I can't tell you how often I see something political, realize that I have a pretty clear opinion about it, and decide to completely disregard it. My life is full enough right now between home life and work that I just don't have the mental bandwidth to write about it.
I think there are a lot of other reasons, too, for my apathy, chief among them being the divisive shits on the Internet that insist on picking a side. It's completely infuriating. People treat real issues like sports, where the only thing that matters is that you're against the other team. Then if you try to interject something vaguely intelligent into the conversation, about how both sides have it wrong, you're viewed as some kind of uppity freak show. I mean, we have a president who hasn't really done anything, and an opposition that opposes his inaction with their own inaction. How is anyone satisfied with that?
Apparently pretty satisfied, because only 36% of voters actually showed up this month. That's pathetic.
The weird thing is that, if you really look at American life objectively, things are going a lot better than they were a half-dozen years ago. Unemployment is at its lowest rate since 2008, inflation is relatively stable, domestic energy production is high and our gas prices are way down, the NASDAQ index has doubled in five years, home values have been headed up for a few years, and even the domestic auto industry has made a comeback. Things aren't perfect, mind you, but despite government's inability to do anything, things are certainly improving. I do think that things are different, but instead of complaining about it, we should be focusing on how we adapt and thrive in an evolving economic landscape. The service economy isn't going to just revert to a manufacturing economy, for example. College alone isn't going to score you six figures. The lottery still won't make you rich.
Despite this, I remain optimistic. I still think we have unprecedented opportunity, in many ways enabled by technology. I fully intend to be a part of that. Part of that means staying involved and engaged, no matter how difficult it can be at times.
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