One more rant before I head down the road and disappear for about three weeks.
In spite of Congress patting themselves on the back about the bipartisan gun legislation that was recently passed, as I predicted, it has done zero to solve the problem of mass shootings as we all witnessed over the Fourth of July in Highland Park, Illinois and in Philadelphia. As long as people have access to assault style rifles and high-capacity magazines and there are not universal background checks – this problem will remain unsolved.
I am tired of ranting about this same issue over and over. But as I thought about this, I realized that the problem is not with Congress failing to act. The problem is with ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’ This is our collective problem and so far, we have been unwilling to solve it. As long as ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ continue to elect people to the United States Senate and the United State House of Representative who refuse to enact any type of REAL legislation to deal with this problem, it will never be fixed. People hold up countries like Somalia and El Salvador as examples of dangerous places to live. Pretty soon, the United States will join that ‘elite’ group because we elect politicians who cater to firearm lobbies and people who are obsessed with weapons. A weapons fetish perhaps?
WE THE PEOPLE are responsible for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade because ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ allowed someone like Donald Trump to be elected president and we allow someone like Mitch McConnell to stay in office so he could control nominations to the Supreme Court. ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ continue to elect politicians who either have or are supported by people with a ‘fetus fetish.’ The definition of a fetish is: “a form of sexual desire in which gratification is strongly linked to a particular object or activity or a part of the body other than the sexual organs”. Synonyms for ‘fetish’ are: compulsion, mania, weakness, fancy, taste, fascination, craze, fad, idée fixe. These people and the politicians they elect are willing to sacrifice democracy because of some maniacal obsession with fetuses, and yet, WE THE PEOPLE elect them.
‘WE THE PEOPLE’ got exactly what we asked for. If the polls are correct and they have been very consistent over the years, the majority of American did not want Roe v. Wade overturned, so it begs the question, “Where the hell were these people during all of the elections that led up to this?” WE THE PEOPLE got exactly what we voted for.
WE THE PEOPLE continue to elect politicians who are blocking legislation on climate change every chance they get. These are the same people who applaud the overturning of Roe v. Wade and refuse to enact real gun legislation. Now we will have hundreds of thousands of babies born into a world that is less and less habitable and more and more dangerous. How the hell does that make any sense at all? And yet, WE THE PEOPLE continue to elect officials that enact these nonsensical policies.
The problem in this country is not with Joe Biden. The problem in this country is not with Congress. The problem in this country lies directly at the feet of WE THE PEOPLE. And as long as WE THE PEOPLE continue to vote in people who answer only to big dollars and one-issue special interest groups (e.g., abortion, guns) we will be unable to solve any of these problems.
Right now, WE THE PEOPLE appear to favor a government that will force hundreds of thousands of babies to be born into a world in which many of them will die due to climate catastrophes or increasing gun violence. Pro-life my ass! But, unfortunately, that is what WE THE PEOPLE voted for.
Until such time as WE THE PEOPLE get off our collective asses and get our collective heads out of the sand and start electing people who are actually interested in solving problems instead of kissing politically expedient asses, pandering to vocal minorities and are more interested in getting re-elected than exhibiting some political courage and putting country before self, we are doomed.
We have met the enemy and he is an ill-informed and/or complacent ‘WE THE PEOPLE’!
This is spot on Mike, but of course also impacted by CHEATING – primarily due to gerrymandering and secondarily due to electoral college voting.