From: blosser_cy@lrc.edu
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections
Subject: THE DEBATE CONTINUES (read this please!)
Date: 24 Jul 92 16:38:17 GMT
Organization: Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, NC


From:	MX%"johnnyp@HALDI.LCS.MIT.EDU" 24-JUL-1992 01:49:58.45
Subj:	Re: To: de5ORNL.GOV (wuz ERADICATE CONGRESS)

>Well, the first question I have for you is: did you vote in '90?
>Are you a registered voter at all? 

I registered on my 18th Birthday, March 23d, 1992. Therefore I did not
have the opportunity to vote in '90.

>If you're a college student then you are old enough to vote, so 
>you bear a responsibility for deciding on who works in those halls 
>of Congress.

No, wrong assumption. I only recently became old enough to vote, and I
registered immediately after my birthday.

There we go with this responsibility bullshit again....

>Do you even know the name of your local Congressional representative?\

Cass Ballenger. He lives here and attends my church.

>If you don't, 

I do, but not personally.

>then it's your own fault that you're uninvolved. 

It's not my fault.

>If you don't like the jobs he or she is doing, get off your butt and throw 
>the bum out!

I intend to assert my voting rights and take political action.

>Are you on financial aid from the federal government?

No.

>If you are, then you would object to it going away. Yet you are also probably 
>against the high budget deficit. How could you reconcile these positions?

I suggest a cut in Congress' absurd salaries...do you know just how much they
rake in????

Also, cut our defense spending. The Cold War is over and our Generals must
pack up their bombs and go home...time to deal with matters on the home front.

>You see, you *are* responsible for what goes on. 

I agree that each of us are to some degree responsible, but I would say those
in office hold more responsibility...for their campaign promises, that turned
out to be callous lies. For going back on their word. For screwing the people
of this country, etc.

>Get off your butt and vote!

Ok, ok, ok--you don't have to tell me twice! I intend to!!! 

>Did you vote at all? Or did you go 0-for-20 in the last election?

You already asked me that. I was underage and therefore unable to vote in the
last election.

>If people didn't re-elect them every 2 years, they wouldn't be able to do it.
>Don't you see how easy it is? Make them respond to your will or replace them.

I agree. The fact that we re-elect a certain leader or a member of a particular
political party again after they've screwed us over the first term demonstrates
that the masses simply do not care about what goes on in Washington...we are an
passive nation lapsing into a funk of apathy. We refrain from taking action be-
cause we would rather sit in front of our television sets & rot our brains than
get off our lazy asses and take action.

>What do you want from them? 

Freedom.

Justice.

Acknowledgement and protection of our civil rights and liberties that our fore-
fathers fought for during the revolution (i.e., the War on Drugs and the police
violation of civil rights as decreed by the Constitution).

Less excertion of military power simply for the sake of expressing how *mighty*
our armed forces are ("Look at me, Mom! I just carpet-bombed an entire country!
See them scramble for cover under the supreme air-supiority of our planes! See?
See? We're bad! We're cool! We're the U.S. Army...this is what happens when you
get in the way of our business. So don't fuck with us...or else!"--sound famil-
iar?)

Direct action and cooperation with our fellow countries to save the environment
and clean-up the waste-disposal bin this land has become.

Let's see, what else? 

The list goes on and on........

>The reason why government is failing is because they bend to the will of the 
>people too easily.   We need a government that is unafraid to LEAD, and make 
>decisions which may be unpopular but best for the country.

Hold on, pal. Wait a minute--isn't this a *contradiction* to your previous 
assertion that the masses should raise their voices & make their interests
known and then and only then we'd see some change in the government???????

First you want a government that listens to the people....now you want one
that, well????

Our forefathers have designed our political system to grant neither too-little
nor too-much power to either the government or the people. At least that's the
way it should be. That's what the Constitution sez, doesn't it? Only now we've
got a government that turns its back on the cries of minorities...that refuses
to answer to our questions...that is in all sense DEAF to our desperate pleas.

But, hey this is also a government that doesn't bend to the will of the people
which in your book is just what we need so I guess it's not all bad...at least
in your eyes. 

I personally feel that the nightmare of totalitarianism and the tyranny of Big
Brother as portrayed in '1984' by George Orwell, is slowly becoming a reality.

But then you'd probably dismiss my fears & worries as mere psychotic paranoia.

>Yet you so easily feed into the chic "voter anger" which has been well-covered
>by the mass media. And if you don't pay attention to the media how do you know
>so much about Congress? 

I do something that many people fail to do these days...I read. (gasp!)--in the
absence of a television I turn to magazines, newspapers, etc.  Not that they're 
free from bias. Most are just as tainted as ABC, CBS, NBC, et al. But at least,
I've got a wider pick of information sources. How about you? Oh, yeah, "and how
do I know so much about Congress?"--I payed attention in Political Science 101,
during my freshman year.

I assume you don't work there. Or do you just get a de-brain-washed, second-hand
version of the news from people you talk to?

I don't work there, and neither would I want to. I would stay further away from
that pack of deranged babbling idiots as I possibly could. 

>Pardon my flaming at you, but the Voter Anger Thing just doesn't work for me.

I agree with you in that there are a lot of people out there sunk in complete
apathy who don't know anything whatsoever about politics and couldn't give so
much as a damn about the elections...but, there are also a lot of us who *do*
give a damn, who *do* vote, who do take action, but have been totally screwed
by a government...and I feel we've got a right to be angry.

>I believe the problem is more with the people of this country who all basically
>want a free lunch from their government.

No, no--we should return to the Work Ethic. You can't get something for nothing.
You've gotta work for it. Put in those hours. Fill out that time card. We *need*
more jobs--employment rate is a key issue right now...and don't ask me how I can
solve this problem. Hell, I'm a Philosophy major, not a politician! =)

I look forward to your reply. =)

Peace,

Christopher

GEORGE BUSH COULDN'T RUN A LAUNDROMAT. BUT THEN AGAIN, NEITHER COULD CLINTON,
AND ROSS PEROT IS A SHORT, RICH CAPITALIST PIG WHO WIMPED OUT!
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.elections