Chapter 8

This chapter was interesting for me because it really tied in what my government class was recently talking about in our elections unit. The sad reality is that politics is a game and their is definitely a winning strategy; often that strategy is giving some form  of payment to a group that will sway your campaign. Kathryn mentioned a key example of this. Often we here politicians talk about their campaigning in Iowa and what they should've done or said there. I never truly understood this until reading this chapter. Politicians "let the tail wag the dog" and it works. Who really truly cares about supporting the mohair market anyway? I sure don't, but I can see how our next presidential candidates would. It's almost disturbing to learn how, dare I say, corrupted, the political game has become. The same politicians who support "go green" regulations may very well be supporting a tax subside for corn farmers, who then produce ethanol and weaken our ozone. What scares me about our economic/political corruption is that we are in so deep and that's because the system is acceptable for most Americans. Most people don't think about the extra penny they hand over to an ethanol subside and they don't think about the future affects. People have a tendency to consider how they will be affected in this year and the next, rather than thinking about how their children and grandchildren will be affected in the decades to come. I often wonder what it would take to create a truly fair and just political environment and to be honest it just seems impossible.