[Kat - mood: cranky old person]
AP calls Super Tuesday - A Political Day Like No Other and then proceeds to interview nothing but young, gushing Obama supporters plus one token McCain voter. Everybody, they claim, is excited about these really close primaries. Who are all these "excited" people?
As I pondered over at BCR yesterday, to me,"it's like trying to elect the next captain of the Titanic. Everybody knows the job sucks and the only ones that want to take it on have nothing to lose themselves."
Iceberg, dead ahead."
(continued in flash traffic)
If I was 22, I'd be excited about voting for Obama, too. I'd think I was about to help make American history by voting in the first black man as president. We'd show those old people what real social progress is about! If I couldn't have a black man, I'd be voting in a woman. Because, back in my younger days, that's what mattered. Showing that we were different from our parents. Hip. Rebellious. Our parents had really screwed things up. Hadn't they?
It sucks being old. When you're old, you actually think you should think about what each candidate stands for, what laws they might pass, what money they might spend, how they would lead us in case of an emergency. As an old person, you actually have an idea about how businesses work, how taxes work for and against developing businesses and, thus, what that means to the economy.
For the young its all about "change", "love", "peace" and "where's my latte?". Nobody wonders about how the increase in minimum wages accompanied by increased taxes means a moot increase in living conditions. Reading a few days ago on the Massachusetts "everybody get health care coverage", some young person was expounding on how affordable it was when it had actually ran an immediate deficit of $400 million. But, according to this person, it was okay because the federal government was picking up half of that.
Well, holy bee-jeebus, where do these people think that money came from? The pockets of other people around the country who aren't getting any benefit from this miraculous Massachusetts care, maybe? And, when we institute national health care, exactly whose pockets is all of this money coming out of to pay for this grandiose ponzi scheme? Maybe these young folks think that we have magical money monkeys locked up in Fort Knox that c%@9 golden doubloons out their @$$#$?
Interesting, its young men between the ages of 18 and 24 who are the biggest demographic of young people swinging behind Obama. More interesting is the fact that it is this group of young men who are most likely not to elect to take insurance offered by their employers. As a recent report indicated, these young men are less likely to be seriously ill or visit the doctor for general complaints. In truth, this actually works to keep health insurance and health costs down. Other studies show that one of the reasons that health insurance increases is increased utilization by people who have insurance and now feel like they should run down to the doctor every time they sniffle. It's preventative health care gone mad.
I know, I work in the health field and have known for a long time that one of the reasons that "50 million Americans" are uninsured isn't because they are "too poor", but because they make a conscious financial decision to not spend money on health insurance or not choose to cover their spouse or children. If they did, they might not be able to afford the payment on that 2500 sq ft house, the minivan and family SUV. The poor middle class that's so "squeezed" live like freaking pashas compared to their parents and grandparents.
I tell you, though, these young men making $8.25/hr are going to get a real shock if Obama gets elected and manages to institute some sort of National Health Care. It'll be sticker shock when an automatic "health care insurance tax" starts coming out of their measly paychecks every two weeks and it gets progressively larger every year. Suddenly, they'll be paying more than we do on average for private or employer sponsored insurance.
It gets better because the "aging population" of actual working tax payers will shrink in their generation and the next. So, who exactly is going to be paying out the nose for this wonderful national health care? You guessed it. The Young and the Brainless. The irony is almost too sweet not to gloat over.
You wonder why it is we're even trying to save them from themselves?
Except, I guess, this old fogy still has another 30 years before retirement and doesn't want any part of giving my money to the government so they can start penalizing me for every 10lbs extra I carry over some standard BMI I haven't seen since high school in order to cover the rising costs of health care. That'll be another irony because 30% of America is officially "obese" right now. That goes for these wonderful 18-24 year olds who will be extremely upset when twinkies, french fries and coke are only available at junk food speak easies and their doctors have to report them to the CDC as part of "disease" control program like typhoid and HIV.
Floating the idea of weighing fat people at the restaurant door down in Mississippi is a way of testing out potential policies. There was probably a nice group of folks that were silently thinking "yeah, that will fix those fat people." It won't fly right now, but National Health Care, where these young folks start feeling the pinch in the their pockets, will quickly change their attitudes about who and what they ought to be able to control in order to save money. Ask the recipients of the lovely NHS program across the ocean. Gees, just look at our own Medicare and Medicaid systems.
Don't think that I'm just up in arms with the young people and Democrats. What are republicans voting for? Mitt "I'm so fake, I changed my positions so I could look like a Republican" Romney and John "I'll stand up to big business, not because I'm a populist schmuck, but because the SOBs aren't contributing to my campaign" McCain. Let's not even talk about the Arkansas "I know all of Bill Clinton's friends" Huckster. Ron, Ron he's our man, if he...oh, shoot me now.
Now you know why I'm cranky. At some point, I'm going to have to get behind one of these jack legs and support him in order to keep Barak "free your mind and vote for me" Obama from winning.
The other day, my teenage nephew was telling me how he couldn't wait to be an adult and do whatever he wanted without anyone telling him what to do. He couldn't wait to get out of school, go to work and spend his money how he wanted to. I was thinking about the day I was driving behind a school bus and wishing I was back on that bus, having someone else pay for my lunch, my clothes, not having to worry about rent, insurance, car payments, grocery shopping and dry cleaning bills.
Sometimes, I think it would be nice to be young and brainless again, only having to worry about choosing between a black man or a woman for president, who have no real difference in their platforms except one is probably meaner, and make "history".
Dr Helen Weighs In On Voting For Obama Based On the Opinion of Your 14 yr Old
(This post was not approved by the ANY campaign what-so-ever, nor the owner of this blog. It is strictly the observations of an undecided, independent voter who has never contributed any funds to any political party or candidate for any reason because I can barely afford to put gas in the car and go to work. You know I'm so looking forward to paying $.50/gallon gas tax. This disclaimer required under McCain-Fiengold and various other legislature smashing free speech.)
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