Picking The Political Puppy

We American’s are a strange people. To those in other countries we must seem like an “out of control” republic. For months leading up to our election we spent millions of dollars, ran ads, almost weekly debates, primary elections, two conventions, a hurricane, and then complete chaos — Election Night.

Talking heads on all networks, calling the states as they fell one by one first to Romney then Obama. Back and forth it went until a winner was finally projected. The end result, jubilant celebration for some, and total despair for others.

What The Heck Happened?

It’s now six days since the election. Is anyone still talking about it? Well, some are of course, but I mean talking about it from a futuristic perspective? People are discussing the winners and losers, but is anyone discussing where we’re going from here? Are there any rumors of what kinds of bills our local legislators are going to introduce? We have a new governor. Any idea what his agenda is for the next four years? We have a new attorney general. Anyone talking about what he wants to do? Any letters to the editor asking for this or that from our newly elected, shiny clean, politicos?

Picking a Puppy

It’s as if we’ve spent the last year looking for the ideal puppy, and once we’ve found it, we’ve tied it up in the back yard, with a bowl of food and water, and gone back in the house. If it barks too loud maybe we’ll go check to see what the problem is.

How is it possible, that before the election, it totally consumed the entire nation, but not even a week later, it’s almost like it never happened? It’s like we woke up from a teenage bender asking our friends to explain all the dumb things we did. Our memories are spotty, blurry, as though part of our recollections ended up in the “Dead Zone” part of our brains.

What Did We Vote On Again?

There were initiatives on the ballot. I remember something about Citizens United smoking Marijuana and Illegals having the same rights as corporations?? Now, for some reason it all seems to run together. But whatever happened, I’m sure we did the right thing.

After all, we had to be the best-informed voters ever — right? I mean with all those TV and radio ads we can no longer remember. All those colorful, expensive, campaign fliers that came in the mail — which we immediately threw away. The five point plans? The comprehensive reforms. Saving the middle class. Killing and eating the rich. Obamacare, taxes, drones, war, hurricanes, I’m exhausted, I gotta lie down.

Some Final Thoughts

I bet if you stopped ten people on the street and asked them why they voted the way they did, only about thirty percent could tell you in any form of intelligent discourse. Maybe it’s just that we are so satisfied with that puppy we picked that he just doesn’t need any watching at all. It’s like we’ve given our teenage children a blank check to do whatever they please. I guess our only hope is to sit back and hope we did the right thing. We hope and pray that we picked the right people. What’s the down side of all this? In two years we’ve got to buy another puppy.