Tonight is the second national presidential debate, and while I am normally not super political, there is something that bothers me greatly about these debates. (Outside of the fact that there is no Parenthood tonight).
It simply seems to reason that the vast majority of people in this country do not vote for the simple reason that they are simple. Not just in mind, but in life. The first part is an insult, while the second is not. What I mean by this is that we all have been effected by the national economy going down the drain. While many have had the opportunity to rebound and recover the lives they once lived, there is a vast majority that are still trying to find a sense of stability. This means that we all are learning to live a life of simplicity. Finding the value in things that before we took for granted or realizing that the things of value actually had none. This is how you live a life of simplicity.
Tonight's debate is of the town hall forum style. I wish for the life of me that I could be there to ask one question. There is no greater question to ask someone who expresses how much they relate to you than one question. Every politician wants you to know that they feel for you. That they understand what is going on in your life. That they relate and want to help you. This is what they will express tonight and in all actuality, forever, until we start asking the right questions. It all starts with one simple question: "Do you know how much a gallon of milk costs?"
This question is more hard hitting than the price of a gallon of gas. We can all live without gas to a degree. Rising gas prices cause a change in the dynamic of the urban population in causing us to all be more "local" in are activities and shopping. It causes the smaller towns to become more isolated and dependent upon each other than venturing to the "big city" for whatever the fuck it is they want. While societies change, the importance of milk does not. If you have children, you want to raise a healthy child. The virtues of drinking milk help in bone development, etc, etc, etc. I'm not going to go into why milk is important or about the alternative types of milk you can have. What I am going to say is that NO politician can answer this question.
Not Obama. Not Romney.
The price of milk is the greatest corollary to how people live. We all must grocery shop. We all must find a way to feed ourselves. We all must find a way to live a healthy, happy lifestyle. If you don't eat right, you can't live right. If you don't take care of your body, then you become fat, lethargic, and a waste of something productive. If you can't take care of yourself, how do you expect to take care of anybody else. The price of milk and groceries lets you know where your finances truly lie. The price of milk tells you what you can and cannot have for the next pay period. It tells you what you must live without and what you may never have again. This pricing index is something that no politician can relate to. You ask me how I know, well here is how.
The president gets a yearly salary of $200,000 paid for by the people from taxes. Do you think that Mr. or Mrs. Obama goes to the local Giant grocery story or the corner bodega to get a gallon of milk when they run out? I don't need to answer that for you, you should already know. This leads to the idea of how can they understand the sacrificing that people have to give up in a down trodden economy. How can they relate to you? You, who are struggling like I am. Living week to week and trying to save your money and you sanity but not finding the middle road of comfort without feeling you are making a massive sacrifice to one.
Mr. Romney we all know has plenty of money. Let alone the fact that he too is a government paid employee. Do you think that he goes to the local grocer to get milk? Is Mrs. Romney going to the store? No, odds are they too have someone who does it for them. How can someone who wants to create a change for the 47% understand life, when they don't have to do anything themselves? How can you relate when you travel on private terms?
The price of milk is not the real question, but it is the catalyst to how we create the change that is needed. If you think that voting for the president is the answer, then you also thought voting for your senior class president was more important than voting for the school board. You thought that promises of more pizza, less homework, and shorter days was the truth and going to happen. You truly thought that. That is why you think the president is the position that matters the most. I am going to tell you that you are wrong. You are wrong!!!
The most important thing you can ever vote on is your local election. If you don't like the schools, change your school board not change the president. If you don't like the roads, find out who is responsible and vote a change for that. The president doesn't care about you. Understand that and let it sink in. The president doesn't care about YOU. He cares about US, as in the United States not us, the collective we. The president is trying to make 300 million people happy and 150 million of them won't like him, whomever he is. Your mayor cares more about you than the president, but then again he/she too is probably just pandering you to get into office. Elect you city council first. Someone to represent your neighborhood and district. That person cares more about where you live than anything else.
In the end, both of the idiots think that they know who YOU are. They relate to you because they've been unemployed, on welfare, had no health coverage, never known what a retirement plan was, constantly worried about their children's safety at school, wondered where the next paycheck was coming from, fretted about their hours being cut at work, etc. They know what it's like to question which groceries they can get this week and what the kids won't be able to eat. They understand completely what shitty Christmas presents are like and seeing the look of disappointment on their children's faces. They too wonder what the rest of the world looks like or even what the rest of the country looks like without having to watch TV, because vacations aren't something you can take very year. They have lived a life of hardship. They know too well that one day their children will come to them and hug them and say "Thank you for everything. I'm sorry I was such a brat, but I know what you did for me." This is why they are asking for your vote, because they know what life is like for the vast majority of us. The only thing I don't think they will ever know is one thing:
"How much does a gallon of milk cost?"
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