Elections & Other Bullshit

            Another election cycle has come and gone – the incumbent president won because the other name on everyone’s ballot was a shape-shifting panderer whose political party was under the impression that money can buy everything.  Before the facts came in, my cynicism would have encouraged me to agree that the person with the biggest fistful of cash gets whatever they want, but it didn’t work out for the elitist rich people this year. 

            In an attempt to pretend to be “fair” super PACs were created to funnel money into critical elections at the local, state, and federal level.  Even on the surface these organizations are shitty and convoluted, because their sole purpose is to influence the population by whatever means necessary.  Propaganda machines.  Most of the media ads they created were not espousing the merits of their chosen candidate, but rather indicting the opposing candidate on some bogus charge or another.  Political poison.

            The only refreshing thing here is that the super PACS didn’t work.  Even $380 million couldn’t get Romney in the White House, which says a lot about his character.  (What says even more is that he lost in his home state and even among the Mormon voters.)  But $380 million was just thrown away by Republican donors.  Karl Rove spent $180 million on ads critical of Obama.  Didn’t work.  The Koch Brothers spend $66 million.  Sheldon Adelson spent $53 million.  The list goes on, ad nauseum. 

            What a disgusting waste of money.  I realize that it’s their money to throw away on whatever they want, but don’t people ever look past what benefits them personally and think to affect the world in a more altruistic way?  The Bill & Melinda Foundation spends its money on improving education, eliminating malaria, family planning, refining agriculture, and improving vaccines.  Where are these types of people in the Republican Party?  They seem to spend all their resources trying to take away women’s choices, denying civil rights to gay people, chasing out immigrants, and ensuring that the wealthy elite stay wealthy and elite. 

            What kind of momentous changes could that (wasted, because they lost) $380 million have made on average American families struggling to get by?  And how much did the Democrats pay to stay in office?  The total for both parties was somewhere around $6 billion, which is more than the GDP of some countries.  What a waste.  Consider the impact of $6 billion on any of the following things:

·         Cancer research

·         Make a Wish Foundation

·         Family shelters

·         The Red Cross

·         Food pantries

·         The Salvation Army

        That kind of money would change the game for a lot of people.  But no, it just got thrown away in the incessant quest for power and control (not to mention lifetime health benefits and a paycheck that never stops coming, even when you don’t have that job any more.)

        Here are some people who need your money more than politicians:  veterans, children in poverty, underinsured families, abused women, victims of natural disasters, schools, orphans, elderly shut-ins, the unemployed, small business owners, students, homeless people …  And I’m not talking about people who defraud the system, I’m talking about people who genuinely need a helping hand.  Come to think of it, that money would probably be better spent in a lump donation to the Humane Society.  At least dogs are loyal and cute.