Wading through the muck

Every now and then I poke my head out of the media-free zone in which I endeavor to live to see what's going on with the political scene in America...and then I remember why I try to live in a media-free zone. Politicians must think Americans are idiots...of course, we seem to continually prove them right, so why should they think differently.  But when I listen to the sound bytes they're playing from the democratic national convention (anyone else think it's an interesting piece of irony that a common type of abortion is also known as a dnc?) and then go online to read the transcript of the Edwards speech...I wonder how anyone buys this crud.
 
So we have two different Americas?  Let's push aside the smart alek that wants to point out that there are already 3 Americas (North America, Central America, and South America) and assume he talking about  social Americas within the U.S. So Edwards say, "one for all of those people who have lived the American dream and don't have to worry, and another for most Americans, everybody else who struggle to make ends meet every single day. It doesn't have to be that way."  You're right, Edwards, it doesn't have to be this way, let's start at the top...with a roll call of who's at this convention.  John Kerry, with his wife, Teresa HEINZ Kerry.  She's living the American dream - and she hasn't even had to work for it, her ancestors did that for her - now she's living large and financing political campaigns with the results of that American dream. How about she donate the lion's share of her family money to the country to establish better health care for those who can't afford to have it taken out of their middle-income paychecks?  Sarah Jessica Parker's there too...she could just simply donate the profits from her Gap ads, or the DVD sales of Sex in the City to the Department of Education to improve the educational system throughout the country.  And on and on and on. They rail about making things equal for the less fortunate, and that's great - I agree, let's do that - but why don't you put your money where your mouth is? I sincerely doubt that the government would frown on you saying, "No, take this money out of my income and apply it to X portion of the budget."  Instead, they want to put their money into the campaign pockets of people who want to get elected and then put my money where their mouth is by increasing the taxes I have to pay, simply because I work hard and am compensated at a reasonable level. Because it's not the truly rich who are going to pay with more taxes, it's the middle and upper middle - and probably even the lower middle - folks. The ones who maybe don't "struggle to make ends meet daily", but who struggle to do any more than simply make ends meet. The ones who, more than likely, are donating to charities and causes to help the less fortunate, but it just isn't enough because you have to make the ends meet first.
 
Maybe we need to first address this question though: Who gets to define the American Dream?  Isn't the nature of a dream that it's individualized to the person dreaming it? Why do I want a politician - of any flavor - determining what my dream should be and how s/he is going to help me achieve it? If my dream is simply to work the majority of my life and save enough to retire at 65 and continue to live essentially at the same level, then who's to say it's wrong? What if my dream is to not work for the majority of my life and just panhandle enough to put food in my mouth at least once a day and afford a plastic sheet for a tent so I can camp out and just live an idle life? Sure, to most that would make me underpriveledged, but maybe it's what I want.  Or perhaps my dream is work hard at my own business and become a multi-millionaire and live in the lap of luxury for the rest of my days and pass that inheritance on to my children and their children and so forth. If that's my dream, then shouldn't I be allowed the chance to make it reality? And how is that possible if we have a Presidential Robin Hood in office who's striving to "equalize" everything, except that instead of taking from the very rich ketchup barrons, he wants to take from the everyday person. And, tangentially, that begs the questions - does Kerry have 57 faces?
 
And then of course, there's the whole problem that no matter who you vote for - no matter whose rhetoric you buy into - first, there's no guarantee that the Electoral College is going to vote like you told them to. Second, even if your candidate did get into office...there's no guarantee that they will actually do anything they said they would. Because once you've elected them, they don't really have to pay attention to you untill it's time to try and be reelected. And even then it's iffy.