I get caught up in debate as much as the next guy. Show me a decent discussion on gun-control (I'm for it), or Guantanemo (I'm agin it), or ... or ... or ...
But it's not real, it doesn't matter today or tomorrow. It's not what concerns real people and it's not what interests them.
All these things matter, of course they do, but long, tortuous threads on the definition of fascism, or the UK gun laws do nothing much other than satisfy the inner need to score points .... off our friends!!
Much of this stuff goes over my head. I didn't study US Government and Politics in the 6th Grade. I wasn't in the 6th Grade, I was in the first year of a Grammar School in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, UK. So I have some catching up to do.
I don't get which Supreme Court decision does what, and I have never spoken to anyone who graduated college in Germany in 1933, but I do know right from wrong, sense from senseless and the fact that people matter more than politics.
Here on Dkos we discuss, broadly, politics. That's okay, it is why we come here. But amidst the arcane points, all, I am sure, having their own value, are the people we seek to better. People whose ambitions are simple, whose wants are few and who are being ill-served by the broad spectrum of political life in the USA today.
To be fair, they are probably better served by folk here than in most places, nonetheless we do sometimes spend an inordinate amount of time in denial of the simple fact that we are all on the same side.
Citizens United may prove to be the worst decision, by the most partisan Supreme Court in the history of some piss-poor decisions, but it doesn't address people's concerns, most having never heard of it. Arcane Senate rules are not first and foremost among the things Americans worry about, even if some smart activists do need to help get those rules changed.
When Rachel and Keith interview politicians, it's interesting to hear those elected officials make their case, justify their position, bitch about the latest outrage from a Tea Party candidate etc; but real Americans (sic) aren't bothered by that stuff .... They rejected Christine O'Donnell by what margin? Sharon Angle should have been a shoe-in in Nevada, but she lost because voters just don't buy that shit, they have real issues, and Sharon Angle didn't address them. Neither did Harry Reid, and that IS something we should worry about. I'm not down on Harry, he really does play 11 dimensional chess, and play it decently well, but who had his back? He won by default, not because he had a message that resonated with the good folk of Nevada, even though those people have very real things to worry about.
I think, and I'm happy to be wrong about this, I think we sometimes don't see the trees for the forest.
I am getting tired of Rachel (whom I adore, btw), spending quite so much time proving just how mendacious the Republicans are .... we know that, and so does America. They wanted Change we can believe in, and we gave them Democrats who try not to be too different. If they had seen change they could believe in, then we wouldn't be counting the Democratic votes, we would be weighing them.
Everytime a Democrat criticizes a Republican people switch off. That is business as usual and it became boring years ago. People, outwith Progressive Blogs, don't actually care to hear it. They know the GOP represents business and the rich, they are waiting to hear how the Democrats represent them.
What will you DO about my job? What will you DO about the foreclosures? What will you do about my unemployment benefit? I don't care about what you can't do, or what the GOP did, or that it's the Banks, or the Corporations ... That means nothing to me. I have to feed my kids, get them in a decent school and thence to College. I have to go to the ER when my son falls off his bike, and the thought of that scares the crap out of me, because it might cost my family their home. Still ... even with the HCR ... A trip to the ER could still bankrupt me. What are you going to do about that?
Jobs
Schools
Healthcare
Pension
Top and bottom of what people care about. I accept completely that all the other stuff matters. In the end it is only by addressing the other stuff that we will be able to deal with:
Jobs
Schools
Healthcare
Pensions
But we really need to be mindful that we don't need answers from politicians about the minutia, we need answers about the headline issues, the real concerns; and they need to be real answers. It is time we nailed our leaders down to doing the right thing, not the expedient thing or the barely plausible thing.
I like the semantic debates as much as the next guy but I also think that we need to remember that it all should be contributing to a purpose. That purpose being the election of people who really will represent the interests of about 295 Million Americans, not the 5 million or so who can quite effectively look after themselves for a while.
UPDATE: I went to bed late, and there were no comments so I figured y'all thought it was just a rant. I haven't read the comments yet and am just about to. Anyway, thanks for the interest and the Rec. List.