Moving Upward

In my last post, I mentioned that as a nation we've become disengaged in our political process and have often neglected our privilege and duty of voting. After I finished writing and walked away, the point stayed with me. I started to really ask myself why it is that such a large part of our populace has lost interest in such an important process. How could you not care who our next leader will be? Why wouldn't you want to know what your elected representatives in the government are doing on your behalf? Why do you know and care more about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton than you do about your own elected officials and the decisions they're making every day; especially when those decisions will have an immediate impact on you, your future, and the futures of your children. Why don't we care anymore?

Well, it seems to me that you don't have to go very far beyond the daily headlines to begin to understand why our nation is on auto-pilot. There is mud-slinging from both sides of the aisle and, now that it's campaign season, even within each party. The Dems all hate Bush and the Republicans all hate Hillary. Left-wingers can't stand the right-wingers and vice-versa. Bills are passed and killed in partisan warfare. And in the midst of all of this, is anything actually being accomplished for us, the American people? Our government is so focused on beating up on itself that it's no wonder many of our fellow Americans have resigned themselves to the opinion that no matter who they put in office, the same scenario is likely to unfold. Years of this nonsense has actually started to reinforce a belief of "Why vote? It won't make a difference anyway."

Frankly, in the defense of Ms. Hilton and Ms. Spears, I can see how one would almost prefer to read about the life and times of our Hollywood elites on some days. At least the escape to fantasyland would take their minds off the fact that their paid and elected representatives are doing very little to move the country forward.

Here is my thought on Mike Huckabee for today. He believes in something he calls "Vertical Politics." It's about dropping the rhetoric, tackling the issues as a team, and actually getting something done for once. Here is a guy who is actually clued in to the fact that you and I don't care if somebody is right, left, blue, red, or green for that matter, as long as they are acting in our best interest and working to lift America up and make it a better place. Don't you think that's something we could all use a little bit more of in Washington?

Go Mike, Go!