It Smells like Wet Manure

If you've been following this blog you'll remember that in August I moved into my first house. One of the benefits of having a new address is that the junk mail I was used to getting can no longer find me. But I've been amazed at the rate at which new junk mail manages to find out where I live and make its home in my often unchecked mailbox. Catalogs from companies I would never order from, letters inviting me to religious or cult-like gatherings that I would never attend and most recently letters from the President of the United States asking for money have populated my mailbox.

Given the current state of electoral affairs, I'm sure that at least some of you have been privileged enough to receive the said letter from George W. Bush. For those of you who haven't received it (note that I'm a registered democrat so it seems like anyone is fair game for the letter), it's a letter that explains how the next presidential election is about to be upon us, how the democratic nominee is soon to be selected (apparently a slightly dated letter) and how you should donate money to the re-election campaign. The double sided letter (clever use of rare employed paper savings) goes on to explain how the current administration has liberated people in both Afghanistan and Iraq as well as presented economic stimulus packages and the usual tooting of one's own horn. Now I'm not here to rag on the Bush administration, republicans or get into the usual political discussions but instead to be critical of most politicians in general.

It's analogy time:

When people ask what I do for a living, you'll find me dead before I call myself a journalist. Why? Because a "journalist" has an extremely negative connotation to me and to a good portion of the population. Journalists are usually marked as being sensational, not extremely caring about the impact of their story but rather much more concerned with how much attention they can get. Journalists are often despised by those they interview because often times they head into a story already having a predetermined conclusion for the story. I could go on and on about the negative traits of a "journalist" that I not only don't ascribe to but I like to stay an infinite distance away from. As stereotypical as my definitions of a journalist may be, I've worked with enough to know that the stereotype exists for a reason.

So what's the point of my sidetrack? The same way I feel about journalists, I happen to feel about politicians. I mentioned before that I'm a registered democrat, but honestly I despise democratic politicians just as much as I do republican politicians. I do vote, and it's a right that I do not take for granted and I would encourage everyone else to view it in a similar light, but the vast majority of times I find myself choosing between the lesser of two evils rather than a candidate that I am truly happy with.

I think the problem boils down to our selection of politicians. There is a path that one would go through to be a politician (generally speaking). You pick a certain undergrad major, you do whatever it takes to go to the right graduate school (Harvard or Yale come to mind), you make a lot of "friends" (read: kiss up to everyone you meet, especially professors) and try to work your way up the ladder. I'm not saying that there aren't good people that make it through this process, but there are a very large number of not so great people that make it through this process. I would hope that it gets better with every generation, and that this generation of politicians in the brewing now would be more understanding of the domestic and global issues that exist today and how best to attack them (preferably not the type of attack that occurs at the end of a gun).

I think a major problem we have in America is that entirely too much money and effort is spent on getting re-elected. There's honestly no good reason why hundreds of millions of dollars should be spent on any election campaign, it's so similar to taking a company public that you can't even begin to hide that in a lot of cases the goals of a politician are in line with the goals of a businessman. I've got nothing against successful entrepreneurs, but sometimes the decisions that make the most business (or political) sense are not always the decisions I'd like to see for this country.

And one major downside (although I completely understand and agree with the positives of this) of the term limits on political offices is that there is very little attention paid to the long term effects of any decision and a lot of attention paid to the short term (2 – 6 years). It's this lack of long term focus that leaves us in situations like the ones we're in today where decisions made a while ago have created a very confrontational relationship between the US and other countries. Keep in mind that at one point we were actually liked by Middle Eastern countries.

Maybe it's just that we have the wrong people with aspirations of holding political office. Maybe we need to take a break from computers and give politics a try? At least that way we'd finally get faster internet delivered to every home :)

Oh and in case you're wondering about the title of this blog, it's not some attempt to be metaphorical or encourage deep thought, instead it's what NC State's campus smells like today. I love when they dump piles of that stuff all over the campus, it makes my 15 minute walk to class 6 times a day oh so fun.

If it doesn't smell like wet manure where you are, taking a deep breath and be thankful – we shouldn't take clean air for granted :)