Political Apathy and Our Downfall by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Political Apathy and Our Downfall Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

The first President that I remember on tv was Eisenhower.  He was a no nonsense military leader, a poor speaker, and scary accurate on the Military Industrial Complex Taking over our country.  Of course, wise men in our past is not big in America, sad.  

The first election I remember was Robert Kennedy and Nixon.  Kennedy was charming, but he was a CATHOLIC.  My god, could a Catholic make a good President.  Very similar to a black man (Obama) or a woman (Clinton?) making a good President.  But, the difference back then is that we debated the issues in debate clubs across America.  We didn’t name call, except for the Catholic stuff (so we were not perfect), and we discussed what would be best for our country.

There seem to be four general categories of people in American politics today 1) those that are apathetic, 2) those that think the Republicans are giving the country to the rich, 3) those that think the Democrats are giving the country to the poor, disadvantaged, the immigrants, and cheaters and 4) those that think the system is broken, a subset of the apathetic mostly.

We believe our story, the story of our party.  But do we ever examine whose facts line up with reality?  Take a look at the Social Progress Index.  America is 16th overall (and falling), but in some areas we are pitiful. "For the United States, the results are sobering. Though the United States ranks sixth among covered countries in terms of GDP per capita, we only achieve 16th place in social progress. In terms of success in meeting the basic human needs of our citizens, equipping them to improve the quality of their lives, and opening up opportunity for every citizen to meet his or her full potential, the United States is well below major G7 nations, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan."

With regard to tolerance and inclusion (compassion), we rank 17th.  In meeting meeting basic human needs, we rank 21st.  Denmark, that I visited and blogged on last week, ranks first in meeting basic human needs.

So we are not taking care of the poor, the disadvantaged, the sick, etc.  We have the money to do it, but we don’t.   

If you are not good with graphs … this means the rich and super rich are getting your money, not the poor people.  Get used the idea, we are fighting from the crumbs falling off the rich man’s table.  This is consistent with the Social Progress Index that says the U.S. does a poor job taking care of basic needs (food, shelter, health care) for its people.  

We are not exceptional, we are not even good in taking care of the basic needs of our people.  But, luckily, we are apathetic … we don’t care, and besides many of us believe despite the data that the poor people, especially the immigrants, stole our money.