Status Quo

In the middle of the National Election hangover, the conservative pundits are trying to figure out what happened on Election Day.  With high unemployment, trillions of dollars in deficit and a gridlock in Congress, I expected changes that would put this country back on track.  Some pundits say Romney failed to connect with voters.  Others say that the voter demographics changed and the Republicans failed to respond.  A few say the Democratic grassroots campaign was more effective than the Republicans’ campaign.  There are those who say the negative ad campaign undertaken by the President and Romney’s failure to respond hurt Romney.  I’m not a political consultant, but I noticed two things that worked against Romney and the Republicans, in general.

First thing at work against Romney was the voter’s love of the status quo.  The second is hot-button/low-information voters.  I’ll leave the second for a future post, but now I want to talk about voters and their love of status quo.  If it isn’t love, then it is comfort in the familiar or fear of change that propagates the status quo.

According to a Gallup® poll released in August, the approval rating of Congress reached a high of 24% in May 2011 and remained below 20%.  In August, when the time the poll was released, Congress’ approval rating was a mere 10%.  Surely, with a rating that bad, one would think that voters would have “voted the bums out” in hopes of something better.

But that didn’t happen.  Thirty three Senate seats were on the ballot this year.  Ten of the 33 incumbents retired and one incumbent lost in the primaries.  Of the 22 incumbents on the ballot, 21 were re-elected.  In the House, all 435 seats were up for re-election.  Due to redistricting or retirements, 412 incumbents were up for re-election. Thirteen incumbents were defeated in the primaries and 26 were defeated in the general election, meaning 373 Congressmen were re-elected to Congress. 

Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  With an approval rating of 10%, we sent more than 90% of Congress back to Washington.  What do we expect different when we re-elect the same group?  Doesn’t that qualify as insane?  

The status quo is not a good one, the country is not prospering.  Let’s try something different.  Be aware of what’s going on in Washington.  Go to http://www.house.gov/ or http://www.senate.gov/ to find out about pending legislation and hearings.  Contact your Congressman or Senators and let them know what you think and how you want them to vote.  We put them in office, let’s make them work for us.

Black Friday

President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring November 26, 1863, “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”  An annual holiday since then, Thanksgiving has traditionally been a day for family and friends to gather and give thanks for material and spiritual blessings.

In the last few years, however, Thanksgiving has been overshadowed by the rampant consumerism of Black Friday.  The beginning of the Christmas shopping season, the day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.  Retailers advertise special sale prices and other incentives to bring shoppers into their stores.  Shoppers, in an effort to find the bargain price or the hard-to-find-gift, flood the stores.

Long lines of anxious shoppers form outside the stores days in advance, waiting for the retailers to open their doors on Black Friday.  Stories abound of violent shoppers assaulting and pepper-spraying other shoppers or injuring store workers and shoppers in their haste to get at the bargains.  In 2008, a Walmart employee was trampled to death and shoppers refused to stop their shopping and allow employees and rescue workers to render aid.  Pretty pathetic behavior considering Christmas is supposed to be season of giving.

This year, retailers such as Target and Walmart opened on Thanksgiving night.  Not a surprise, considering retailers are in the business of meeting shoppers’ demands.  However, news stories about shoppers lining up on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving caught my attention.

According to the news, people began lining up on Wednesday at various Best Buy locations in order to be the first to take advantage of the sale prices.  Are the sales prices really that great and are the items advertised the things we really want?  Is it anything we need?  Have we become so materialistic that we will skip time to share thanks with family and friends just to save a few dollars?  When did we lose sight of the purpose and importance of Thanksgiving and Christmas?  Is your time really worth $300 off a 50-inch television?  Most of the people in line appeared to be well-dressed, over-30 adults.  After reviewing prices of many of the Black Friday deals, the Black Friday “deals” were the prices offered in September. 

I understand that folks want to find a bargain.  As consumers, we need to make smart purchases, not fall into the media frenzy that pulls shoppers into the store with promises of ultra-low prices, but often result in impulse buys.  So, think through these questions before Black Friday 2013:  Do you need it, can you afford it, and with a bit more planning, could you have gotten it at a better price with some planning?  More importantly, we should also remember the meaning of Christmas in the midst of the shopping frenzy.  Christ was betrayed for the price of 30 pieces of silver.  Let’s not betray him again for a discounted television and BOGO (buy-one-get-one) DVDs.