It's the P-word...Politics!

This is the only kind of politics I enjoy now - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eabefjsJsAQ



I grew up in a family that was always involved in local politics. My mother worked for a local state senator, my father served on the planning commission, was a member of the local central committee, and ran for city council. I got into the picture too by being a member of the city's youth commission. When I was halfway through college I decided to major in political science because the field interested me so much. Now, I find myself despising politics and how those in politics act towards each other and those that they were elected to represent.

Before I began my studies in college level political science, I knew there were lots of underhanded dealings, but I was still overly idealistic. This has changed over the years and especially came to head during the 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis in California. Early on in my political life I was a Democrat. Prior to 2003 I became a Republican which is still my party of choice. This is not a resounding endorsement, but rather the understanding that we are currently limited to a two party system.



Discussing the reasons why voters were drawn to recall Davis is unnecessary. What matters is identifying how this election made me see how hypocritical politicians and voters could be. This was just a few years after the Bush Gore elections and that was cited as a concern. There were 135 candidates on the ballot and some cited a fear that it would take a very long time to determine the winner. This was just a smoke screen. Gray Davis was still the governor so until it was determined if the recall was successful and who the new governor was, Davis would still be in office. This annoyed me, but what I read in the paper around this same time really made my blood boil. Whether I agreed with Democratic party policies or not, I always believed that they were sincere with regards to their values. These values included supporting immigrants and not discriminating against them or pretty much any minority group. Among the candidates were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. Constantly letters were sent into the paper mocking Schwarzenegger’s inability to pronounce the name of the state correctly. Bustamante also had an accent, but nothing was mentioned of his. If anyone dared to mock his accent there would be screams of racism from many on the Democratic side. This is just one example of hypocrisy in politics; unfortunately I have encountered many more prior and since then.