"Slide to the Left; Slide to the Right. Take it Back Now Y'all!"

I'm going to be honest from the get-go here. I've really only been following politics for the past 5-6 years and now I wouldn't even go as far to say that I follow it closely or that I'm some kind of expert. Mostly, I don't tend to follow politics heavily because all of the child-like feuding that goes on between republicans and democrats gives me a fucking headache. That doesn't go for politicians alone because I see it happen between voters all the time as well, and don't even get me started on the media.So any conclusions I've made in my short time of trying to educate myself on politics are amateur at best. But I have made one observation; (and I could be completely wrong here) American voters in the past few elections have voted based solely on a candidates party affiliation.

In 2006, America was unhappy with the republican party. No progress had been made in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy was on a down turn, gas prices were on the rise, and the government was spending money like it was going out of style. Mutiny was afoot!! So to fix all of our problems we decided that it was time to vote out the republicans that were in power in the House and the Senate and give the majority to democrats. There. Problem solved. Americans can get back to business as usual.

Wait the presidential seat still belongs to a republican. Son of a bitch!

Enter the 2008 presidential elections.

In 2008, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were still going no where, the economy had tanked, gas prices were outrageous, and the government seemed to be hemorrhaging money. The country gathered in a small gym in Spokane, Washington and talked about making President Bush walk the plank with cement shoes on. After lots of delicious coffee and pastries provided by Starbucks and some deep discussion, we decided that this might seem a little harsh; what with him not being able to run for president again and all. So our plan of attack was to vote in a democratic nominee. Note that not all were on board with this plan; some still wanted Bush to walk the plank wearing his cement Air Force Ones.

I voted for Obama. I liked his enthusiasm and agreed with many of his ideas of how this country should be run. He was a fresh new face in a crowd of politicians who cared nothing of the general American public and who only cared about themselves, their party, and the organizations that handed them generous campaign contributions. I believed in change. Voting for Bush 2.0, a.k.a John McCain, and Sarah Palin was absolutely not an option. I could probably write up a blog on nothing but rants about Palin.

Note to self: start blog on rantings about Sarah Palin...

So we voted in President Obama, much to the chagrin of hard right winged conservatives, and everything was going to be hunkydory. The nation was going to come back from it's economic downturn, the housing market would bounce back, we would start winning the dual wars we were fighting, and gas prices would become reasonable. America would be back on top. Screw you China!!!

Fast forward to 2010.

The economy was slightly better than it had been 2 years ago. The housing market was progressing but still very much fragile. Job growth had improved but a good percentage of the country was still out of work. Major troop withdrawals had occured in Iraq, handing over the bulk of the operations there to the Iraqi government. Afghanistan was another story. Gas prices had improved but people still saw them as ridiculous. Government spending was still astronomical. All in all the majority of the country was not yet happy with the way the country was being run. So what was our answer?? Lets vote out the democrats!! My state alone saw fit to vote Rand Paul into the Senate. Cue facepalm. It wasn't a total political oust as the democrats still hold the majority in the House.

I think the point I'm trying to make has become clear. The latest Gallup pole showed that the majority of Americans would vote for an unnamed republican candidate over the incumbent. What does that say to me? The voting public is putting politicians in power based on party affiliation! Apparently right now it doesn't matter who's going to become the republican nominee for president, we're going to vote them in! Let's stop voting in parties and lets begin voting in people; people who are going to do good for the country no matter if they are republican, democrat, or whatever. Vote for the best person!

Hell maybe it's time for a real change altogether. Perhaps it's time to vote for someone who's ties belong to neither party. Perhaps we should vote in an unknown and see what happens. Is Ralph Nader running again???