VoxMagnum

I'm really very tired of people whining about health care reform, constitutionality, and "government" in lieu of doing something constructive to change policy. In an act of laziness, an umbrella term such as "government" is often used in place of "Congress" - which of course is the body of America's policymakers, elected by Americans to represent them (lest we forget this in a haze of marijuana smoke - or gun smoke I guess).

The line seems to be blurring between what I've always thought of as the modern equivalent of hippies and what are clearly conservatives. The people who during a round of hacky-sack gave us rambling lectures about the amphibian conspiracy and the Illuminati are lazily protesting the same big government as the tea and Republican Parties. I really can't tell the difference anymore. Some of the most liberal adolescents I knew growing up are now conservative adults. On the other hand, most of the reasonable, non drug abusing high school liberals have remained the same. So what I really can't tell - based on what I remember - is if this these people actually changed, or if I was just naive' and assumed/ignored a lot of things about my peers. I can vaguely remember my parents arguing briefly (and light-heartedly) about one of them voting for Bill Clinton in the 90's. What I can't remember is how the media, or how Americans in general treated Mr. Clinton and viewed his presidency. I remember the controversy surrounding his sexual exploits, but that's the kind of thing that sticks with a 5th grader. Were the original hippies not liberals? Will Berkeley CA. become the next Grand Rapids MI., and has all of the backlash against both Presidents Bush and Obama been an example of a common American occurrence? It all seems unlikely to me, but what the hell is likely anymore?

How did everyone start believing that they could actually influence policy by whining to TV audiences, throwing food, wearing silly costumes, misrepresenting historical events, holding up error ridden signs, etc.? These things have about as much actual effect on policy decisions as the guy yelling "free bird" has on the set list at a rock show, that is, the people in charge usually don't take orders from people who are yelling (I enjoy insulting protesters and other types of shouting people). What I'd love to see in this country is more people choosing between writing their Congressman or shutting up. I'd like even more to see them writing their Congressmen AND shutting up. Though I'd appreciate it if they agreed with me when it comes to policy, I'm not about to get out my sharpie and megaphone.