The Political Circus Begins

 So here we go, into another Presidential race. Actually, it's been going on since the results of the las one were published. Millions of dollars are spent on these things. So much time that could be used by some of these pols to do the jobs that they were elected to do. Yet, they use both to gear up for the ultimate elected position. First, they play coy with the press, saying that they are "Exploring their options." They quietly tell members of their inner circles to get the word out that they are running, while denying that they are any time that they are asked. They book themselves on talk shows to get their faces out there.They make policy statements. They criticize the current administration, taking potshots whenever they can. Finally, they call a press conference to announce that they are running for President. You get a menagerie of political animals of all stripes who tear at each other in a frenzy to grasp the nomination of their party. Over the coming months for the next year and five months, we will be inundated with political ads about the shortcomings of the other candidates, while extolling the virtues of the person that the ad is endorsing. Ii has gotten way out of hand. Money will take the job, because it takes a lot of money to run. It's not a game for someone who is not well funded. They will makes statements as to how America is on the wrong road and that they will get it back on track. They talk about creating jobs and increasing the standard of living of the American people. They will talk about 'Fixing' Social Security and dump Universal Healthcare and Medicare. They put their hands over their hearts and, with tears in their eyes, say how much they love this Grand Republic and the American People. They will swear that they will work for the working people of America, all the while taking money from PACs created to advance the interests of the multi-national corporations and their Robber Baron bosses. They will talk about how much they love the people who have to struggle to make ends meet every day of their lives, while doing nothing to stop them from sending what were jobs overseas to countries where they use underpaid and even slave labor to  do the jobs that hard working American labor once did. The good Pols like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are few and far between. In reality, even if elected, they face the roadblocks of an unwilling congress. 

  What amazes me is that these people who want us to vote for them have no idea what it is like to actually struggle. How can they relate to the American People if they have lived a life of privilege? You cannot know what it is like to worry about paying bills, or feeding your children, unless you, yourself, have done it. Trump? Give me a break! Bush? Never happened. This goes for the entire field. I would like to see a candidate that really can relate to the day to day life of an American working family. Let me tell you, all the platitudes and rhetoric do not cut it. Until I was forced to retire, I worked my entire life, many times sacrificing family life just to ensure that I made enough money so that my family would be comfortable. I never complained... I just did what had to be done. Now, I am tired and old, and I listen to these pols who tell me that they have the solution to the country's problems. I say to them, bull....! Until you address the deterioration of the country's infrastructure; until you address the needs of the working people of America, instead of the interests of the multi-nationals and the elitists, like the Koch brothers and their ilk, you are not serving the interests of the American People.
I urge my brothers and sisters who have shared my struggle, not to be swayed by the likes of those who hold up immigrants as the boogieman. They are not what threatens your ability to earn a living wage and live a decent life; it's the companies who send their jobs overseas, so that they can get their products made for slave wages. It's the companies that exploit the American Workers who are willing to do a job, no matter what the wage. These companies would cast us all aside, and revel in the demise of the American Labor Movement. Don't let them destroy us. Look at each and every candidate with the future of the American worker, indeed, the American Republic, in mind.

 June 16, 2015

 John Zaffino, Kent Lakes New York