The American public doesn’t have time to read through every bill brought through the House and Senate. Even if we all did, most of it probably wouldn’t be understood. 

So, you’d have to think we’d trust our Senators and House Reps to read the bills and act in their state’s and district’s best interests. That they would propose sensible amendments and defeat asinine ones.

But c’mon, they’re politicians. We’ve come to expect much less of them.

If you were a person who knew of the reach and power cable and network news has, you might think that they would be the arbiters of rational thought and debate within the system. Wrong. The fact that we find out about this ridiculous amendment to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act MONTHS after it’s passed infuriates me, but sadly does not surprise me. I watched c-span as much as possible around school following the Zadroga Bill and I missed that entirely. Its ridiculous to think that any other person would have followed that bill as much as I did (including journalists, apparently.) What the hell else are we supposed to do?

People throw around the idea of late night comedy being a news source, but they’re all reactionary mediums with a comedic and entertainment agenda. As we saw with the Zadroga Bill, such a medium can be used to champion a cause, and be effective doing so when they’re influential enough to get the actual news networks talking, but they’re sadly not a replacement for what we need - and they shouldn’t be. They can point out absurdity and hypocrisy, make us laugh, and even filter things through different lights. Comedy and satire has their place in the system, but when are we going to have the substance we need? An active organization, that doesn’t take politicians and the government at its word, that has people that present the factual truths of each side, that actually has a department that reads this shit and gives a run down, and doesn’t waste its time perpetuating trivial stories and celebrity bullshit?

I’m not even 20 and I’m tired of this. Ever since I had to know about current events for school I’ve hated it. If I hadn’t discovered modern satire to get me to laugh at it, I still would have no grasp of politics and current events. The most pathetic thing is that, as ill informed as I was, I could get by in conversation and even debate with months old information on the 2008 campaign. Earlier than that, without knowing the name of a single politician other than the President, Vice President, and a few names by vague recognition, I could win debates by knowing what my stance on an issue would be, even if I didn’t entirely know what had happened. Because the politicians have the system wrapped around their finger. Essential information is not released, or takes too much time to get and process. I, honestly, can never see myself voting in a general election - ever. Maybe in elections for local officials, representatives, or governors - but even that I see as a seldom occurrence in my life.

EndRant

PS-Sorry, my read more page break won’t work. Otherwise, there would be a page break.