I already regret starting this post. If I said everything I feel like saying, I\u2019d be typing for a few days\u2026<\/p>\n
I am sick of both parties, and 95% of all politicians. I voted for John McCain (in principle only, since I understand that my vote in NY for a Republican Presidential candidate is 100% meaningless). I think McCain was the worst of the Rep candidates, and would have been an ineffective President. Still, I thought that the additional check and balance from an overwhelmingly Democrat controlled congress would have been better than the alternative.<\/p>\n
While I believed (and still do) that Barack Obama was mesmerizing people with empty words (Hope and Change), I would gladly have voted for him if the congress were overwhelmingly controlled by Republicans, because McCain would not<\/strong> have been an effective check on them!<\/p>\n The majority of our friends are Democrats, mostly very Liberal as well. They all voted for Obama not just because he was the Dem candidate, but because they felt that they were voting for America\u2019s messiah.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t choose our friends lightly. Ask them, they\u2019ll tell you that we are fiercely loyal friends, who are there in times of need, and there to share in all of life\u2019s joys and challenges, in whatever way we possibly can.<\/p>\n We respect each and every one of our friends, in particular their intelligence. The vast majority of them are also extremely kind people, filled with compassion for others, passion for many things, and interesting in many ways to boot. (We picked them for a reason, right?)<\/p>\n That the country is divided politically is no surprise, and certainly doesn\u2019t warrant a blog post. That otherwise very intelligent people, who have great affection and respect for each other (meaning, not random strangers), can\u2019t even acknowledge differing opinions, let alone understand them, is the real cancer in our current society.<\/p>\n For eight years, the anti-Bush rhetoric was beyond the pale. No, I\u2019m not defending everything Bush did, and I think on some levels he was an awful President (see, someone who votes for a guy can actually think that his guy wasn\u2019t flawless). Any kind of public protest was covered as heroic<\/strong>. Anyone who said that they were Bush supporters (or generically supporters of the President of the USA) were vilified and demonized.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the problem isn\u2019t that we all don\u2019t agree to support one guy (or gal), one party, etc. The problem is that for most people, the passion and belief runs so deeply that they can\u2019t stop themselves from ascribing the worst<\/strong> thoughts and characteristics regarding people on the other side<\/em>.<\/p>\n Since I know so many people who still<\/strong> support Obama with every bone in their body, and I still love and respect those people (in so many ways), I never<\/strong> (ever<\/strong>) think that they are stupid<\/strong>. I never ascribe bad motivations to their support and belief. In fact, I admire<\/strong> the reason<\/strong> for their beliefs.<\/p>\n They have ideals<\/strong>. They want to see the world be a better place, for all people. Wonderful. Me too. I\u2019ll get back to this theme shortly.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, most Conservatives don\u2019t get that benefit of the doubt<\/strong> from the other side, often from their friends either! We are usually considered stupid or heartless<\/strong> or greedy, often all three. We want to keep everyone else down, while hoarding more and more for ourselves, even if somehow, we\u2019re otherwise good<\/em> or decent<\/em> people (only a minor conundrum).<\/p>\n There are vicious extremists on both sides, so please don\u2019t tell me why you hate so-and-so right winger (or so-and-so left winger). I\u2019m talking about regular folks, my friends and yours, on both sides of the political spectrum. People that we know<\/strong>, first hand, to be good people.<\/p>\n Ideals are ultimate goals. That makes them very worthy of reaching for, but they are rarely attainable, regardless of the cost. The world is very complex<\/strong>, and for every action, there\u2019s a reaction, and an infinite set of consequences<\/strong>. Rarely can we even anticipate the consequences, let alone manage or contain them. That\u2019s a fact of life.<\/p>\n Ignoring the potential consequences for the sake of the ideal doesn\u2019t make one a bad person, or even stupid, it just makes them unrealistic, possibly bordering on naive. That\u2019s the worst I can say about the people that I love, that still fully support this administration, and continue to demonize those that oppose it.<\/p>\n The single biggest problem we have in our debates is the intellectual dishonesty. We all want our side to win so badly, that we\u2019ve been trained not to give an inch in any discussion. This is most evident in watching the pundits on any<\/strong> news show.<\/p>\n Dem strategists can\u2019t find a single flaw in anything that\u2019s being proposed at the moment, as everything is clearly being gummed up by belligerent Reps. Of course one year ago, they couldn\u2019t find a single good thing to say about the Bush administration.<\/p>\n Rep strategists would rather be waterboarded than say a positive thing about Obama. Of course, a year ago, they couldn\u2019t admit that anything the Bush administration was doing was wrong or bad for the country either.<\/p>\n Finally, what this post is really about!<\/p>\n I have been biting my tongue for many months, for many reasons. I finally broke down because of the current social networking gimmick<\/strong> (yes folks, it\u2019s a gimmick, whether you want to believe it or not!) that\u2019s going around at the moment.<\/p>\n In the past 24 hours, at least seven of my Facebook friends (some are very dear and close friends, a couple are just acquaintances) have put the following up as their status:<\/p>\n thinks that no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Really? How noble of you all. What makes this a phony political argument<\/strong> is that it implies that anyone who doesn\u2019t make this claim is a bad person<\/strong>, who wants people to die or at least go broke. In fact, those bad people want to laugh at the dead and broke people for being losers\u2026<\/p>\n To repeat, I think that every one of my friends who posted this, believes it deeply, with all their heart. I applaud that. I too wish that the above statement would come true.<\/p>\nOur Friends<\/h6>\n
The Problem<\/h6>\n
My Personal View<\/h6>\n
Ideals<\/h6>\n
Double Standard<\/h6>\n
Phony Political Arguments<\/h3>\n