Redundant Incumbents

As of August 23rd, 2010, 282 federal-level incumbents have been up for re-election. Six have lost their seats (four in the House, two in the Senate). Are all of the Tea Parties, bus trips to DC, rants on political pages and Fox News about the degradation of this country, and patriotic quotes just rhetoric? Doesn't seem anyone really cares, now does it?

The primaries of August 24 promise the same results.



We have either forgotten our voices in America or we are constantly taken speechless by meaningless rhetoric that removes focus from more important areas. I do not know which side it is, but fear it is a little of both. Promises of budget cuts (let alone budget balancing), bipartisanship, constitution restorations, deficit reductions, and free economy fixes have littered the poli-speak landscape for decades – yet none occur.

We have become the sheep led to the slaughter. Standing in line, we yell at the man with the knife. This was once a country of doers instead of arguers, of accomplishments instead of excuses, of patriots instead of dissidents, those who redress the government rather than crying for it to do more for them. What happened to the idea of “ask not what your country can do for you”? Whatever became of “government isn’t the solution to the problem, it’s the problem”?

Six of 282 have been defeated in their primaries. Six.

We are a generation, as are our children, who have not needed to fight to gain anything. We haven’t given up any privilege, left any luxury behind, or rationed our desires for the sake of a greater gain. It certainly wouldn’t make sense for us to elect officials who would ask us to do any of that now, so why would we. We’ll keep what we have and we'll continue to get what we got.