I am getting pretty darn irritated with politics. Nothing new, of course, as I've felt this way for several years. But, lately, I find myself with a pounding head after watching TV, reading the newspaper, reading "Newsweek", or cruising the Web...
What's whipping me up? Let me count the ways...
The scary partisanship I see growing in this country. If you pay attention to what's happened/is happening in other countries (huge hoo-hahs over really trivial or superficial) (OK, trivial and superficial to me), one would think that it would be in all our best interests -- the entire country, is what I'm referring to -- NOT to descend into this bilateral division. Republic vs. Democrat -- to me, it's like Sunni v. Shia (don't jump all over me, please), or Catholic v. Protestant (thank you Northern Ireland), Tutsi v. Hutu, Sureno v. Norteno, whatever v. whatever... We have far more in common than we have different. Grrr...
The blatant twisting of the facts to fit your "side", usually delivered with a firm jaw, really good hair, false sincerity around the eyes, and a tad of OUTRAGE just for spice. Ridiculous. My profession and my training may help me to see things a tad more even-handedly, even as I can advocate for a particular side. The evil twin of this issue is "forgetting" certain past occurrences which perhaps had an impact or effect on a current situation... Like, the fact that the greatly beloved (and seriously idiotic) (IMHO) Ronald Regan's "birth" of massive deficits, which continue to plague us to this day.
The way certain fringe elements (yeah, OK, I am referring to the TEA Party nutcases) wrap themselves in the flag -- literally as well as figuratively -- and use words like "freedom" and "liberty", in an effort, perhaps, to infer that the "other side" is just not patriotic. This just whips me up beyond all belief.
The failure to make the connection between our rights as citizens and our obligations as citizens. And, the failure to recognize that the world has changed since our country was founded... It's a whole lot more complicated, many many MANY more people, and you just can't sit out in the forest with your gun and believe you can handle everything life might throw at you. And, add to that the fact (yes, sorry, it is a fact) that our world is far more integrated ("smaller", some might say) and globalization (I hate that word) is here and is influencing how we live. (This is normally where I start foaming at the mouth about the "No New Taxes!" crew... Who, exactly, do they think is going to pop out of the shrubbery and take care of the roads, the defense of our country, interstate commerce, many business, etc., etc.? The Infrastructure Bunny? Jeez...)
[Let me segue here to the castle/peasants/Vikings thing I have talked about for years... That is, when dealing with our friends in Europe, and to some extent in other parts of the world, we need to realize that they have a long and honorable heritage of depending on the central government (the local lord's castle, perhaps?) for succor and help in times of peril (e.g., the Vikings)... We never had that in the good old US of A... We just washed up on these shores, and promptly killed whoever was here first, and then turned around and headed for the horizon, where there was plenty of room to act out and pretend that we didn't need any darn government (i.e., king or whatever)...] [Of course, many of these nutcases out there don't seem to grasp that WE are the government in this country... Didn't they pay attention in social studies class?]
And, now, we have, here in California, two women -- Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman -- running for public office. As a genuine 1970s feminist, I would love to be able to support them. But these two really should go find a couple of start-up companies in Silicon Valley to ruin . . . er, to run . . . and stay the hell out of politics. I mean, neither of them even voted on any kind of consistent basis... (Yes, I know, many people don't vote regularly, or at all -- don't EVEN get me started on THAT one...) Carly just said yes she apologized, but after all for years she didn't think her vote counted. Well, I can tell you for sure that a vote not cast does not count. Duh. And this woman rose through the ranks to become a CEO? Jeez... Of course, I've spent enough time in corporate America to know that competence and common sense (and any kind of integrity) are certainly not needed to rise through the ranks, if you get my drift.
And, Carly, you certainly do know about creating jobs . . . in Asia, where all the jobs went when you hacked away at HP here in the US! Your supremely disingenuous statement that it was necessary to cut expenses in hard times makes me gag. Your policies savaged the R&D and engineering ranks here in the Silicon Valley, because you knew you could take advantage of cheaper salaries in the developing Asian markets. Yes, you could, and you saved money, but at what cost? It was recognized corporate strategy, but was it right? Was there no other way? And, of course, all the time you were drawing down some ridiculously inflated salary. And your M&A activity? What was that about? Did you really honestly think it was necessary to create a sustainable business? Really? Or were you just playing the "measuring" game (and you know what I'm talking about).
And, finally, Carly, you sure do know something about taking care of people -- yep, that $21,000,000 walk-away package you got really showed how you took care of yourself. After firing/laying off/getting rid of/restructuring thousands of folks here, it takes one heck of a lot of chutzpah -- and no discernable morality that I can see -- to insist on, and accept, that package. I personally am having a hard time looking at you on TV and feeling anything except disgust.
And don't even play the breast cancer card. Just don't. You are too smart for that.
In fact, I think you'd be really really good at charity fund-raising. It's needed and it will serve society. Oh, and I really think it would be even better if you started educating yourself on current issues and -- yeah -- voting. In every damn election. It's free to vote, you know. And you can do it by mail, in case you don't want to mingle with the peasants. . . er, the unemployed . . . you know, us folks who got reorg'd out or whatever, and didn't get any damn $21Million bye-bye present. Just, please, don't blow smoke up our butt about how "macha" you are and how you're going to "make government smaller" (you do realize, don't you, that you cannot outsource government to Malaysia, like you did for many functions at HP, yes?), blah blah blah... You may be a government "outsider", but many of us have heard it all before. Sounded hollow then, sounds worse now.
Just sayin'
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