General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I was surprised at the initial appeal of Trump. [View all]geniph
(12,591 posts)The oligarchs have spent the last 50 years trying to convince ordinary Americans that they shouldn't care about politics. "both parties are the same" "voting doesn't make any difference" "they're all crooks" etc., ad nauseum. Yes, there are crooked politicians and bought-and-paid-for politicians, but the majority of people who go into politics do it for the best of reasons. Most really want to solve a problem, and help people. The trouble is the way our elections are financed: so long as every election is a financial horse race, where you have to raise a minimum $ amount to even be considered a viable candidate, well, ya gotta dance with them whut brung ya. If lobbyists and PACs financed your campaign, then you're probably going to feel obligated to them. We need full public campaign financing, and we need to get corporate money out of politics.
Ahem. Got off on a tangent there. Sorry, it's a sore point ever since I ran for office myself, 20 years ago. Back to my main point, though - what media do you ever see that *doesn't* vilify the "career politician," the "professional politician"? Why is it bad for politicians to actually know how to do their jobs? We have House members now, and even some Senators, who have not a clue how legislation becomes law. When the professional politicians are voted out (or resign in disgust), then you get a cageful of howler monkeys screeching and flinging feces.
^YOU ARE HERE^
Politics is exactly as good as the people involved in it. When people abdicate from their responsibility to be a part of the process, then you get a clownish fuckstick like TFG. When only the extremes are voting, you get nutcases elected. Every citizen has a responsibility to cast an informed vote. Many countries actually require voting, and tax those who do not cast a ballot, because democracy dies when the citizenry doesn't care enough to work to keep it alive.
In other words, apathy is the cause of MAGAtry.