What's on Katie's Mind? Katie: The artist, teacher, and social commentator.

Evan Bayh listening to the American people?

Is there something in the Washington D.C. water?  Why are all these congressmen deciding not to run?  Another one bites the dust with Evan Bayh from Indiana.  The talking heads keep telling us the so called reasons but are there more sinister motives.  Are some being pressured not to run much like the Lt. Governor Democratic nominee from Illinois, Scott Lee Cohen?  Oh, the shame of it all.  The people voted for him to be the nominee even with his scandalous past but the Dems in power will have none of it.  “One day you’re in and the next your out!” as Heidi Klum claims on Project Runway.   Evan Bayh gave an emotional speech that seemed honest.  It really seemed like he didn’t want to leave at all.  Maybe he’s getting ready to run for the White House or maybe he was forced out because of some hidden, secret scandal yet to be revealed.

Or maybe we should just take him at his word.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/opinion/21bayh.html?hp=&pagewanted=al

We all know that congress is dysfunctional.  It’s a given and we don’t label them a “do nothing” congress for nothing.   The two parties have run amok.  We used to at least feel like one of the two parties represented us, the little people.  Conservatives had the Republican Party and liberals had the Democratic Party.  Today it feels more and more like the two parties represent corporations and no one else.  Under George W. Bush the congress ran up the debt in unprecedented numbers.  Conservatives weren’t represented neither were the liberals but corporations were highly represented especially the ones that were profiting from these two wars we have been enmeshed in for years.  Have you noticed how the press portrays Barack Obama as a liberal and claim he’s moving to the left and so on?  This is just smoke and mirrors as much of the press is controlled by corporations.  This is to make those of us that are liberal feel like we got what we wanted.  How untrue all of this is as I find it amazing to note that the “change” from one party to the other has virtually gone unnoticed by most of us little people.  If I had fallen asleep after the 2008 election and just awaken it would seem as though GW was still president.  If I were voting right now I would vote for women because we are under represented and I would vote out most of the incumbents.  If you have spent the majority of your life campaigning you more than likely are out of touch with the American people any way.

Republicans feel a surge coming on.  They think that the American people want their type of rule.  How unquestioningly they miss the mark.  They fuel the Tea Party people thinking that it is the Republican Party that the Tea Party wants to emulate.  I find this all very doubtful.  It seems to be more of a Libertarian view or a left over fringe of the Ron Paul movement rather than the Republicans that have the hearts of the Tea Party movement.  Truthfully people in this country are fed up with both parties.  We don’t like the money involved in elections and the partisan way everything is seemingly decided.  That of course is just to fool us as both parties are really representing corporations.  The question is really which corporations back which party?   http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/index.php Anyone that has ever gone to Open Secrets usually comes away with their eyes open as to who is running our government and it isn’t “We the people!”  This next site is interesting for finding information in the news about corporations and politics.  http://www.corpwatch.org/index.php I contend that we should change the way we elect out politicians from the local sheriff to the highest office in the country, the President.  We should make elections meaningful again with much debate so we can truly see where these people stand on the issues.  We should bring back the League of Women Voters to organize the debates.  Now Presidential debates are negotiated between the two parties.  Forget about the parties.  Take them out of the picture and ask whatever the people want to know.  We should give equal television time to all of the candidates.  Independent candidates shouldn’t have different requirements than the two main parties when trying to get on the ballot.  In many states Independents have to jump through extra hoops to try and get on the ballot.

In the Michigan Presidential primary of 2008 when the people voted some of their votes ultimately were given to a candidate that they did not vote for on May 31^st, 2008 when the Democratic Party rules committee met to decide what to do about the Michigan Primary.  When my sister called the Attorney General of the state of Michigan she was told that the Democratic Party could do what they wanted with those votes.  It’s like a club or a union.  They can decide things for us.  What I don’t understand is the fact that we, the taxpayers, paid for this “club” to have their primary.  I believe it cost our very “poor” state twenty million dollars to have that primary.  What a waste of tax payer money!  I would have to say whether Evan Bayh is talking truth to power or has been pushed out, much of what he has said is a known fact.  Congress doesn’t accomplish much these days but they do manage to irritate the hell out of the American people, the voters.  Let’s hope we stay mad as hell and remember these antics the next time we go to the polls.  Let’s start thinking about voting against the two party system and the money interests.  Let’s ignore the media and search for our own truth.  There are plenty of publications on the web that can better inform the public about what’s really going on.  So let’s all get educated and do what we can in our own communities to inform people about the corruption in Washington D.C. and even in our local communities and states.

Locally, there are two main issues that rise above most other issues.  The first is job security and the second is the education of our children.  We want our jobs to be secure with benefits and comfortable enough so we can raise our children and have something left for retirement and we want our children to have a life filled with opportunities that only a good education can provide.  Slowly but surely we are failing in these two main areas.  The federal government has abandoned us on both issues.  They have transported our jobs out of the country, killed unions to lower our wages and have tried everything they could do to destroy public education.  They are watering down the education system by slowly but surely sneaking money out to “charter” schools with far different requirements than public schools.  They have done a wonderful job of convincing the people that everything is wrong with our children’s education in a public school and it must all be changed from the bottom up.  We have lost our local control over our schools and our jobs.  Some might think the main issue is taxation but truthfully if you have a good job with benefits taxes aren’t as difficult to pay!  It’s time to fire the people that brought us to the brink of disaster and to a life of recession and depression.  The government has wasted our money, our resources and now they will lay waste to our children in endless fighting of endless wars.  We must dismiss them as surely they have abandoned us, the American people!