I grew up in a very Republican minded area of the Deep South. I was raised as a republican and I guess back in the 1980s things were more hopeful than now, or maybe that’s because I was still under the watchful eye (and pocketbook) of my parents.

As I’ve gotten older, and I’ve seen how the world works, my views have changed.
I don’t consider myself Republican, yet I don’t see myself as Democrat. And by the same token, I don’t like politicians, because I pretty much see them as the same people, only with different letters beside their names.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again regarding the whole gas prices rising thing.
(A) the oil companies know that people will pay the price because they have to. They literally have us over a (oil) barrel. (B) no matter what a candidate says about “Feeling our pain” in regard to how average Americans are struggling, the fact of the matter is, no matter how hard they try to feel the pain, they will never be able to because there is always a cushion of their millions of dollars in the bank to fall back on if their baby gets sick or grandpa needs a doctor’s visit after he breaks a hip.

One particular conversation was an offshoot of the above paragraph and I told the person in which I was talking, revolved about the out of touch-ness of those in power. And I told the woman “you know, I would love to see each of these politicians live on $30,000 a year. That’s probably around what the “average” American makes, but for kicks, let’s put them on the line. Take them out of the mansion, put them in an “average” home and whoever ends up making do the best with the little they have, I would definitely vote for. Because if they truly had to live like the rest of us – worry about how to pay the $200 gas bill to heat the home, figure out what’s more important – groceries or gas money to get to work – a lot of the problems we have would be on the fast track to be solved.

I used to feel hopeful about the future, and in many ways I guess I still do. But as long as the people who run our governments, our healthcare/insurance companies and our gas sources are pocketing wads of cash, the rest of us will have to make do with what little we have.

It amazes me how the partisan gop hacks (as opposed to “conservatives” necessarily) can continue to bury their head in the sand on this. The economy is fine! Wal-Mart’s stock rose $.03 last quarter! Don’t you know what the technical definition of recession is?!?

I don’t mind that the rich continue to get richer, really, I’m happy for them. But don’t bank on that as an indicator that everything is fine for everyone else, when it most certainly is not.