This Presidential campaign has really struck a painful chord within me. It has caused me to want to a curl up into a ball and escape the mess that it has become. It has caused me to step away, become silent, and at the same time become more aware of politics than any other event in my life. Why is this self-revelation shocking to me? Because few things excite me more than politics! I spent five years of my life studying it, enjoying every second of that study, yet when the single biggest political moment of my young life occurs: I’ve responded by wanting to run away.
Why has this occurred? What has pushed me so off of politics?
Well, I will admit first that the last 7 years have created this intense political situation. That doesn’t mean I place blame on any single person. I believe in fact that it is a mix of a number of events where responsibilities lie on both parties. I could go on, and maybe I should, but that is a whole different argument. There is one thing I want to admit here though and that is that the last seven years have also been unlike any in our history. Never have our leaders been confronted with so many obstacles as well as so many different avenues to respond to those obstacles. Again, that is for another discussion but it is something that I’m afraid most haven’t considered. In our loss of reason and rationale in favor of blaming, yelling, and emotions we have failed to confront problems with solutions. Both our leaders and our citizens. In fact, it has reached a point that I feel maybe we are losing our sense of creating solutions. As a country, complacency seems to have become the standard. Examples of this is an entire political party who in the face of a President they disagree with they failed to push and even come up with alternatives. In the end, they bucked and were forced to follow the President like a punished dog. Now, with a constituency demanding solutions you would think that this party would lose its following and those constituents would rise up for leaders who would offer solutions. Did that occur? No. They followed their party leaders in the blame game, rallied together by a created-hatred and roused by emotion and stood behind leaders who failed to lead. On the side of the aisle, they allowed an Administration to get away with too much. They followed the decisions of cabinet heads far too long, when it was clear they were failing, and they didn’t stand up to demand a change of course. Party politics was the name of this game. One party led, often at fault, and the other was weak and failed to even lead. This is an admission of my country that makes me sick to my stomach, literally, and politics is what brought this revelation to me.
Now, I can’t say that our politicians are what have caused me to want to shun politics. If that was the case I never would have gotten interested in politics in the first place! Politicians are just that: politicians. That’s not to say there are not honest public servants among them but politics is known to bring out the worse in many and it will continue to do so. That also doesn’t mean we sit back and accept that fact though, it just means as a public we are responsible for holding them accountable. Something we have failed to do.
So why am I so turned off now? Well, besides the few revelations I’ve already shared, I have also realized how divided as a nation we are. This has come to hurt me the most. The division I am referring to is not divided by political party membership, no; it goes much deeper than that. The line of division is along the spectrum of needs affecting so many Americans right now and the ignorance of those needs by so many others. Now, I know this is nothing new. We are a country with a landscape so varying that individual’s needs will always be different and in many ways it’s this difference that makes us so great and strong as a nation. What is scaring me about this division though and the politics of the day is the ignorance of these needs. This ignorance is found in our decision making. I have come to the realization that policy is what makes me love politics not politics that makes me like politics. And yet this election process has been so blind to policy that emotions and baseless reasoning has become the voice (and votes) of the day. Never in conversations with those around me has policy been a part of the reasoning behind their choice. Never has what is currently facing our nation and its people been part of the conversation surrounding this election. When I bring it into play, a joke overrides it. Too many of the voters I know don’t really even now the policies of their own candidate. Now, that doesn’t mean I want to place blame on my friends. I know this is politics, I know that this is the name of the game. This is just what happens. But right now we have too much on the line with this election. This election has made me think long and hard, more than ever, about the family from a small town in the middle of America whose son is on his third tour of Iraq. Who is going to be the best Commander in Chief for him? For the mother of two in Illinois who worked her way through college, brought a better life to her family, yet is struggling paying for her mortgage. Or what about Joe the plumber who is considered a part of the highest tax bracket yet is trying to pay for a business and his employees. Who is going to be the best economic leader for them? Who is going to be more than a voice and a leader? Policy and follow through is what makes a leader, not words. Are we judging our leaders on that though? What are we even basing our decisions upon? How are we going to hold them accountable? It’s these questions that most of us don’t seem to be answering. This has also made me worry that perhaps we’re not thinking about each other. Are we being blind to the real people that are the faces of the problems here in America as well as around the glode? These problems and their solutions do not seem to be a part of the conversation and it needs to be. Playing on Barack Obama’s name and Sarah Palin jokes aren’t adding to the conversation, they are defeating it. But we’re playing along. We’re not asking the questions. We don’t seem to be looking for solutions. I hear about hope and change but besides a new name plate in the Oval Office, what exactly is that hope and change being spoken of so often? I hear about being a maverick but what does that look like if you get in the White House? How are you still going to work across party lines when you’re in the Executive office?
Who wants to be a part of this dialogue? ‘Cause I’m sick of the politics. I want to hear answers and questions. Whether they come from the candidates or more importantly from the people who are going to make that decision.
One such band taking on this task by themselves right now is an immeasurable-talented band from Denver, CO: Fiance. Now, I will admit I’m a bit biased. It was just a few short years ago that lead singer Patrick McGuire and I were sitting in his mom’s cramped arts & crafts studio creating the sound that would become Fiance. In the beginning there was quite a range of sounds coming out too! But it started to come together. A drummer (me) and a pianist/guitarist/singer/songwriter (pat). Besides drums the only thing else I brought to the table was plenty of experience and a good ear. Unfortunately, school and my other band and plenty of other stuff at the time got in the way and we parted ways on not-so good terms. But with an excellent guitarist and bassist in the mix just as I left I still knew and had faith that these guys would make some magic and many drummers would kill to play a role alongside ‘em.
