We’ll never find solutions with the political climate. President Obama said that the stimulus bill saved 2MM jobs. This is one of those things that I can’t stand from any politician. We have no idea how many jobs were saved (or not saved). Republicans are saying that while there is a trillion dollar stimulus, we’ve lost millions of jobs and the deficit is soaring. I really can’t tell you how little respect I have for all of these politicians (on both sides). I’ve seen more rational arguments from my five year old.

I could not agree with you more. Both sides are failing us. When are the masses going to realize that its not just the “other team” that is causing us problems? My ultra conservative friends on Feb 1, 2009, were saying look that Obama has done to our world. He hadn’t even unpacked. My more liberal friends are as bad. I can say that we added X number of jobs and you can say that on a net basis we are down Y number of jobs and both statements are true. People just grab onto what they want to beleive because it came from their team. They are simply not objective. Many of these people are educated and seeming smart. Its a herd mentality. I always tell them that I am not here to tell you what to beleive but I going to ask you why you beleive what you beleive and I’m going to ask you whey you get your informaion. If it all comes from Fox News or from a “survey” from the Democratic National Convention, then you need to recognize what you are dealing with and look a bit further. Neither of those sources are “fair and balanced”.

The two party system says that if you want to get elected you become Red or Blue. After you are eleceted, if you want to do anything other than sit in the corner, you follow the rules. The house and senate are well desinged to keep this system in place. The more senior people are in power and they control the rules.

Partisan politics are killing our country. The elected officials promote it but we the people allow it. I would love to be a part of a new movement to do things differently. For instance, why can’t we first agree that passing on massive debt to our children is immoral. So then we can come to the conclusion that we have to spend less or we have to tax more. Now I am on the no tax side but the fact that we simply say that we have to spend (for wars or entitlements or whatever) but we are not going to tax – just run up debt. That’s
wrong and it is going to be the single greatest threat to national security in our lifetime.

Like many people, I feel a lack of power and a loss of hope about how to make a difference.

Keep speaking about these issues often. We need to try to hold these elected officials accountable.