Like the Summer Olympics and Leap Years, America is gearing up for their presidential campaigns and elections, and already with the first state primaries to nominate party candidates (only two parties of consequence) with the best chance of unseating the incumbent.
Nothing is inherently bad or wrong with either ideology and statement of priorities in preserving the union, but these political workshops, civic engagement that has atrophied to a highly polarizing social-hour, grow stranger and more extravagant each election-cycle. It is striking how one does not vote for or run on a platform, but instead for personalities and dogmas--holding court (with courtiers and jesters of all sorts), genuine dialogue, debate and coalition-building are foregone to preach what a narrow majority of the voting-class wants to hear. I suppose politicians have earned that negative reputation and there is adequate (and disheartening) precedence to confirm all the talk of corruption and back-peddling, when hope was brought down on appeal (by that same vanishing margin) to more of the same disappointment and disenfranchisement and even a few such bold
affronts against personal liberties, that had they been proposed under the last US regime, Bush would have been laughed out of office. Once achieved the designation of elect, the voter seems to be alienated from the whole political process, with representatives beholden to lobbyists even more than their chosen base or pet-projects.
Outreach and inclusiveness are usually the first campaign promises to wither but the incivility seems to have started before word-one: this once every-four-years event, though perpetual and non-stop for the wrong reasons for many, is not just to govern a 51, 49, 99 or 1% American and just sail through to re-election. The antics and outrage may make matters seem to the contrary and elements of democracy may be held hostage by corporate interests, but the outcome is important. Every government can face straits and gridlock and sometimes better intentions are sacrificed to squabbling but working together is the only way to affect real progress. Cooperation, to a degree, allows one to see the bigger picture, and from that vista it might be hard to know where to begin, but at minimum, government could strive towards making the young people of America not heir to a terrible financial crisis of the older generation's making: youth unemployment stands at nearly 30% in the USA with bleak prospects of improving, since overall conditions are forcing people to defer retirement longer and longer, and to try to gain a toe-hold in the jobs market people, younger and older, have sought higher education and outstanding student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt. People ought not to shirk their obligations (we're better than bailed-out corporations) but, just like some workers are putting off retirement, young people are deferring setting up hearth and home or even committing to a relationship. Something could be done to achieve meaningful savings that would be a bootstrap, not just for the young but all of society. This sort of arrested-development, for one, for a generation does not ascribe to party lines and is not a perennial outcome befitting for any vote.
Nothing is inherently bad or wrong with either ideology and statement of priorities in preserving the union, but these political workshops, civic engagement that has atrophied to a highly polarizing social-hour, grow stranger and more extravagant each election-cycle. It is striking how one does not vote for or run on a platform, but instead for personalities and dogmas--holding court (with courtiers and jesters of all sorts), genuine dialogue, debate and coalition-building are foregone to preach what a narrow majority of the voting-class wants to hear. I suppose politicians have earned that negative reputation and there is adequate (and disheartening) precedence to confirm all the talk of corruption and back-peddling, when hope was brought down on appeal (by that same vanishing margin) to more of the same disappointment and disenfranchisement and even a few such bold affronts against personal liberties, that had they been proposed under the last US regime, Bush would have been laughed out of office. Once achieved the designation of elect, the voter seems to be alienated from the whole political process, with representatives beholden to lobbyists even more than their chosen base or pet-projects. 
Outreach and inclusiveness are usually the first campaign promises to wither but the incivility seems to have started before word-one: this once every-four-years event, though perpetual and non-stop for the wrong reasons for many, is not just to govern a 51, 49, 99 or 1% American and just sail through to re-election. The antics and outrage may make matters seem to the contrary and elements of democracy may be held hostage by corporate interests, but the outcome is important. Every government can face straits and gridlock and sometimes better intentions are sacrificed to squabbling but working together is the only way to affect real progress. Cooperation, to a degree, allows one to see the bigger picture, and from that vista it might be hard to know where to begin, but at minimum, government could strive towards making the young people of America not heir to a terrible financial crisis of the older generation's making: youth unemployment stands at nearly 30% in the USA with bleak prospects of improving, since overall conditions are forcing people to defer retirement longer and longer, and to try to gain a toe-hold in the jobs market people, younger and older, have sought higher education and outstanding student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt. People ought not to shirk their obligations (we're better than bailed-out corporations) but, just like some workers are putting off retirement, young people are deferring setting up hearth and home or even committing to a relationship. Something could be done to achieve meaningful savings that would be a bootstrap, not just for the young but all of society. This sort of arrested-development, for one, for a generation does not ascribe to party lines and is not a perennial outcome befitting for any vote.