Electoral Absurdity

     Last month (November 2012) the U.S. electorate exposed its troubled character in a profound way. As millions of Americans entered voting booths across the country Gallup reiterated their polling numbers reporting that Congress had an approval rating of 18%. This means that of the 535 members of The House and Senate a mere 97 were considered in favorable terms. Or, looking at this from the opposite perspective, our citizens were discontent with 438 members of our governing bodies. 

     Given these astonishing statistics logic would predict a tremendous shake-up in Washington, D.C. But this didn’t happen. In fact, the re-election rate for incumbents in November was 91%. Again, in terms of actual numbers this means that 358 of 393 incumbents retained their seats in The House and 21 of 23 incumbent Senators also retained their positions. 

      What does this say about us? We are either mesmerized, paralyzed, incapable of acting logically on irrefutable data or corporately frozen in the fear of the unknown. Perhaps it’s a combination of all of these things. 

     Whatever it is, nothing will change because we have, essentially, changed nothing. Shame on you, shame on me, shame on us…