State of the Lack of Union

As much as it pains me to say this, I have taken a new interest in politics since I started blogging.

I mean, they just give you so much material.

If you've been reading for a little while, you'll recall that politicians as a whole, and the state of our political system as a whole, make my stomach turn. The State of the Union address last night, and the comments surrounding it, re-emphasized that for me.

I am simply baffled by the split-party system. It amazes me to watch the miraculous coincidence that occurs when there were just two views in that chamber, either virtually half the room complely supported or did not support what the President was saying. There are exceptions (John McCain, Joe Lieberman) to the rule, but I think this is why so much money is wasted and so little gets accomplished in so much time on the Hill. We need to get someone in charge that honestly does not care about his own party and only for what he believes is right. John McCain, from what I've seen, seems to be the kind of person who does that.

Mind you, I'm not an expert in politics. I hardly followed it at all until the last election...

A great moment last night that was (unfortunately) not caught on the cameras was some psycho Cindy Sheehan being arrested for wearing an anti-war t-shirt into the chamber. C'mon, girlfriend. I've never protested anything actively, but I would imagine that the smart thing for her to have done would have been to behave and just go to the speech. She would have been caught on camera probably a million times. Everyone knows what she stands for--she would have effectively protested the war with her silence if she wasn't acting like a complete idiot.

I liked a lot of what the Pres said last night. Some of it seemed a bit unrealistic, but I missed a bit since I was competing with the monkies climbing all over me while I tried to watch. I did get a good listen to the military stuff, the most important line to me being:

"As we make progress on the ground, and Iraqi forces increasingly take the lead, we should be able to further decrease our troop levels -- but those decisions will be made by our military commanders, not by politicians in Washington, D.C."

The next couple of years are going to dramatically alter the political spectrum of this country. Although I don't think it will change (safety in numbers), the first step for our government to take to move forward is to drop the partisan politcs, and to vote for conscience and what is right, rather than for money and job security.