.  I take notes on the debates and the conventions and all of that good stuff.  I listened to the speeches from both the Democratic and Republican conventions (I'd have caught the Libertarian convention if I'd known it existed...).  But in the end I always end up coming back around to the same conclusion.

 

Yes, I am certain that who gets elected into office matters.  And yes, I am going to vote.  But beyond that... frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

 

No, that doesn't mean that I don't care about "the issues".  Actually I care about a LOT of issues.  I care about women's rights.  I care about equal opportunity.  I care about the GBLT community and whether my friends are allowed to get legally married and who's feeding my friend when he's out of a job.  I care about the rights of religious minorities.  I care about the separation of Church and State.  Yes, I give a damn about these things.

 

The PROBLEM is, I don't think that the government gives a damn.

 

And why should they?  We're a large country.  We have states for a reason.  I'm not going to jump on a platform about whether or not you should join this party or that party because they do or do not advocate "small government", but I don't for a moment think that a BIG government, the Federal government, has the wits or the will to take CARE of the issues that I care about.  What I'm saying is, I think that politics are damned near useless.  We've got a bunch of people with mud-for-brains who generally DON'T give a shit about you or me or Joe on the street begging for change (pennies-and-quarters-and-please-make-the-world-a-better-place-so-I-have-a-reason-to-live-in-it), and we pay them millions of dollars out of our incomes to babysit us.  I'm sure that there are a couple of big-heads in government who got into it to change the world.  I'm sure there are people who care.  But they are so dwarfed by the people who are just interested in pressing their agenda that it's almost impossible to find them.  SHOULD they care?  Because we're dumb enough to keep going along with it?

 

I do not advocate violence.  I do however believe that something needs to give.

 

Vote.  Yes, please, vote.  Vote if it means something to you even a little bit.  Jump on the bandwagon of your choosing because someone said something that you can believe in, even for a little while.  Hope.  Hope it makes a difference and hope because that's what the people around you really need most from you.  Dream, of a better future, while still being willing to work with what you have right now.  Think.  For goodness sake THINK.  Think about what we can do to solve the utter stupidity of putting people whom we never met in charge of our hopes and dreams.

 

Because, wake up folks... most of the stuff you're seeing on TV about this candidate and that congressman is bullshit.  So yes, put something into the system now... but stop using all of your emotional, physical, and economical resources to get behind a building that is falling apart.  Let it go... and in the meantime, put some brainpower into how to make a new one.

 

I can't bring myself to care about the crumbling, failing empire.  I care about the people in it.

--entry for week two of season 5 of LJ Idol--

Steven Waldman Tackles Religion, Politics And Palin

Steven Waldman Tackles Religion, Politics And Palin

Waldman is a former editor for the US News & World and a founder of beliefnet.com.  I though that it was an interesting answer to some of the panic around Palin's religious views (not that I'm saying I'm OKAY with her religious views, but I think that Waldman has an interesting take on it.)

If you're reading this before 3pm ET, make sure to check back after that and listen to the audio.  He had a lot more to say than what the article says.

Love,
Crystal

(I enabled comments on this post but understand that I am probably not going to respond to many if any of them.  I'm posting this for the sake of broadening the discussion and not to start a political debate.)