Taking a Poll

Last night at about 8:00 pm the phone rang. Caller ID indicated someone with an acronym for a name, but I answered it anyway. (Who am I fooling, I answer everything). A reasonably bright-sounding, and English-as-a-first-language sounding woman identified herself as calling for ABC news, and more or less started asking me questions. I think if she'd asked me if I wanted to take an opinion poll, I would have said no.

No matter, I started answering her questions. And in the process I learned something interesting. They don't really care what we think! They can't really process that. They ask questions that are pre-formed and which assume a huge agenda. There's no room to move when answering. They don't know that Ron Paul exists! The only way to indicate that I wasn't a xenophobe and would not immediately send all illegal aliens back to their country of origin was to say we should make them all pay a fine and apply for, and then wait for approval before we allow them to stay here. They wanted to know which candidates displayed "leadership and vision" and none-of-the-above was not an answer. They asked me to take Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani seriously. Ugggh. First they asked me what is my religion and then they asked me how often I attended church-- after I told them I was an atheist! I wouldn't tell them my combined household income.

I said I believed all of the Democratic candidates would lie to their mothers, but she didn't ask about the Republicans, who I believe would all lie to their mothers, then steal all their money, and ship them to nursing homes where they'd be tied to their beds until they died of bedsores.

We live in a time of an almost stunning disconnect between the world as it exists, and the world our politicians can deal with. Corporations (monopoly capitalism) and lawyers run this country, and any initiatives which would change that power structure are immediately squashed. Our health care system is broken beyond repair, but it can't be fixed because no one can stand up to an industry that gobbles up almost 20% of our total economy.

Too many people live outside the "system," because the system has become too exclusive. Intolerance and disrespect and inhumanity in the name of security and order are now the norm. Our government kidnaps and tortures people! Greed makes the economy work and intolerance makes the social system work. Right now our government is fighting terrorism by sending our military to the middle east and shooting up the place and killing children and grandmothers. This is not making us more secure from terrorists!

It's fine now, when the economy allows us to buy hiding places from the freaks, whackos, criminals, mental patients, and terrorists among us, but when something bad happens, look out! Greed-capitalism has taken away our character, and easily digested Christianity has taken away our moral foundation, and gated communities have taken away the need for us to live with our social mistakes.

And high interest revolving credit, mortgage debt, and high taxes have eaten away our flexibility to change anything. The law says if you have a couple of million dollars to spend on your defense team, you can literally get away with murder. It also allows Visa to charge 35% interest on credit card accounts that are past due. This isn't Elysium, it's Gomorrah.

All this I find quite disheartening. But I couldn't tell that to the ABC news poll. It's not what they wanted to hear. Pity.