I am sick of New Hampshire.

Last week I was sick of Iowa.

Mainly I am tired of hearing “voters” talk about the New America they want. A place where states rights rule and federal government means the military.

Who are these people and why do we continue to allow them to dominate the airwaves, newspapers, social media and Internet?

I can’t fathom what the next step might be for US politics when everything is currently reduced to a sound byte. Nuance and complexity are eliminated from public discourse and I am not sure they exist anymore in negotiations that are supposed to result in compromise. Where do we go from here?

Listening to a New Hampshire republican state rep gloating

“If you’re dependent on government money to make your life comfortable, you’re going to feel pain. If you are an American who believes that you can stand on your own two feet, this is going to be a renaissance.”

What does he really mean by that? Is it code for welfare recipients? Folks on disability? Researchers who receive federal grants? The FEMA money that New Hampshire got for its last snow storm? The government makes life “comfortable” in innumerable ways…

I understand the Republicans and Libertarians have a pathological desire to reduce the Federal Government, but I am not convinced this broad brush is intended for things that impact them directly.

There was another story about an Republican voter who was unemployed for nearly a year and he was railing against government expansion , debt ceiling and so on, EXCEPT he thought Congress should increase the unemployment benefits for people like him.

Do people even hear themselves?

I don’t want to be cynical about US politics. I think its a work in progress as it was intended to be. But I would like to see some path being forged that will get us out of polarization and away from simplification.

I will let you know if I happen to find that map.