Well said Matt. The longer I work in the public sector the more I think our system needs a major overhaul, or just new people to get involved. The people who are being elected are politicians and tend to be massivly out of touch with the strugels of the everyday person. There are good politicians out there (actually I think Ohio has 2 of the best Senators) but there are some other people who need to lose an election. The other problem I see is the higher up politicians tend to be older and set in their ways, we need more people who are open to change for the betterment of the whole and less people who only want to protect their interest.

 

+1....

Very well said Matt.

 

+1 to that, IMHO.

I've written to my Senator on three occasions now, and every time I have, I not only got a LETTER RESPONSE acknowledging the receipt of my concern, but also with a 3-4 paragraph position statement explaining exactly the Senator's current stance on the matter at hand as well as situations or nuances that would influence their decision. What I got out of the exchange was the feeling that he was indeed thinking about the issues and was willing to explain his position to me. I know a staffer prepared the statement and sent it to me, but it still showed me that our elected officials ARE listening and are willing to use logic to explain their position, not just pander to me by agreeing.

As for "new people", one of the best things that Obama has done, in my opinion, is to show younger people that caring about politics and the democratic process is indeed something that younger people can influence and which will benefit form their participation. I've seen several young up-and-coming would-be Senators and Representatives on the news and on panel shows like Bill Mahr's show, and I'm excited that all seem to be much younger and more positive about their role in politics than I'm used to (and that includes candidates on BOTH sides of the spectrum, not just Democrats).

Hey... if Republicans have to open the corridors of power to a younger more socially conscious class of candidate to try and "win back" young and minority votes, well, yeah some might see that as cynical, but I see it as the inevitable evolution of their position to a more moderate stance.

 

PS - back on topic: Just saw this over on Sullivan's Blog. Goes quite a way to support the point I was trying to make in my first post about government actively promoting big, gas-hog vehicles prior to the current crisis, and how I believe the current plan helps to reverse at least a little bit of that damage:

 

Matt I correspond with both Senator's staffs regularly and they are a great group both in DC and in Ohio. I wish we had a better governor in Ohio a bar of soap could run against him and I would not hesitate to vote for the soap over this dope. Politicians are really good at making decisions that will get them short term votes, sadly they are terrible at making the tough decisions that would ensure long term success.

 

There are many venues internet and otherwise for political debate however NAM is not one of them. Thread closed.