The First Post

Let's talk politics. The United States of America no longer has a two party system. All we have now are politicians. Republican or Democrat politicians care only for themselves and what can get them on television. I have lost faith and interest in politics in the last several years as nothing but cookie cutter rich boys and girls run for office. There is no desire to listen to the average citizen by politicians today. Special interest groups, big corporations, big oil and lobbyists control who gets elected in most major elections. Politicians say what they are told and do what they are told by the rich and big business. It is not a leap in faith to say that major corporations run the United States. No matter who is in office the corporations get what they want from all politicians.
The average Americans I know could care less about global warming, diplomacy with Russia, strife in Africa and the cost of tea in China. Average America wants cheap gas, good wages, decent health care and security. Gasoline prices are going to keep going up. I am not sure but if you look most politicians will have stock in oil and insurance companies. Gas is not going to go down and The United States of America is not going to get cheap health care. There is no money in that. If there was health care similar to that in Canada the politicians could not get the money from the big drug companies and their stock would suffer. Same for big oil, if the big oil companies would take some of the billions they earn each quarter and just return ten percent into price reductions at the pump poor Americans could save money.
The higher costs of gas have hit an already suffering group of people really hard. The poor in America who work for minimum wage or close to it are now having to use nearly a quarter of their after tax weekly check for gas to go to their minimum wage job if they fill up their car just once. Food products have gone up as well due to increases on oil prices and it does not stop there. Every segment of everyday life costs more because of oil costs. After all that they have to pay rent on low income housing or on house payments. There is only so far a poor person can stretch the few meager dollars they earn. Taxes proposed in most states affect the poor far more than middle class or rich peoples because of the minimum wage. I live in Tennessee. Our state government has all sorts of ideas on how to generate revenue, they all involve creating additional hardships for the poor.
Of the candidates running for office now there seems to be none that really stand out from the crowd. Two do seem to show some potential if they get the issues right. Obama and Thompson seem to be different than most recent candidates. Obama has some good ideas and from what I have seen of him seems like a fairly genuine guy; or as fairly genuine as a politician can be. Thompson seems like a take charge kind of guy who has made interesting comments on government that show some outside the box thinking and some concern for the way things are. Thompson is a former Senator and as such could be part of the problem but has done some good. Both these candidates bear watching to see if they sell out the average American for the corporate dollar.
The war is Iraq is a war we should have gone into and then left. We should be over there serving our interests and only give lip service to the government they have. Our priority over there is simple; destroy terrorists and the people who support them. Let the Iraqi people choose their government and run their country however they want. If terrorists show up again we go and kill them and those who support them; no matter who it is and no matter where it is.
I feel the United States is in dire need of an alternative to the Democrats and the Republicans. The two have evolved into one large group that is best described as politicians. They serve only themselves and nothing more. More later on another party.