Election after election we follow the same pattern doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Actually, this is the definition of insanity. If someone from a different party other than the two major parties enters a race and that person is superior in every respect, it is like war has been declared. All ammunition comes to the fore; one example is the mayoral challenger in San Francisco, Matt Gonzalez in the 2004 mayoral race. Now some in the local Democratic Party establishment (the Milk Club for instance) is unenthusiastic with current Mayor Newsom that it refuses to endorse him for Lt. Governor.
We switch from Democrat to Republican administrations, both locally and nationally and we now find ourselves going backward. There are some incremental victories along the way surprisingly by some Republican administrations but overall when it comes to major systemic changes, we have failed miserably.
We could not make it better even if we had the will. Our environment is rapidly deteriorating, water quality, a finite resource, is being polluted even with the manufacturing of cheese, two examples is Idaho Cheese manufacturer Sorrento Lactalis Inc. and California’s Hilmar Cheese which destroyed drinking water for thousands of residents.
Our oceans food supplies are being drastically diminished to supply our addiction to oil and exponential use of plastic packaging now chocking sea creatures. Our air quality is going downhill especially with emerging nation’s loving cars so much as to be stuck in traffic for days at a time and still inured to the inconvenience and discomfort of using automobile to get around. In fact, there are now 600 million cars on the road worldwide with an estimated doubling of car use by 2030.
If we think we can somehow escape the consequences of air pollution caused by 600 million cars all dependent on fossil fuel, well maybe we should determine the state of our cognitive abilities to absorb this information and start to dramatically change our lifestyles and thinking on what it means to have a truly happy and satisfactory life style – material comfort or comfort in our environment and others with reasonable use of the world’s resources.
O, yes, I started with our insanity of expecting the two major parties to save our butts. How about listening to reasonable voices from other than the two-party corporate duopoly. Or better still get out on streets as they do in France and other countries and say, “We Won’t Take It Anymore.”
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