Functionally Dysfunctional

I feel like talking politics today, since I haven't really done that much since my return to blog-land, and there always seems to be something going on there.

How about these folks that are being presented as potential presidential candidates by the Republican party? No, wait I'm getting ahead of myself. First, for anyone not familiar with my politics, I don't align myself with any particular party that we have in this country because I have serious issues with the way that the two major parties conduct themselves as a whole and with the way that many members of those parties behave as individuals. Neither party really resembles what either one is supposed to represent, and even worse is the fact that there are only two major parties in the first place. American politics tries to divide itself up into only two parts, black and white. They like this because it makes for an atmosphere that is very "Us versus Them", and that is ultimately what those with any power want. Divide and conquer, one of the oldest strategies of war, and make no mistake about it, politics is a battleground. The truth is, the vast majority of Americans are like myself insofar as their positions on the various political issues are a total scattershot, falling at any number of different points along the spectrum, and very few among us fit entirely as a liberal or conservative. At any rate, I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and as such, I have no problem critiquing either party.

That said, on the whole I tend to me more liberal on most issues, but I have a hard time backing Democrats because they don't really represent my values much anymore, and they are far too willing to take entirely too much shit from the folks on the other side of the aisle. Democrats not named Clinton largely have little willingness to fight for what they believe in, or are too frequently bogged down in bureaucracy to actually accomplish anything. There is something to be said for being the more mature and reasonable party (they are), but there is much more to be said for being willing to actually represent your constituents (they largely do not). For that, the Democratic party has earned my ire. The Republican party, on the other hand, is a total, unfettered mess right now, for reasons I will discuss shortly.

If we're going to have a two-party system (and apparently we are, since we seem to be so resistant to having any more parties than that), then it stands to reason that one ought to represent roughly half of the political spectrum, and the other party should represent roughly the other half. If that was the way it worked, it would be relatively okay. This country is allegedly a democracy, and the way it's supposed to work is that, following the elections, all elected officials are supposed to work together for the common good and generally move in the direction indicated by those who won the elections. This usually means small steps, which is fine. It lets the American public test the proverbial waters, see if they like the new direction, and if they do, then progress will be made, however incremental. This no longer works in this country because the party to the right is deliberately stubborn to a childish degree, and the party to the left folds like a chair at every opportunity. Consequently, center-right voters back candidates who are increasingly far-right, center-left voters support candidates who are increasingly center-right, and far left voters back candidates who are increasingly moderate. All of this causes the political spectrum to shift to the right, which it undeniably has, despite the fact that the American public is actually gradually moving to the left (on the whole, though there are also elements moving to the extreme right). Want proof? Our president is a black dude. Polls show that, for the first time, a majority of Americans support gay marriage. Support for the legalization of marijuana is growing (pardon the pun). Yet our policies are, at best, spinning their wheels. The only way we can get back to having policies that reflect what the people want (which is how it is supposed to work in a democracy) is if the politicians are actually reflective of the people who elect them.

Part of the problem is the lobbyists and the special interest groups and the corrupt politicians, and those will never go away, but they can be combated to some extent by nominating candidates for public office who are actually reasonably representative of the party they supposedly stand for, which brings me back to my original point. Look at some of these potential Republican presidential candidates: Rick Santorum. Rick Perry. Herman Cain. Michele Bachmann. Tim Pawlenty. Mitt Romney. Ron Paul. Sarah Palin (maybe). Except for the latter, those are the ones who appeared at the recent Republican presidential debate. Most of these folks are severely flawed as politicians and are long-shots at best, and rightly so. The first four and Palin are extremists to varying degrees, and represent only a small slice of Republicans nationwide, let alone Americans in their entirety. Ron Paul is ideologically a libertarian, which a surprising number of Americans identify as, either in part or in whole. Paul, however, has a problem where, for every one thing he says that makes a lot of sense, he says another six that are totally ludicrous. He is an extremist in a direction all his own. For the vast majority of Americans, extremists of any stripe are unelectable, which brings us to Pawlenty and Romney. These two are essentially middle-of-the-road Republicans, and if the GOP has any sense at all (it may not), it will embrace one of these candidates, or someone like them.

As a (more or less) liberal, I would be glad to see one of the extremist candidates somehow emerge as the Republican candidate in 2012, because any of them would get slaughtered in a general election against President Obama (or almost any other Democrat, really), and it would likely be such a thorough victory that it would give Democrats almost free reign to make policy. As an American, though, I would hope to see what I would term a "normal" Republican like Pawlenty or Romney run against Obama because, while I largely am at odds with their positions, they at least would force the issues to take center stage, which would be much better for the country than the inevitable train-wreck that would ensue from someone like Bachmann or Palin challenging the incumbent. A country where one of these dangerous people can even be considered as a legitimate candidate is a frightening country indeed, but someone like Mitt Romney, even if he didn't win, would at least help to return some credibility to the Republican Party, and would help to re-align our political spectrum. Whatever party or candidate you support, isn't that something we should all be in favor of, a political system that actually functions?

That's Not Funny

A couple weeks ago, there appeared on Cracked.com an article by Daniel O'Brien entitled I Can't Tell If the World Is Being Serious Anymore (link below):

http://www.cracked.com/blog/i-cant-tell-if-world-being-serious-anymore/

In short, do you ever see something that just makes you think, or even say, "Is that for real?" I get that a lot, more and more every day it seems. There are a couple prominent reasons for this, mostly that A) we as a culture are completely over-saturated with sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek remarks, and B) we still feel compelled to at least attempt to take everything seriously. But Ryan, I can hear you shouting at your screen, those two things run totally counter to one another! Of course they do, my friends, and that is exactly why it is becoming increasingly difficult to discern the legitimate from the farcical. It's like trying to force your eyes to look in two different directions at once; you can't do it, so you have to choose. This is either serious or it's not. This used to be okay, but the line is becoming blurred. As Mr. O'Brien points out, we now have to decide if Donald Trump or Sarah Palin is seriously going to run for President of this country, when we've got competing concepts vying for leadership in our brains. The media is trying to convince us that yes, these people are deserving of the sort of attention that is granted to actual politicians, while our common sense is screaming that these people can't even keep their crappy reality shows afloat, how could anybody actually believe that they could do any better for an entire country? Unfortunately, far too many people will assume that the collective media couldn't possibly make such an egregious mistake, so they go with that because hey, that way they won't have to actually think about it. Consequently, the rest of us are left dumbfounded that such debates even exist.

For my part, I tend to notice ridiculous creations that somehow not only find their way to the market, but actually sell in quantities significant enough that I have to re-stock them at work. Exhibit A:

http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Iron-Man-2-Edition/dp/B002VECGUU

Yes, that really is what it appears to be, the board game Operation with an Iron Man theme. When I saw that on the shelf, I actually said out loud, "Are you fucking serious?" I'm ashamed to be part of a society that looks at the already tremendous wall of board games that can be found at any department store and thinks, You know what's missing from this? A game where you operate on Tony Stark! There are a lot of very superfluous things floating around out there, and perhaps worse, a lot of things that just scream MONEY GRAB. This is one of those things that will ultimately drift under the radar of things that are laughably absurd, just because there are so many bigger, flashier, louder and more expensive things with similar amounts of absurdity, but to me, this in some way represents the zenith of the mountain (or the bottom of the pit, depending on your perspective) with regard to the ceaseless garbage that is the primary export of the United States. Of course, I've thought this before, and somehow it manages to keep getting more appalling. And people wonder why I'm so cynical--it's because the things that are meant to be humorous have become formulaic and repetitive, and the things that are supposed to be serious are just a joke.

A Job Well Done

This hasn't been prompted by anything in particular except another article I came across on Digg with a list of things not to do as a guest in a restaurant (I've seen at least a few of these, all written by waiters/waitresses). I've never been a server, never worked in food service, and I hope to keep it that way because I probably wouldn't be very good at it, and I'd hate to have so much of my income be dependent on my ability to be nice to people. That said, I feel a very strong urge to side with and defend these folks because I've worked for nearly a decade in retail, and as such I have extensive experience with customers who have no idea what is reasonable to expect from whomever is providing you with your service, and even worse, people who have never had to do such a job before and therefore have no idea how much it sucks anyway, even without having someone be shitty to you.

I know most of the people who will read this have had such a job, because the only place I advertise is on Facebook, and most of the people who populate my Facebook are current and former co-workers, so presumably this is just preaching to the choir, but I feel compelled to remark on this anyway because it seems like every time I go out anywhere, I see some customer service worker being treated badly for no reason they deserve, and I'm frequently tempted to say something; I should start doing so, I've never been one to keep my mouth shut about anything. For those of you who do not know, customer service workers typically make somewhere in the neighborhood of minimum wage, which wouldn't be enough to scrape by on even if you worked 60 hours a week (and if you're making minimum wage, you almost certainly are employed part-time, and not full-time). It's even tougher on waiters and waitresses, who typically make two bucks and change every hour, and are forced to rely on tips for the rest.

I know I have at least one friend who demands nearly flawless service and has unreasonable standards everywhere he goes to shop or eat; he does not work anywhere near customers, and only experiences one side of the exchange. The fact of the matter is, anybody working in any type of guest service is probably trying to work on several different things at the same time, sometimes with multiple customers, and they just cannot do everything all at once. Even worse, if a customer does have a complaint, they tend to make it personal. This is beyond unfair, because whatever the problem is, it is rarely the fault of the poor front-line workers, and even worse, our hands are tied to defend ourselves because almost anything we say, no matter how right or how justified, could get us fired from our crappy job.

Every bit as bad is the guy who fails to appreciate a job performed well. This applies more to the waiters and waitresses who, as mentioned before, rely so much on tips. Oh, you may protest, but it's their job to do well, that doesn't deserve an extra reward. To which I would reply, are you fucking serious? Have you got any idea how thankless it is to work anywhere in the service industry? It feels good to have someone tell you that you've done a good job, and I'm not talking about when a superior tells you that. That just feels hollow and forced, just something they tell you so they can feel better about themselves and look good on the HR report. What really means something is when a customer tells you that you've done a good job, because why the hell would they say that if it wasn't true? A couple weeks ago, Audrey and I went out to a nice sit-down restaurant for dinner, and our waiter was just exceptional. I'm sure the dude does a good job for just about everyone who sits at one of his tables, but probably not nearly enough people tell him so, either in words or with their tips. I made a point of telling him that he did a great job, and left him a tip above the standard 15%. I don't exactly have a bunch of extra money or anything, so I couldn't afford to leave as much as I would have liked, but the guy knew that I valued his hard work. You know these folks don't get that as much as they deserve, so hey, next time...no, every time you go out and you get good service, let 'em know. I mean, wouldn't you like that if you were in their place?