MIDTERM ELECTION 2010

This has been the Midterm Election 2010, and it has been dramatic… theatrically dramatic!--- A sweeping change has come again to America, a sweeping change in numbers and new faces…


Alas, I did not care much about this election. In fact, I did not even vote in this election, and not because I did not want to make a difference, but just because I had nothing to vote for. It was only two years ago that another sweeping change happened. All three powerhouses of Washington: the White House, the House and the Senate were taken over by the same set of hands, the Democrats, and a lot of promises were made at the time. Had there not been so much enthusiasm and inebriating “hope” in the air, we might have been able not only to ask this simple basic question: “Hey, guys and gals, nice talk about change, so what are you going to do about it?”--- but also to refuse to take no answer for an answer.

You fooled me twice before (both GOP and Dem), shame on you. But fool me yet again, shame on me! This time around, I was all along looking for substance, not change. After all, the Democrats over the last 2 years had already proved their incompetence. So, what about their challengers? It was only having followed their campaign progress with some attentiveness that I found that they had nothing to offer, either. So, what was the point of it all?

America is the richest country in the world. Her GDP is estimated at fifteen trillion dollars. But, at the same time, her national debt is now close to fourteen trillion and quickly growing and by some accounts may have already surpassed the GDP. Simple arithmetic, but some mind-boggling politics, as nobody, old or new, has been able to come up with a coherent plan of how to deal with the impending catastrophe… Change?! What change?!!!

…I am sure that there are literally thousands of younger and older Americans today who can offer solutions that could probably make a difference. I am even sure that there are a few in the US Congress too who know how this difference could be made. But their mouths are sealed, and their hands are tied by Party discipline. (We are talking about both Parties, of course.)

And what about the gentlemen and ladies of the once all-powerful press? Why are they so seriously engaged in the absurdity of discussing an election that does not really matter? I am convinced that, had they honestly believed that any one of them as an individual could make a difference, some of them would have stood up with a far more stinging comment than the bravest of them have dared so far. But they must have weighed the pros and the cons of daring, feeling that they might find themselves rather lonely in the dashingly gallant hypothetical effort (whereas their hefty paychecks are by no means hypothetical, but quite real to them, and to their families), and in their own ‘elections’ inside their heads, they must have voted again for comfortable reality against self destructive wishful thinking. Fiat vita, pereat veritas!

And so, I listened to the meaningless noise of the election coverage on television, thinking: but for how long can this blissful ignorance of reality be sustained? America is currently living off the genius of her hallowed fathers and forefathers, off the sweat, dedication and sacrifice of the earlier generations, all those who made this country prosperous and great. The current generation has effectively succumbed to the greedy Madoffs, lining their pockets with money, and to another kind of thieves who steal allegedly on behalf of the common good, by spending what they do not have, and printing funny money whenever they find the nation’s coffers empty. So what’s the difference between an enterprising conman working for himself and these Washington money printers allegedly working on behalf of us the people? A thief is a thief!

I wish I had been voting today. But that should have been a different election, not just about changing a few political numbers and a few political faces in Washington and elsewhere, but about the real questions and the real answers. Everything else is hypocrisy and self-delusion.