Something I've been wanting to say

Day 715, 13:16 • Published in USA USA • by Fionia

Why blame Congress?

Seriously. Why blame and flame 40+ people for the actions of a small minority? I've spent quite a bit of time over the past week trying to figure this out, and I think I've come upon a few key points.

1) This is America. We live in a culture IRL where most people inherently do not trust our government. And not unfairly, either. Political scandals taint our image of politicians. From what I have seen, that attitude, whether knowingly or subconsciously, has been carried into the game. You see a Congressman trying to defend his actions, or defend himself from rumors and misinformation, and you assume that he's a liar, that he's covering something up. You assume that whoever is criticizing or attacking the congressman has the right to, because all politicians are scheming, greedy pigs who are only looking out for the interests of themselves or their friends. I understand that knee-jerk suspicion IRL. But this is a game. Believe it or not, the 'politicians' in this game are actually ordinary people.

2) This is a war game. From what I understand from some, people serving in Congress can't deploy with the military, therefore, they are useless to our country, since the only point to this game is the war; anything outside of war is roleplaying. To those holding this opinion, I have to ask: then why is there any political system at all in this game? The Congress, the parties, those are a designed part of the game. We let you have fun with your part, let us have fun with ours.

3) The good old vote moving argument. Doesn't matter how relevant to the debate at hand it is, it's always used to demean Congress. Because Congress was not really elected by the people, so the argument goes, they were only elected by a few of their closest buddies or mindless noobs just voting based on a party name, therefore the candidates are clearly not capable of holding office. I have one response to this: this is a natural consequence of the fortress state strategy, which is a perfectly sound strategy in its own right. However, it does lead to the fact that there are not many active, dedicated citizens living in states outside of Florida or California. No argument against the fortress strategy here, but it means you have to deal with vote moving. So deal with it and don't use this as an excuse to whine about Congress just because people that you thought should get in didn't.

4) It's easier to just blame Congress as a whole than it is to speak to one person directly and tell them that you disagree with them. It's easier to create sensationalist headlines to get a few more subscribers than it is to report honestly and avoid slandering Congress. People take the easy route out, and it hurts the Congressmen who unjustly share the blame. And then other people wonder, months later, why all the Congressmen seem to be low-level nobodies. It's because the ones who were there before didn't want to keep running for that thankless job, didn't want to work hard just to be blamed for all the country's problems.

That's my opinion. Feel free to disagree.