Lou Dobbs is the MAN!

(Disclaimer: I am writing this late at night, and so if there are typos or missing words, it is due to sleep-deprivation, not sloppy editing :) )
So, I've been really note-crazy recently. There has been a lot on my mind, and tonight was no exception. I just got back from what was, hands down, the coolest thing I have done in NYC thus far. Some friends and I went to the Lou Dobbs show, going out live from the CNN studio at the Time Warner Center. It was an intimate setting, and I was just so excited to be there. Mr. Dobbs is a self-proclaimed independent populist, but I was very impressed with how he showcased guests with varying points of view. One of my friends commented that he really appreciated how Mr. Dobbs didn't let his emotion get in the way of presenting the facts, and talked about the shortcomings of each side, and also praised them where they were strong.
Many issues were raised about the current state of political affairs and what the candidates are, or are not, saying about the issues. So many things to say, I don't even know where to start. One of the biggies was about getting the nomination and election system out of the hands of special interests and into the hands of the people again. Mr. Dobbs made a fantastic point when he asked why we treat our candidate-finding differently from how we would chose a CEO, or a PTA board member. Why don't we search for the best candidates in our communities? They should run on their merits, not on the party line. They should speak from their beliefs, not just what the majority wants to hear. It seems like the guys with the most hubris are the ones who enter the race and then get funded by 'big business' and other special interest groups. The so-called 'voice of the people' can't really speak for the people if he is muzzled by his contributors. It should be that anyone can have a chance to run, and that campaigns would be publically funded, so that no one (or even a few) groups would be able to dictate the candidate's message. He could get up there, and say, "Hey, this is what I believe in. This is what I see as the problems that need to be addressed. This is what I propose to do about it." Nobody pulling the strings in the background.
In the Q & A after the show, one man was very fired up about action. He made the point, quite accurately, in my opinion, that people can't sit and complain about the state of government if they don't want to do anything about it. Get involved. Get active in your community. Etc. I raised my hand, but the convo moved away to another subject, but I wanted to say, "I understand that people do not really have a leg to stand on if they shake their fists at the big bad government from the luxury of their Laz-y-Boys. However, I am only 26 and already I feel cynical and jaded about our system. Honestly, I am not excited about either candidate. I appreciate aspects of each, but I don't know which way I am going to vote. Furthermore, I have a lot of ideas about what could be done with many, many things in society, but frankly, I am very skeptical of my voice ever really being heard. This will be the second presidential election that I have been able to vote in, and part of me doesn't even want to. I feel like it is the same old play, just with different actors playing the lead roles. No one wants to give us a concrete plan of what they will really do to 'change' (there's my favorite word again) things; and really, how can they? I might vote for Obama or McCain, but I am going to get the hundreds of guys behind them who will push their agendas, and will probably succeed too because of what Obama or McCain would owe them for getting elected. So, yes, I want to get involved in my community. I want to start here, now, and revolutionize the candidate-picking process, voter registration standards and guidelines, the economy, schools, immigration, the war, etc. But I am tired; tired of hearing the same old thing. Tired of seeing men promise to do a bunch of stuff, and then not do it. Time after time after time. So it isn't so much apathy or laziness; it's despair of ever making a difference. My vote feels like a cotton ball thrown into the ocean."

Someone could, and probably will, come back to me and say that my cotton ball, added to everyone else's cotton ball, will blanket the ocean and change its dynamic. Hah. I've heard that before (with a dif analogy) and nothing has happened. In every aspect of life, talk is cheap.Actions are what prove the veracity of a claim. Like Eliza Doolittle sang to Freddy, "Words, words, words, I'm so sick of words, I get words all day through; first from him, now from you, is that all you blighters can do? Sing me no song, read me no rhyme, don't waste my time, show me! Don't talk of June, don't talk of fall, don't talk at all, show me!"

I am sick of 'empty rhetoric', sick of feeling like the country that was founded on the principles of government 'of the people, for the people, by the people' is now the government 'of the guys with the most money, for them and their cronies, by any corporation who forks over the big bucks'. I am sick of feeling like the only difference I can really make is confined to the marks the letters are making on this computer screen.

Well, back to the show. I have never been so enthralled by politics in my life. I could have sat there for hours, weighing the arguments of each side. Lou Dobbs is brilliant, in my opinion, and the show was amazing. He's doing this all week, and I am definitely going to tune in. I wish I could be there every night!