Throw the bums out

Over the last decade or so, I have been involved in politics in one way or the other.  We grew up discussing politics around the dinner table.  Policies, elections, candidates, etc. It has always been part of my life.  That is probably why when we started to have access to meet politicians at a very high level, I started to feel that we should support them financially and throw some muscle behind them. And, so we did.

Most of the time, our efforts were through fund raising.  Locally and nationally.  Perhaps stupid on our part but we really had these fund raisers not so much because we wanted to be part of the process as not once did we go to those access events we had invitations to because you gave so much money.  We raised money because we wanted the world to be a better place.  

Yesterdays election outcomes sends the signal, at least to me, of exactly how I have been feeling about Government in the past year.  I have lost faith.  I am a fan of Obama.  I do believe he wants to make the changes he talks about but it is like turning around a cruise ship.  Between the lobbyists, the corruption, the politicians who only vote in order to get money for the next election, to the layers and layers of political bullshit, it has to be impossible to say "the buck stops here and that's it".  Is it the checks and balances?  Perhaps. 

But at the end of the day,  I want new new new.  I am sick of the wealthy egotistical candidates that think just because they were successful in business they can be successful in politics.  Certainly there are exceptions to the rule.  I do believe Bloomberg has done a great job and in all honesty, regardless of the third term bullshit, nobody with a brain was running against him.  Bill Thompson, who is a nice man that I have met numerous amount of times, is a serious lightweight.  I'm sick of the extremists, on either side.  I'm sick of the layers of micro-management from a person in office who never gets shit done. 

The health care bill and the debacle of propping up Goldman Sachs and the banks, who have no interest in loaning money these days although they say they are, they are lying.  CEO's who are negotiating for millions and millions of dollars with huge payouts if they are fired before they even show the public traded companies  ( aka shareholders ) what they are made of.  When did this happen? 

How we can not pass a health care bill to take care of the uninsured and people who get screwed by their insurance companies when they get sick...or the kids who have no control over their parents ability to insure them.  How did we give money out to large companies from our federal taxes and not get a huge pay off for it if they did great in the long run.  Who the hell negotiated those contracts?  People who were doing a wink wink behind all of our backs?

Am I ranting?  Honestly, as much money as I have raised over the years, I am done.  I have lost complete faith in the Government on so many levels.  Yesterdays election, where barely anyone showed up in NYC to vote, didn't send out any anti-Democratic, pro-Republican message.  It just sent out the message which will continue to repeat itself until somebody makes a real change.  We want change, we want new and we will keep voting in new people until one of them actually does something.