The Return of the Political Commentary: Change and the Modern Voter

"How's that change so far?"

"The President has done nothing!"

"Keep the change."

"I'll keep my liberty you can keep the change."

These are things that I hear all too regularly. I'm not talking about valid, rational criticism of the president. I'm talking about people who can't articulate thoughts more complex than can fit on a bumper sticker.

I love when people disagree with my political position. I live for it. It helps me learn. I hate ignorant people and I've found that the ignorance is spreading. The Civil Rights movement started, arguably, shortly after the Civil War and ended...never. Don't kid yourself. We're still working toward equality. The Women's Movement, the Gay Rights movement every attempt to engineer major social change in this nation is the work of decades. Yet all I'm hearing lately is "Why isn't the change happening? Why isn't it happening faster? WHHHHHHAAAAAAAA!!"

OK

Yeah.

You have fun with that. The grown ups are going to have a conversation now 'cause it's hard to concentrate while you're screaming and kicking your feet like that.

In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm tired of people pretending that the president has done nothing at all and that the exact change they envisioned hasn't happened and as such they president is a failure and evil and WHAAAAAAAAA!

Stop it. Your ignorance is taking attention away from the actual issues that still need solving. Your millisecond, MTV, goldfish length attention span and your childish desire for instant gratification without any actual, you know, work is a waste of time, yours and mine.

(The next section is full of irony given the fact that I'm blogging. Yes, I'm aware.)

I spend a lot of time involved in various political/social groups. The key word in that last sentence is "involved." Now, I realize that people have jobs and lives and so on but it can't be denied that the Tea Baggers have jobs and lives too. They also have to desire and will to get up and go do something.

The aides at my Senators and Representatives offices know me by name. Some of them recognize my voice. I call them at least once a week and I've spent a not small amount of time debating them in an effort to get them to advise their bosses properly. I've had more than one conversation with my congressperson for the same reason.

During the election we had the time to get out on the streets and act in an attempt to get what we wanted. Guess what? It worked. Well done. That wasn't the end. It was the beginning. Sadly, what I see most often lately is people who aren't involving themselves any farther than whining about how things aren't going their way and exclaiming that they are not going to vote for Obama next year.

Stop for a moment and think about that. Progressives, who for some inexplicable reason convinced themselves that Obama was a Progressive, when he gave no indication of being one, feel that their best plan for actually getting the change they want is to wait until 2012 and then not vote for the incumbent Democrat.

See what I meant about the screaming and kicking their feet? Grow up people, change doesn't happen because you want it to happen. It happens because you force it to happen and it doesn't happen fast. Get to work or shut the hell up. I'm tired of listening to you. your temper tantrums keep getting in the way of my attempts to make change happen.