Why the public doesn’t really care

I talk to a lot of people, gauging political beliefs, focus and voting preferences. I’ve come to the conclusion that the vast majority of the public doesn’t really care who gets elected as long their lives aren’t altered.

They claim they care, but aren’t willing to do anything except for voting. Although they are generally proud to have voted, they admittedly have little to say about each of the candidates they voted for. Why? Because they did little or no research and just picked a name based on party and/or familiarity.

This is well understood by candidates for office and exploited. They exploit the public by lying to them. They tell the public what they want to hear, exhibit the right behavior, get elected and frequently do the opposite.

They know that the general public has long lost interest. Instead, the public is so focused on their own lives that the big picture either eludes them or they shrug, say the voted and go back to the show on TV.

It isn’t an issue with the public being focused on providing for their families, and dealing with their day to day problems and distractions. That’s what our Republic is all about; electing a person to represent them so the public can focus on their families and let the elected officials work on their behalf.

If you’ve been to your local zoo, and if permitted you may have fed peanuts to the chimps. If you were observant you’d notice that a few of the chimps are very good at soliciting peanuts, and some not. The successful chimps have learned the behavior needed to get more peanuts than the others. Political candidates are like successful chimps, some more than others. In their instance, those peanuts are votes and donations. The donations are the really big peanuts, the votes, the peanut shells.

The same goes for this seagull photograph that I took in Florida last year. I noticed that the same two seagulls actively begged for bread, and got most of it. The ones at the back lost out. The seagulls who understood human behavior were well fed, the others a little.

The problem is that the public’s behavior is closely monitored and used for Washington’s benefit. I don’t think that the public likes what their representatives actually do in their names, gripe a little and then forget about it.

By the time they do care, it’s far too late. Like going for a drive across the desert and ignoring the gas gauge close to empty,  the driver’s immediate decision not to fill up doesn’t have an impact… until the engine stops for lack of gas and the nearest station is fifty miles away.

In politics it’s like that. Decisions made today have long reaching consequences. Like the Obamacare legislation. It sounded good, as people thought they could get medical care for next to nothing (meaning someone else is paying for it), but the enormous costs in the years to come will speed up our nation’s bankruptcy.

The public sluggishly complains about the never-ending wars we are in. The Iraq/Afghanistan wars were supposed to cost relatively little in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are now at $2 trillion and counting. If the truth were announced before these invasions, the public would have objected. They didn’t as it was pitched as a slam-dunk, costing pocket change.

Ask the families of our dead and maimed soldiers if the wars were a slam-dunk.

The politicians in Washington knew how to sell these (and future) wars. The magic is to avoid any talk of a draft. With a draft, as we had during the Vietnam debacle many soldiers were drafted (I wasn’t as I had a high number) against their will or desire. Those families were not happy and made it known with many protests. The noise level was voluble.

Nowadays, and in the future our government will continue to promote wars as slam-dunks and only use the volunteer military. Why? Because they only represent a tiny percentage of our population, and they are volunteers. They believe that they are serving their country and not, in fact, the political vicissitudes of Washington. That tiny percentage are not a significant number to make any viable protests, so are invisible.

The same goes for our economy. Washington thinks short term, typically election season to election season. And as these seasons start up to fifteen months ahead of each two year general election, all decisions are fundamentally election driven. That will eventually destroy our country. I’ve campaigned on eliminating pensions if representatives don’t quit after eight years, and senators, twelve. I’m confident that careers will voluntarily end rather than lasting decades. A Term Limits amendment will never pass into law.

As an example of short-term thinking, representative Karen Bass  of California is foolishly proposing changes to the spiraling education financing problem, the next big disaster waiting in the wings. She hopes to cap student interest rates at 3.4%  under the Student Loan Fairness Act, and will forgive student loans for graduates who pay their loans for ten years, capped at $45,000. This means taxpayers will have to absorb hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of dollars of loans that will be forgiven starting in about 2025. As most of the loan principle will not have been reduced (about 1/4) she is proposing almost free college education for all, at public expense. Yes, she is a Democrat. It does sound good, so I think that she is already pandering for re-election in 2014.

If this foolish “Fairness Act” passes into law it actually encourages colleges to keep rapidly increasing tuition so that the minimum costs will be $45,000 knowing that they will be forgiven, or more accurately transferred to our national debt. The loan structure will change, so that students will take out two loans, one for $45,000 and the other for the additional costs.

The real problem with our higher education system is that students can borrow any amount of insured money for their educations. Why? Because they are insured by the federal government. When unlimited amounts of money chase fixed resources, the cost of those resources, the college expenses, increase. It’s simple supply and demand.

A better solution will be to cap insured student loans at a lower amount. This will be the ceiling cost, not the base cost and the overall college costs will start to drop. Don’t raise the bridge, lower the water.

So if you really care, support my campaign financially. Saying that you’ll vote for me is nice, but not that valuable as to be elected I have to reach over 400,000 voters. That costs a lot of money so donations matter. A lot.

I do have a solution to reform the election business, but must be elected to propose and drive bills through congress. It’s all theory until I get to Washington.

And get there I will. With your help. So help you must.