Unfortunately I feel it's necessary to preface this with this note clearly stating these are my opinions only, regardless of how strongly worded certain things may be. Take them as that and nothing more.
I'm totally numb to our "leaders" and their actions. If you think that Obama or the democrats are ruining the country, or if you think that Bush and the republicans ruined the country, but refuse to see any evil on your preferred side, then there is a problem. I'm no conspiracy nut, don't get me wrong, but it's got to be pretty clear by now to anybody with half of a brain that our leaders either don't care to do anything for the regular American people, or simply can't because lobbyists basically run everything. The presidential election is a joke. It's a game. It gets people all riled up over two candidates (2, really? Give me some choices for God's sake) that paint themselves as opposites, but really are going to enact a hell of a lot of the same policies and not bring any drastic changes to your lives. I haven't seen a candidate that I genuinely liked run for the presidential office in my lifetime. The ones who are free thinkers, the ones with the good ideas - republican or democrat, doesn't matter - never make it through the primaries.
Media is ridiculous and honestly can't be trusted anymore. Whether a media outlet is on the left or right is irrelevant, they're all just there for entertainment. The left/right schism in this country is disgusting. The fact that such a large majority of people are willing to align themselves to one of only two parties - I believe - strongly illustrates the simplistic, weak-minded attitude we've come to accept in this country. A lot of Democrats ate up Obama's "hope" crap like they'd been starved for months. They spent years criticizing Bush only to find out that their precious president is following in his footsteps in plenty of ways, and this "hope and change" he spoke of was completely hollow. I feel like a lot of college kids are vastly disappointed that we're not living in some radically different world right now. Republicans are eating up the right wing media's inane criticisms of the president in the same way. Some people actually take Glen Beck seriously - this terrifies me. When there's plenty of intelligent, viable criticism that should not be ignored, the media wingnuts are driving their followers into a hateful frenzy devoid of critical thinking.
Please don't get me wrong, I am genuinely happy and thankful to live in this country, but I can't vote for any of these loser clones that they keep trying to shove down my throat. In a very basic way, they're all the same. My interests as a regular, working middle class American are never going to be seriously considered. They spend far too much time bickering and mudslinging over every moronic policy under the sun. Perfect example - is Obama a socialist!? Who the hell cares? Do people even realize how many things in our country are already socialized? We're essentially the only rich democratic country in the world that doesn't provide any sort of health care assistance. The democratic solution is awful. It's not at all up to par with what other countries have implemented. What we have going through right now is basically just going to put more money in insurance companies' pockets, because we're throwing them however many millions of new customers. Public option is out (it was never well put together in the first place) and it's entirely possible that you may actually be fined for not purchasing health care. Way to go democrats, I can see you really have my health in mind.
Go to some of the other countries and see if people are going bankrupt regularly thanks to health care costs. They're not. Do they yell about socialized medical care being bad? I seriously doubt it, because all it's really doing is making their lives better. They're not wasting time getting all up in arms over some anti-socialism "principle" that in reality doesn't make any difference. Oh wait, it does make a difference. We're supposedly the most advanced, free and powerful country in the world, yet our health care quality is abysmal. That's the only thing that matters to me, not some BS socialism/capitalism argument. I'm pretty sure we've just been convinced that pure capitalism is tantamount to democracy and freedom. Completely silly if you ask me. Look at what happened thanks to our wonderful pure capitalist economy. The greedy cheaters got rich and the hard-working got screwed. Now the hard-working are getting more screwed while we "fix" it (ironically by helping to keep the idiots afloat that caused it all), and the rich are just as rich. Meanwhile, they still have all the influence they've ever had over which laws succeed and which laws fail.
I guess I'm very pessimistic when it comes to politicians. Like it or not though, you have to admit that we're not as democratic as we are led to believe. The health care predicament is not the only example, but it's a great one. The money that runs the great majority of our politicians has succeeded in what they set out to do. I felt like I, as a citizen, have absolutely no control over whether we have health care reform, and if we do, how it is designed. This applies to just about everything. I have no control over a lot of substantial issues, because if there's a big business interest (and there almost always is) mine is rendered moot. It doesn't matter which fool I vote for. They're not going to do most of the things they say they'll do anyways. My interest is far in the back of their minds. If it doesn't mirror the interest of some greedy billionaire company, then it doesn't get serious consideration, but they're more than willing to pretend they're helping me out and shout crap through their news outlets.
I haven't voted for a president in a while, and my life is not drastically different because of it. I just go with the flow and live as best I can. If the day comes when some sort of crazy thing happens that starts actually affecting the way I live in a negative way, then I'm out of here. For now, regardless of how screwed up our political system is, I'm still happy and content living here, under Bush or Obama or Clinton or McCain - whatever. It doesn't matter. There are exceptions of course - Palin is a complete nutjob and I would fight to have just about anybody run for office in her place, but insane idiots aside, it's all the same.