Spending Millions To Buy Elections

The 2014 elections are over.  The ballots have been cast.  Winners have been named.  Even though I'm writing this well in advance, I can predict that some people will claim this is a victory for their side and others will claim that it is a travesty.

Unfortunately in our country, we have bastardized elections to be nothing more than a political grab by one group over another.  We donate money at astonishing rates to claim victory.  In the end, it doesn't really matter that we do anything here to advance society, as long as our side wins.

Oh, we claim we are in this to make changes and to take back our country.  We claim we have the right ideas and that we will get the country headed in the right direction.  We claim that we know what the country needs.


A certain percentage will follow one group while denouncing the other side.  The other side will claim supremacy while making the opposing side as out of touch and evil and like sheep.  It doesn't matter which side you are on, because both do it.

There will be some that won't take sides, but proclaim they have a better way to do things.  They will claim that the other two sides are out of touch with the country, but if you select them they will do a much better job.

At the end of the day, I don't think people are really intelligent enough to know what is best.  Power has corrupted a good political system.  It isn't about doing what is right, but what will get your side elected.  Its about what the polls show is favorable versus unfavorable.

If power hasn't corrupted the political process in this country enough, than greed takes over.  Its about the mega-millions that are donated to each campaign.  That money comes with strings attached that can be called in at a later day.  The more money that is given, the more influence these people have.

Since elections are spending millions and millions of dollars, those donations from large donors are necessary to win.  Yes, the press releases make it appear that the little donor still has a say, but when was the last time that the little donor got unlimited access to the politicians?

In my view, we waste millions of dollars on a process that is nothing more than a beauty pageant for two sides of the political process.  Its not that any of these candidates are going to change anything.  They all go to office in hopes of nobility and doing the right thing, but once inside the doors, they are stripped naked of their goals.

Can it change?  Can our political process change so instead of spending million of dollars on election day, we're actually kicking greed and power out the door?  I would like to say I believe it can, but for the reasons mentioned above, I'm not so sure.

Before you think I'm taking one side over the other in the political process, I think all of government is screwed up.  One group thinks that they should have everything while the others are against them and you can say that for any group or political ideology.  It has nothing to do with liberal or conservative, but what each group wants for themselves.

We have to stop allowing the TV ad buys and the media dictate to us what our country needs.  We have to stop expecting that what we want is what everyone wants in this country.  We have to stop thinking that we are the only ones that know what is best for this country and all others are stupid and evil and out to tear our country apart.

We have to stop being greedy in this country and instead learn how to take care of one another.  Profits over people is not a balanced approach to humanity.  It will doom us all to think this way.

We have to stop being so drunk on power that nothing else matters than whether our side is winning or not.  Power feeding upon itself will only make things worse.

I'm not a political person and the last thing you will see me doing is promoting any candidate.  I'm barely at a point where I care if I vote any longer.  I despise the political fighting and commentary these days.  I despise how everything is political when in reality, we have much more to be concerned with in this world.

I fear that if we don't wake up as a people and begin to change ourselves, there will be no more world left to worry about or no more power to control.  The change doesn't come from our politicians or our government.  It comes from within us and if we want to change the world, we must first begin in ourselves.

When we become human, it is then that we are part of a world culture.  When we become wrapped up inside our own fear, it is then that we have doomed a world culture.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 10/12/14 by Don Shetterly

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