The people decide who gets the keys By Jamal Allen

"I don't think any of us here has cornered the market on wisdom or that good ideas are the province of any party." This is a quote from President Obama, one that I am very much in agreement with. He said this in February 2009, when discussing and urging members of Congress to pass the stimulus bill. On Labor Day, the President spoke about a new stimulus plan in Wisconsin. His new plan involves highways, railways, schools - basically construction jobs to help our economy and our infrastructure. It all sounded great, and then I realized I had heard this before. Does the phrase "shovel-ready jobs" ring a bell? If we already passed this huge stimulus, and a part of that money was for the shovel-ready jobs, where did it go? You may think this is an attack on Obama and the Democrats; it's actually not. This particular speech isn't even the main point I wish to address. My point is that in American politics today, for the most part, it doesn't really matter what party you're in. There might be a few differences in how people vote, but the actions are pretty much the same. Think back several years to when Bush was in office: if you didn't agree with the president, do you remember what you were? You were unpatriotic. And now, if you don't agree with the president, you're a racist. Now obviously this is a broad generalization; not everybody holds this type of opinion, but it is out there. And it's not an opinion exclusive to Fox News, CNN or MSNBC: I've seen it on all three networks. The president recently said that Republicans have no new ideas, only want to do things the old way, that they drove the country into a ditch and that they can't have the keys to the car back because they don't know how to drive. There are both things I agree with and things I vehemently disagree with in what he said. Republicans don't have a lot of new ideas - he is right about that. But I don't think the Democrats have a lot of new ideas either. After all, if you look at the beginning of this article, we passed a huge stimulus bill, and a year and a half later, the President wants to go back to this idea. I really disagree with Obama's driving metaphor. It's not up to the President who gets the keys to the car; it's the people of this country who vote and decide. I understand where he was coming from and most likely what he meant, but it felt like such a slap in the face to voters that I can't stand to hear it being played. One criticism I may get about this article is that I'm trying to tell people how to vote. I am not. If you want to vote Democrat, I support you. If you want to vote Republican, I support you. If you're a Tea Party supporter, I support that too. But think about who you are voting for and what they stand for. Are you just voting for a party? Or does the person you vote for actually care about what the people who elected them want? Politicians today, for the most part, don't seem to be concerned about the people. Politics is no longer about serving your country but about serving yourself. It used to be that you felt an urge to serve because your country needed you. And so you would do your time and then you would go back to your life, your job. Now being a politician is the life, the job. It's not odd to see members of Congress who have served for 15 to 20 years, some a lot more than that. There comes a time that we must ask who these people are serving. There's a lot of news out there from many sources -- some good, some not so good. But if you don't think, if you either don't vote or just vote along some party lines without really putting any thought into it, then don't complain when you get politicians that do whatever they need to in order to keep their prestige and their power. And that goes for both Republicans and Democrats: power is the key. They have become a ruling class that we have voted into power, so when you cast your vote, think about whom you want to have the power and whether the person you vote for remembers that they aren't entitled to the position; they get there because of the people.