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In The News: Tea Party GOP candidate Christina O'Donnell shocked the GOP establishment by winning the Delaware Senate Primary. Her views on pre-marital sex and being a wiccan have made big national news. Here's what we have to say about primaries... 
http://www.o-mama.com/articles/index/category:government Primaries are BORING, right? Voter turnout is
typically dismal in the United States, particularly in mid-term and primary
elections. No one cares…we go
about our day, doing our thing and then we wonder how so-n-so got in office. Hmmm? Maybe that's why the candidates feel
like they need to jump up and down and, basically, stand on their heads to get
our attention?! Like kids fighting
over who gets to play on the monkey bars, American politics has degenerated
into childish antics. “He did this….she
did that….that’s not fair…that’s not true...it's my turn...I want, I want, I
want...waaaa!” MAMAs - sound familiar? Of course it does. Our
kids interact with this same immature level of banter. The only
difference is they have an Opinionated MAMA to make sure they play fair, take
turns and use their big boy/girl voices. Our kids are not responsible for
solving the huge problems of the day, but our politicians are!
Take Delaware’s new sweetheart, Christina O’Donnell,
for example. She's adorable. She won the Senate primary as the GOP
Tea Party candidate, against the best efforts of the mainstream GOP. She’s now in the news clips claiming
she was a wiccan (yep, she says she used to hang out with witches!?). Her hocus pocus, viewpoints on
pre-marital sex of any sort and the lien on her house are more talked about
than any political agenda she may have.
But, what exactly is her agenda?
Freedom of witchcraft? No
sexting? Fiscal free for all? What
will her policies be? What is her
political platform, without all the witchcraft? Why is she talking about SEX when the economy needs some
Viagra? Why is she shouting about
balancing our federal budget when she can't balance her own checkbook? What is really going on? These are the things we need to
know. But, it’s just more fun to
talk about the silly stuff…certainly more juicy...definitely more helpful to TV
ratings than boring brass tacks, right?
Christina O'Donnell is camera ready and gives great sound bites. That's all that's important on the
political playground these days.
Millions of people throughout the world envy
our political system, one in which candidates get to speak to their
constituents directly and citizens have the right to freely elect their own
representatives. So, why don't we
take elections seriously and listen to
important policy points?
Why don't we get into the nitty gritty details of the officials we
elect? Why do we only want the
snarky sound bites? People say
that they do not vote for several reasons: no time, not enough research on the
issues, or that their single vote does not really matter in the larger scheme
of things...blah, blah, blah...even more common is the sentiment that people
are frustrated with the options on the ballot when they are asked to choose
between two equally boring candidates. The fact is when there is an
interesting, polarizing candidate who says some wacky stuff, it gets us
excited. Then, we wonder why
smart, hard-working candidates are so few and far between...because they are
B-O-R-I-N-G and we don't vote for them! The political discourse has
withered into a game of tug-of-war and name-calling because it makes it more
"fun" for us to stay engaged.
We actually like the drama...we want to hear from the gossip girls and
we do everything we can to avoid being on the receiving end of the bullies,
otherwise, we're left with the usual cliques. The really cool people just walk away from the playground of
politics.
Education, wars, healthcare, immigration,
economic recession are just some of what is at stake here. It is more
significant that we fix these fundamental problems and re-build our country,
than who gets to rule the sandbox during recess. Instead of hearing intelligent debate on these very
important issues, we find candidates slinging sex scandal gossip, extreme
rhetoric, racial slurs and references to bartering chickens for healthcare.
Good grief?!@#$! The world is
watching and we are behaving like a bunch of rowdy 2nd graders.
So, yes, it's easy to see why grown ups may be turned off by
politics. But, we can’t give up now. Not today. Not in the
face of all the enormous challenges that we have - not for ourselves, but for
our children. It’s time to show our kids that we care about the issues
that face our generation and theirs.
We need to send the message that these are serious times and we need
serious problem-solvers. We will
not accept the childish behavior of our politicians - we are already wiping
noses and packing lunches for our own kids, so enough with the snotty behavior
and free lunches from our elected leaders. It’s time to remind ourselves that "we [indeed] get the
government we deserve." We
might be temporarily entertained by all the playground antics, but our kids
deserve better! 
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