Repo Reps

I tried writing something about the elections, but it got tossed in to the online file of articles written that are nothing more than cliche.

Is that bad? I mean, shouldn't I care about who our elected officials are, what they stand for? Let's see, taxes have never been higher for me both personally and the business. It is virtually impossible to figure out what is coming next with the health care package--without a consultant. The regulations and reporting requirements to the government on performance basically takes a full time employee and then some.

You want to know what the genuine fear factor is for being in business: Report and Pay the FED, or get penalized. This includes jail. Not at all kidding.

Why do we fear the government? I was listening to the TV a couple minutes ago while sitting at this computer, choosing instead to take my news by (two way) social media rather than the conventional (one way) broadcast spew of network TV. My wife is all up in the Rah-Rah of who is winning and who has not yet conceded, the celebration and/or sadness of defeat.

"Oh, I am so happy that Charlie Dooley won" she says. "why, so the city and the county can merge someday?" Blank stare. Not really a bad idea as far as I am concerned.

As I sit typing out my unique perspective, the TV spews the usual post election rhetoric from (newly elected officials) about how jobs will be the number one priority.

A perfect situation, stay with me--

Well now Mr/Missus Politician, rather than state the obvious for obvious reasons, why don't you now speak out against the system and what seems to be keeping our entrepreneurs from getting their businesses off the ground. And furthermore, why did you run for office, really? It seems indulgent to me by todays standards. How about this: start a business and use it as a platform for change?--lead by example, at the risk of alienating some of your funding partners--those who appear more important to you than being in business or representing those in business. That is why you are a politician, you know how to work the system.

If our politicians were to be truly authentic, they wouldn't take a salary or indulge themselves with anything more than the spirit of kicking the shit out of the system, and not by using the current political backdrop as a platform to change. It is indeed the system that is broken. All of the crap that we just went through to elect officials is a waste of energy and indulgent on keeping the system just the way it is.

I get a little worked up with all the images, all the bobble heads, the reporting on the elections, the coverage, the commentary. Just as others I know get teared up from the agony of defeat from their candidate, their "personal connection" to things that they have heard their candidate is about. I ask, where in the hell are the intellectuals? Who wants in?

Our small business brothers and sisters are the last frontier folks. Go out and patronize one of these heroes today. Tell them how much you appreciate their influence on things, their ability to navigate the labyrinth of the fed, twisting and turning with new laws, higher taxes, more reporting, restrictions. Without small business we remain stuck in a paradigm where we continue to suffer the consequences of bigger business and their willingness to work the current system; the funding of campaigns based on agenda-- that which produces election results. Results that almost always alienate the way small businesses emerge.

"Chasing the American Dream," is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. I would argue that "Chasing the American Dream" today is the process that our representatives go through in order to raise the most money and win votes from campaign strategies that deliver results. If you are successful raising money, you get a pass, an all expense paid trip on the system locomotive. Brilliant.

So last night, while the networks had major coverage of the election, I "elected" to watch Operation Repo on my Sony.