Thursday, May 25, 2006

Southern Singers and Campaign Finance Reform

I can't believe that with all the crap in the news and after not writing on this blog for 3 weeks, I'm going to write about American Idol. But I did notice that all the winners have been from the south:

  • Kelly -- Texas
  • Ruben -- Alabama (and runner-up Clay from North Carolina)
  • Fantasia -- North Carolina
  • Carrie -- Oklahoma
  • Taylor -- Alabama

Interesting. I watched a fair amount of the first two seasons because my daughter was a fan then (I didn't care for it but I watched to relate to her interests). But, unlike most of America, she grew up and now at 15 she hates American Idol. Every time I see a news report on the show, though, I'm amazed at how cheesy it is and how lame most of the singers are. Seeing news clips this morning from last night's finale of the Idol finalists up against professional singers (Mary J. Blige, Meatloaf, etc) you can really see and hear just how lame-o the Idol contestants are.

All of these type of shows (and most especially that dumb-ass deal show with Howie Mandel) seem to me to be the last vestige of the so-called American Dream. The reality is that 98% of us will not move out of our socio-economic class and in fact, due to the looting of America by the super wealthy, your status will like diminish. The foolish notion that "if you work hard enough, you can achieve the American Dream" (which I've always taken to mean you will do better socio-economically than your parents) is just that -- foolish. So these shows are popular because, like the lottery, they offer the only real hope of achieving the American Dream.

The American Dream concept has only applied to the 2 generations after WWII anyway and with the actions of Congress over the last 30 years with tax laws favoring the super rich, its all been destroyed. I blame Democrats as much as Republicans for this. The reason, I think, is that pretty much only very wealthy people can afford to run campaigns for major offices and thus they protect themselves when they get there by passing laws that favor wealthier people.

Campaign finance reform now!

How did I get from American Idol to campaign finance reform?!

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