In Care of my Health

OK, can I say something out loud?

I have no idea what this health care bill will or will not do for me.  Does this make me more or less American?

Yes, MSN homepage, you can bullet point what the bill does but honestly we'll only know in ten years how it REALLY has affected me and my family.  Frankly (not a Barney reference, I assure you), I'm sick of hearing about it...and that makes me sad.  I MINORED in poly-sci, how can I hate it that much now?!

Personally, I'm getting incredibly sick of politics and wonder if the people of Rome felt like this before that empire fell.  I'm pretty sure we've got to be thisclose to crazy rulers dancing and playing violin while Detroit burns ('cause really, doesn't Detroit riot every other Tuesday?)

Maybe it's my lack of conviction, but from where I'm standing politics is becoming a joke...but not a funny one, more like the ones I try to tell where I try too hard and no one ever laughs. (See above paragraph.)

You've got one side, lets call them the loud talkers.  I appreciate their strong convictions, but these people scare the hell out of me.  It should never be he who yells loudest rules.  You're not my mom, I don't like being told what to do all the time.

The other side is the undeciders.  They can't get their act together long enough to tie their shoes.  Their problem is they know they don't like it the yelling way, but can't agree on how or why to do it another way.  They are the unvocalized opposition to the yellers, and really not so effective.

Here's my analogy:
Say you're stuck in a car with a group of friends and you are deciding where to go for dinner.  One way, the driver screams since he's driving we're going to restaurant A and that's that.  Since you're not a big fan of that place, you are not happy.    But you'll also not be happy if no one in the car can agree and you end up starving and driving around for hours until you just land at a place no one likes because you simply ran out of gas.

There has to be a better way.  I have to believe most people fall into a happy medium catagory.  If everyone puts their minds to it we should be able to come up with a compromise.  Life is a series of compromises, is it not?  Find a restaurant that's close, inexpensive and has an extensive menu and all is forgiven.

On the other side of the coin, who do you know that gets along with every member of their family?  If we can't have familial peace, why should we expect to be a happy, shiny people holding hands country?

We are so very combatitive and unyielding when it comes to politics...and that bites.  The world is not all black and white, but it's never all gray either.  Tough decisions are just that--tough, with no easy answers. 

Here is the way I see it.  There are three huge problems with our election system:
1)  There is too much money in it. 
2)  Generally, people are dumb and will believe what you tell them in a 30 second commercial (especially if it's well produced and untrue).
3)  The primary system is killing this country.  For the primaries we get the leftest left and the rightest right to decide on a key player and then for the general election these same candidates have to act (cause it is all an act is it not?) all warm and fuzzy and have a gooey center.  The closest one to the middle without going over (and without outright contridicting previous published opinion) wins.  Then said elected official has to once more appease the outer spectum of primary voters so he/she can be elected again.   And, barring the obligatory political corruption scandal, it's an endless cycle.

Yea, us.

Now for my easy answer--
I'd like to start another political party.  The I'd-like-to-care-but-I-don't-have-time-but-really-let's-meet-in-the-middle party.  The only thing I need is money, a following of stupid people, and a decision on where we are meeting for dinner.  Who's with me???