Now, this may get too political, seeing as how I'm so far left I've come around to the right with a shotgun, the Declaration of Independence, and a life-sized poster of Thomas Jefferson that I use to get me "amped up," but I hate Congress. I do. They're all a bunch of idiots, getting paid off by lobbyists and doing absolutely nothing. They never work together, and they get paid entirely too much money for the job that they're actually doing. They are all self-serving, methodical capitalists sent from hell to destroy America. That's a hyperbole, for the record. They have so much power but they all use it to serve themselves and smear each other.
I think that Congress should be a no-pay job. The taxpayers should pay for everything that they do (travel, groceries, etc), but there should be an oversight committee to prevent them from misspending. Their spouses should have to keep their day jobs, and their kids should need student loans. Like teachers, they should get sick days and vacation time. They are public servants after all, and should be treated as such- they should take public transportation to work, but taxes should buy their Metrocard or Bus Pass, and they should be allowed to invest as they see fit and maybe something like a $20,000 personal expense account (used for vacation, abortions). All business conducted should be paid for by the people. We should not pay for things not involved in changing policy and affecting our lives.
Congress should be full of real people, not politicians. That's what I'd like. I really think it was designed to be that way, I mean look at the power it has, and the way it's set up to be a proper representation of a canvass of America.
The news coverage of the election was horrible. "In depth" was a term my friend Howie used to describe it. "Total crap," I said. The conversations that I had with the four other pothead college kids I was watching the elections with were equally, if not more, enlightening than the coverage on CNN and MSNBC (and don't get me started on Fox News...). In fact, we were discussing what Congress really has the power to do, debating as such a conversation would suggest, when CNN decided to have the same conversation. I think our's was more stimulating, interesting, and compelling. It's all well and good, but none of us are passing ourselves off as "experts," we are self-proclaimed idiots. Either this country needs more experts who can articulate themselves on television, or we need to cover the elections differently, as a media.
On CNN, amid all the really pretty graphics and interactive information, there was a lack of actual coverage. The two things that pissed me off most were:
1. Paul Begala steering the conversation into the direction of: "You can see a lot of rising stars out there tonight," and CNN actually having a conversation about it. These people are politicians, not baseball players. There is no rookie of the year, and to elevate them to such a high status is a big disservice to America. Leave that conversation out of coverage. Pundits should not be on television, or at least a news channel. They're entertainers, not newscasters. You should have to seek out their opinion, not be force-fed it. I don't care what side of the "aisle" they lean, because I don't believe in aisles, sides or political parties; I believe in united states. United being the operative word.
2. In the three or so hours of watching, I never once learned what any of the newly elected Senators or Representatives actually campaigned on. In three hours, I only heard a bunch of people discuss the same things over and over again, without ever going into actual depth. Explaining someone's credentials isn't coverage, it's recitation of a resumé. I still cannot tell you what any of the people who got elected last night are planning to do with their new power. And for a branch of government that can declare war, raise taxes, enact laws, monitor and survey us, I'd like to be a little better informed.
With that said, let me be more explicit: I am upset that I have no idea what this election really means. It's not that I'm not intelligent enough to know, or to research it. I'd just like to know who is really running a third this country right now, because I have no idea what anyone's agenda is, other than to undo everything that's already been done in the past two years (which is nothing, I think).
If Congress was filled with people like you and me (which it very well may be now, but the coverage did nothing to enlighten us as to the fact), they'd know what this country is like a little better. I'm not talking that TEA party crap of "I'm you," I'm talking people that are really like me, or you.
Instead, we've got people who spend $160 million of their own money to get elected, and still fail (can I just point out that I read this in a newspaper, never heard it on the coverage last night?). What an excessive amount of money. The fact that people have that much money to spend on their own campaign shows how disconnected from the rest of America they truly are. That's like taking the GDP of 3/4 of Africa (I actually have no idea what the GDP of 3/4 of Africa is) and putting it towards a pair of shoes, or any other necessary but finitely enjoyed thing in one's life. Meg Whitman may have lost, but massive amounts of money were spent on getting some of these people into office. Don't people see that curtailing excess of government starts with electing candidates who are, themselves, not excessive? Of course, that then opens the debate for what is excess...
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