
I am SO frustrated right now with our politics. I honestly feel embarrassed as an American today. Don’t misunderstand me; I’m still very glad to be an American, but I’m not proud of who we are right now and I’m embarrassed as we play out our squabbles on the world stage.
There are obviously so many issues going on right now that we are simply unable to even keep up with the many darts being thrown left and right. It seems as if every day, every hour in fact on some days, brings new topics of conversation to the table and none of them are clear-cut and very few of them are ever resolved. They are simply being replaced with a new topic du jour. There is a sense of intrigue, of conspiracy, and of distrust in all things being conveyed nowadays. The average person honestly doesn’t know what is true and what is not anymore. The fact that we have our highest level of politicians calling each other liars and putting out inaccurate information is humiliating to me as a citizen. There is so much stuff being thrown into the air that people cannot keep up and that’s pretty scary to me. I like to understand what’s going on with things that are relative to my safety, security, and my human rights (and everybody else’s).
Everybody in America has issues that are closer to their heart than others. That’s normal. Because of my own circumstances, I’m passionate about healthcare, Social Security/Medicare, economic concerns, and women’s rights. I know that each one of us has our own priorities and that’s how it should be. I’m not an elected government official, however. They are entitled to their individual opinions and priorities too, BUT they are also supposed to be responsible for representing us, as a whole, and as their constituents. They are the ones that are supposed to be watching out for ALL of us, for all of our needs and making sure that we’re represented. I find it extremely hard to believe that all Republicans believe the same exact things on every single issue 100% of the time and that Democrats do the same. It’s not possible. I understand that their individual parties have issues that they are supposed to represent but, in the end, isn’t it each of us that they are supposed to be speaking for and voting on?
For the past eight years, Republicans were very forthright in saying that they would NOT support President Obama, regardless of the issue or how they felt about it. Now the Democrats are doing the same thing to President Trump. Again, following party lines to a point is one thing. Speaking up for what’s right is another. Am I honestly that naive to believe that my representative should stand up for our rights rather than blindly follow the party vote? Isn’t that why they are in that office, why we elected them to that office? Isn’t that their job? Can’t somebody put a stop to this insanity that’s going on and get this country back under control? All I want to do is go back to my life as it was before this past year. I want to sleep at night content in the belief that my world is not going to be turned upside before I wake up. I want to plan my life according to what’s been normal for me. I don’t want to have to worry about my future 24 hours a day. I don’t want to have to turn the tv on or check my phone 18 times a day to see what’s changed. Most of all, I want to rely on our elected officials to do their job so that I don’t have to live like this. I have my own things that I’m passionate about and can invest more time and effort in. I shouldn’t have to be this involved in every single issue simply because it’s party vs. party instead of issue by issue. I don’t want to live like this simply because people don’t have the integrity to stand up and vote according to best policy for us, the American people, regardless of party. Certainly there’s more to our government than this. I think we, the people, deserve better.