Pay attention to the game

All the pundits are telling me what I think and have thought for the last year... but, see, no one is actually ASKING ME what I think or feel. Or most of the rest of us, for that matter. There are entire corporate-owned cable networks designed to create and craft my opinions, that then slowly feed them to me.

Hey, cable? I'm not eating.

In fact, I'm regurgitating.

1.  So the House went to the conservatives. Okay. Welcome to OFFICIALLY owning part of the blame. You've sat on the sidelines for 2 years now, COMPLAINING LOUDLY and saying the progressives weren't letting you play. Or they're doing it all wrong. Or the sun was in your eyes and you had a bad cold and your constituencies made you come to the game even though you didn't want to play and it's stupid and ENOUGH. We get it. No more sidelines. You have skin in the game now, so instead of sitting back and being obstructionist, DO SOMETHING.

2.  Stop bitching about the plays made by the first string, plays you considered crappy, and trying to force a re-do the same play now that it's your down. That play is over. MOVE ON. In other words, shut the hell up about health care.  It happened, you hate it, don't waste our time trying to revamp it right now because the president won't sign the legislation anyway--how about you just  MOVE THE BALL FORWARD. Go ahead: Give us something new.

3.  You know what I THINK this election was about? JOBS. It's all about how there aren't any and how we need to grow the economy and gosh, if only we could do something to change those darn unemployment numbers. It's too bad that this country's infrastructure is totally PERFECT, right? Because I mean, wow, if only we could use a high speed rail system. Think of all the issues that would solve! All the people it would employ in all the various sectors of the economy to build it and how when people are employed they spend money on things like houses and furniture and cars... People pay taxes on houses, right? So if more people had money and could buy homes, they would pay taxes on those homes?  So that increases the tax base. Larger tax base, pay off debt quicker, able to reduce taxes. Interesting.  Might even help out with that glut of foreclosures  out there. Oh, we don't have a high-speed rail system that other top notch countries have (like China and Japan and Europe and...Turkey)? Huh. That seems like a no brainer.  Because, historically speaking, investment in infrastructure has been a GOOD THING, economically, on all levels.

4.  Hey broadcast media, would you all shut the hell up and just do some work, please? Quit telling me my opinions. Ad nauseam. First, because you're wrong. I'm not drinking whatever Kool Aid you're trying to feed me. The world isn't going to Hell in a hand basket.The sky isn't falling, we're not all living in ramshackle tents on the street. That's Haiti, actually. This is over-privileged America, where the grass literally IS greener, thank you Miracle-Gro. Second, yes, things are tough and things suck for lots of people but the suffering most of us experience currently is due to malaise. Those who are suffering the most probably didn't even realize there was an election-- they were just trying to figure out how to get food on the table and who was picking whom up from soccer practice and how to fit in an extra AA meeting this week and how we're going to pay the damn medical bills this month. The constant hammering of how everything sucks is just making everything suck more LOUDLY. I'm not saying acknowledging it is bad, but good lord, ease the fuck up. The Chicken Little bit is causing anxiety to skyrocket.

5. Finally, well... I guess I'm just stunned. I don't know why it wasn't brought up sooner, but clearly the conservatives hate government. But it's a necessary function of a civilized society...  So why did we, as employers, just hire a bunch of employees that distrust, hate and don't believe in the merits of our core business?

Regardless... here we are, we voters, in the middle of a chill economy, our asses frozen to the metal bleachers while watching this ridiculous game unfold before us. All I'm asking is that this bunch of yahoos  MOVE THE DAMN BALL FORWARD. We are, after all, on the same team.

Aren't we?