Politics is a system of checks and balances, the party that lead the country are shadowed by their opposite numbers in the party of opposition. They shadow the minister in question to make sure he (or she) is doing their job properly and call them on it if they aren’t. At least that’s the way it works in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malta – all have elements of the system used by the UK.
It’s not like netball, where the opposition player’s job is to mark their player, block them and if possible knock the ball right out of their hands. At the moment that seems to be the US system. This country just came out of the deepest recession since the great depression (some of us think we’re still in it) according to a bunch of economists and rather than pull together and get the country back on track all the Republicans and
Democrats want to do is fight with each other. Actually the Republicans are more like the schoolyard bully the Democrats are Millhouse who has just lost his glasses. President Obama needs to start kicking ass and taking names of donkeys and elephants alike. Why isn’t he doing that? How is it that just one old, overfed, sleepy senator can filibuster a bill and what the hell is pork? I’d never heard of pork in terms of politics before moving here and why are there so many old dudes in the senate and congress and the house of representatives, is there no retirement age?
Democrats want to do is fight with each other. Actually the Republicans are more like the schoolyard bully the Democrats are Millhouse who has just lost his glasses. President Obama needs to start kicking ass and taking names of donkeys and elephants alike. Why isn’t he doing that? How is it that just one old, overfed, sleepy senator can filibuster a bill and what the hell is pork? I’d never heard of pork in terms of politics before moving here and why are there so many old dudes in the senate and congress and the house of representatives, is there no retirement age?
From an outsider’s point of view (green card, not resident so therefore can’t vote) the system is broken. The obvious answer would be to raise taxes, how else can the government be fiscally responsible and yes I pay my taxes federal and state.
The other huge influence in this country is the media and that used to be a good thing but with the advent of 24 hour news, there are certain networks that make stuff up and repeat it enough times that the population starts to believe it. Are you listening Fox, CNN, MSNBC.
Also the news personality? What the heck is that all about, the news is not a show, it is supposed to be information, not speculation, supposition or fiction, simple facts, not dressed up in opinion. Just straight facts. Oh and one more thing, if a media pundit or a politician says something in range of a camera or a microphone it is recorded for posterity, time stamped and dated. If you flip your position we’ll know.
Unless dear reader you can convince me otherwise I’ll continue to get my news from the BBC World Service and Comedy Central.
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