All Hail the Red Knight!

Okay. I really want to shoot off a snarky post about this, but I'm going to try and be productive.

I tend to focus on the home front with my politics. I make changes in our home, I try to teach the kids to make good choices and to question the world around them. I write about simple, personal changes people can make to change the world. When something in my sphere of day to day experience is out of whack, I look for ways to change it. I rarely focus on politicians. I vote in every election, and I research who and what I'm voting for (or against) but day to day neither the state nor federal government is often on my radar. I'm not oblivious, but my limited time and resources force me to choose my foci.

My g-Reader has been full of articles on the Cornwall Alliance and their campaign against the "Green Dragon". I've scanned these, and I dismissed them, because every cause has a mission and a end-times documentary to back it up, and I assumed these people were just the flip side of my coin. Not much I can do about it, I figured. Here's a promo video, in case you haven't seen:

I'd love to watch it, to see what the arguments and talking points are, but the cost is $50 and 12 weeks that I don't have. There is a book coming out soon, and when that hits Half.com or the library, I might pick it up. If I am going to be grounded in my beliefs, I should research all sides both to "know my enemy" (a phrase that does more harm than good, IMO) and to make sure I've explored all the nooks and crannies of my own world view.

And not exactly related, but it certainly smells similar is this: Congressman Simpson lands Chairman of Interior Appropriations

This is my congressman. I should be excited, right?

Except I'm not. Because as the above mentions, Congressman Simpson is a proponent of nuclear energy (which is economically good for Idaho, I get that. I also understand that what is economically good for Idaho isn't always what is best for Idaho.) as well as an opponent of the EPA (at least, as it stands now).

Quote:

 The EPA is the scariest agency in the federal government, an agency run amok....Its bloated budget has allowed it to drastically expand its regulatory authority in a way that is hurting our economy and pushing an unwelcomed government further into the lives of Idahoans. As Chairman of this subcommittee, I look forward to bringing some common sense to the EPA and some certainty for our nation’s job creators.

So I'm not excited for my congressman to be this particular chairman. I've written Congressman Simpson letters and emails in the past, when a particular issue seemed to merit writing. He has very polite "Thank you but no thank you" notes. I'll give him that much.

So, here's the question of the day: When your representative espouses many convictions directly opposed to your own, and when all past attempts to educate/inform/change that representative's mind have hit a steel wall, and when that representative has been your rep since 1999 and probably will remain so for all perpetuity...how do you not get discouraged?