Some things just do not make any sense to me.
Like, politicians spending millions of dollars, basically to try to destroy each other, and win an office, while people are hungry, homeless, and sick. It makes no sense for GOP candidates or for President Barack Obama, who reports say will probably spend a billion dollars in his re-election bid, while American people are suffering.
Has America lost her way and her moral compass? How can any individual and any country condone such blatant wasteful spending when not only our nation but countries all over the world are in severe economic distress?
Not only is there wasteful spending going on, the issues that have Americans at bay are basically being ignored. In the recent GOP debates, there was not a lot of substantive conversation or talking about the issues which are breaking America’s back. Instead, there was petty argument and attacks on each other. This, while 46 percent of the nation is living in poverty?What’s wrong with this picture when a candidate would rather rail about same-sex marriage than how to fix an economy where the rich are getting richer on the backs of the poor?
Can a nation sustain itself, being like this?
One of the things I am learning about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is that he never lost his touch with “the people.” He insisted on making those around him and those who made laws think about “the common man.” He insisted upon people having what he called “The Four Freedoms:” freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship God in whatever way one wanted, freedom from want, which meant to him, the right of the common man to make a living wage, and freedom from fear. He wanted these freedoms not only for Americans, but for people all over the world.
Why does it feel like present day politicians are not even close to wanting those freedoms for Americans – or for anyone else?
The middle class of America is about gone, yet the likes of Mitt Romney and the other GOP candidates have said virtually nothing about that. Newt Gingrich and Romney are both being backed up financially by extraordinarily wealthy super PACs…and it’s a sure thing that the “stealthy wealthy” will continue to throw bucks in the campaign buckets of candidates so that their economic positions can be maintained and grown.
What about the masses? Does the common person in America matter to anyone at all?
GOP candidates and Republicans in general lift up the name of Ronald Reagan as though he were the blood brother of Jesus, yet his “trickle down economic” policy never worked; what “trickled down” to the masses wasn’t enough to ensure they had quality lives. And now, with technology changing the way everything is done, the resources for the masses are even less. It used to be that a high school graduate could get at least a decent manufacturing job, but the wealthy – folks who own manufacturing businesses – are outsourcing jobs overseas, leaving their own American brothers and sisters to languish.
No problem, some would say. Just stay in school. Get an education! That’s good except that everyone cannot afford to go to college and some kids are just not college material. For those who do go to college, they are strapped by student loan debt that is so exorbitant it’s frightening.
The wealthy of this country do not seem to care. They are helping to develop the middle class of developing countries,and undermining America’s own. What is wrong with this picture?
If one has money, one can do about anything; in contrast, if one does not have money, one is enslaved to poverty and debt for his or her lifetime. Some of the GOP candidates have suggested, and some have stated outright, that those who are poor are poor because they want to be; they have not tried; they are lazy.
Not true. There are scores of Americans who are working their fingers to the bone and still cannot make ends meet. As for the unemployed, there are many who have given into the depression that comes when one is rejected over and over again, and those who are lucky enough to finally find a job also find out that potential employers second-guess hiring them when they realize the applicant has been out of work for so long.
This is America, where life is supposed to be easier than it is in other, “lesser” countries.
That may have been the case a while ago, but sadly, the reality and the legacy of America is changing …and nobody seems to care.
A candid observation…
© Candid Observations 2012
Candid Observations 
Unfortunately the around election time, our political system is designed to promote candidates usually by spending exorbitant amounts of money for advertisements, visits, etc. Though candidates will speak about the misuse of funds when speaking on issues related to their campaign such as the war overseas, going green, etc, when it comes to the money actually being spent on the campaign, there usually isn’t much to say, and it’s just written off as what needs to be done to win. I don’t know if that will ever really change, all I can hope for is that once the winner is announced and the celebrations are over, that person will keep the millions of struggling Americans in mind when making policy decisions, but with all of the attacks on the Obama administration for doing just that, one can only hope.