It's now abundantly clear that many of the suspicions that people had regarding laissez faire, deregulated, free market policies applied by years and years of our elected representatives does not work. Such approaches have caused disastrous problems in many different areas. The current financial crisis shows what happens when elected lawmakers pander to voters with favorable legislation in order to be re-elected and greed in the business community is allowed to run rampant.

The results in other areas are similar...global warming and its effect on our environment is incontrovertible; our healthcare system leaves a greater proportion of Americans without healthcare than any other developed country; standardized tests show our children's education badly lagging other developed countries; our "business friendly" trade policies have basically eliminated our manufacturing capabilities; our government has been irresponsibly negligent in addressing any policies which will reverse our dramatically increasing reliance on foreign oil; greed among our citizens followed by spending by our lawmakers has resulted in America becoming the world's largest debtor nation with no end in sight; Social Security will be bankrupt in a few years and no action has been taken by elected leaders; our country's disastrous foreign policy has resulted from the inattention of both citizens and the representatives, ceding almost total control of foreign affairs to an idealogue President.

Where does this end? Our local representative in the House of Representatives is a good example. She was the wife of a state trooper who made their living running a donut franchise before her election to the U.S. Congress. Now she gets contributions to her "campaign fund" exceeding a half million dollars. I'd estimate that's a multiple of her family's annual income at any time in her life. Her voting record shows that she votes as she's told by her party leaders. Does she somehow favor her contributors? That would take somewhat more study but I'd be surprised if my guess wasn't confirmed.

I really think we ought to consider which of the candidates who we will elect in November are more likely to begin to act in the common good of the U.S., representing their political objectives, but in the end cooperating with political adversaries in the interest of the greater good. They'll have to do that quickly because many of the problems I've cited have been "simmering" for awhile and can't wait for a lot longer before they will explode like the current financial crisis.

I know who I'm going to vote for. The reason that I've taken the few minutes to write this is to implore fellow citizens to expand their considerations beyond the nastiness and character assasinations, which campaign managers are advising the candidates are more effective in motivating the undecideds among the electorate, to think seriously about which of those candidates that we can vote for will be more likely to effectively address the serious problems confronting our nation.

If we refuse to do that, we will deserve the effects such continued inattention will have on our lives and those of our children and future generations of Americans.