by Louise Christensen

Created on: June 01, 2011

I can remember how excited I was when I was old enough to vote. I took it seriously and always paid close attention to what the candidates stood for regardless of what the race was. I was as careful about voting for my local sheriff as I was the next President of the United States. I even worked for a couple of my congressmen when I was living in California.  I gave all of it my full attention for about five or six years.

Then I decided I wanted to have a family and shortly thereafter decided I better go to college if I had half a prayer of raising my child up in any reasonable fashion. Then my career took center stage after my family and there were even a few years when I didn’t even know who the candidates were, much less vote. So imagine my shock thirty years later and I start paying closer attention and realize how much money is been spent on campaigns for any office at any level.

In the last fifteen years I have watched this increase exponentially to a point beyond belief. It is no wonder that our politicians are out of touch with “the people”.  If you can spend so many millions of dollars on getting into a political office it has got to be difficult to understand living within a finite budget. There can be no surprise that our current people in office have no compunction dragging out a vote on increasing the national debt or approving a federal budget, making the rest of the country squirm and worry.  None of it comes out of their pockets and they most certainly won’t have to miss a paycheck or cut back on meals or anything else for that matter. 

If these people can behave this way and got into office by spending mere millions, imagine the thought process of people who would spend billions. How can they possibly relate to anyone living middle class lives much less trying to survive on minimum wage?  What kind of lives do people with this level of wealth and resources live?  Do they even drive their own car, cook their own meals, and ever wash their own laundry or bedding?  Do they have to choose when its time for their week long annual vacation between going to see their folks or going camping out with the kids at the nearest national park.  Not likely. 

It would be interesting to know where all that money goes. Trying to figure out how millions are spent is difficult enough. Rumor has it that in some parts of the country to old process of buying votes, favors and future support systems remains intact and very strong. Is that what one does with that kind of campaign money?  Of course Lobbyists are still living strong, although they have been out of the media lime light for quite some time now. Perhaps doing dirty TV ads is getting more expensive than any of us realize.

With billions of dollars on the line, a dirty campaign could really light up the USA home TV’s. Personally, I determined that I will no longer vote any campaign where these so-called adults have to get nasty and behave more childish than even the most attitude-driven prepubescent group could ever dream of.  The idea of people like that spending money that could be used in much more useful ways leaves my patriotic heart in tatters.

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