Polar Politics

So it has been a while since I posted a blog entry... I'll be honest, I've just been lazy but unfortunately I have been bothered so much by continuing political events that I have to let it out somewhere. I say unfortunately because I would rather not talk politics. It's polarizing and like religion, people typically are not inclined to change their minds on a issue. This can even be the case in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, so I'm bound to have people disagree with me. Probably on both sides. Oh, well. Here it goes.

I grew up in a very conservative home, but like a lot of things in my life, I never really paid much attention to politics except for the major events. Even then it was just as a curiosity, so I'm sure that ridiculous events/people have been a part of politics for a very long time. It is only in the past few years, perhaps more and more as I have grown older, that I have begun to pay closer attention to what is going on in our government. What I have found has made me quite sad.

Let me first say that I do not consider myself to be either Democrat or Republican. I believe that one should weigh each issue on its own merits and make a decision based on facts and your personal beliefs, not fear and whatever your party tells you to believe in. By definition this means that one party's position on any given issue may not necessarily be my position. I guess this puts me in the coveted "moderate" category. Its funny how, come election time, all the politicians try and court the moderates but for the rest of the four years no one cares what the moderates think. I would like to believe that the majority of people in this country are somewhere in the middle but sadly, I think we are becoming more and more polarized. I think this is sad because polarization can only lead to hate and contempt. This great country, and I do believe that it is a great country, is dying and it is being killed by its government, its media, and its citizens who are to lazy to do any critical thinking of their own. Ultimately what I would like is a government that has the true best interest of the people in mind, not just the best interest of the people of their party or the best interest of the interest group that pays them the most money, but at this point my government looks nothing like that.

For me, this has been something that has been building for a very long time. I would say from somewhere around the middle of the Clinton administration. At that time, due to not a lot of introspection on my part, I considered myself to be a Republican because that is how I was raised. I was in favor of his impeachment and was disappointed when he was acquitted. When I looked back and began to really think about why I felt the way I did, I realized that although the sexual indiscretion was what got the Republican base all fired up, and ultimately fueled the impeachment process, what really bothered me was the way in which President Clinton treated the American public, me specifically. I am not an idiot and expect not to be treated like an idiot, especially by my president. The whole, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" and "it depends what your definition of the word "is" is", were really insulting. Just admit what you did and we can all move on to the more important business of running the country, but the combination of an egotistical president, a ratings driven media and scandal crazed society would not allow that. We were doomed to hear all the gory details and we ate it up.

Then came the Bush administration...
I don't remember when Fox News started broadcasting, but I do remember that when they first came on that I was pretty impressed with their presentation. It was slick and hip, not dull and boring like the other 24hr news channels. At that time, as I said before, I was not as interested in content as I was in general information. Also, I believe that when they first came on they were much more of a traditional news channel, something that has disappeared from this country entirely in the years since. During the Bush administration it became more and more clear that they were in fact, NOT "fair and balanced" but so ridiculously skewed that the very inclusion of that phrase as their tag line discredited them to me. At this point I want to make it clear that, although I am picking on Fox News, there are other "news" stations on the other side that are almost as guilty as Fox, I'm looking at you MSNBC. Now, I believe that Fox News has a right to do what it does, I just don't believe that it should be allowed to call it news. I am a young guy so I will have to defer to someone a little older than me who remembers when news was just that, news, what we have today is certainly not. Any station, MSNBC, CNN, Fox or any other "news" station that features 70, 80, even 90% or more "opinion" based programming is not a news organization. Quit dressing your wolf up in sheep's clothing and public, quit lapping it up!

When terrorists attacked our country on 9/11, I was frightened, just like everyone else in the country. I think we all knew that our world would never be the same, but I had no idea how different my own government and fellow citizens would become. I have never owned a gun, although I believe in the right to do so, but I contemplated purchasing one after the attacks. I ended up not buying one, but the fear was real and at that point I don't think unfounded. The initial fear passed and it was great to see the entire country brought together as one. For those few weeks or months after 9/11 we were not black or white or asian, not men or women, republicans or democrats, we were Americans! Sadly that to quickly turned into anti-muslim sentiment, proving you can never account for the most ignorant among us. This is where, in my opinion, the Bush administration started the slide to what eventually would became what we are today, our present.

The Bush administration, Cheney in particular, took the foundation of insult and abuse of power set by Clinton and not only ran with it, but jumped on a F-22 and flew around the world with it. Armed with a frightened public and a complicit congress, Bush sat out to avenge our honor. Into Afghanistan! I'm not afraid to admit that at the time I was in favor of this. I was ignorant of Afghanistan's history, and I certainly felt that we were justified. We were attacked and we had to protect ourselves. Only later did I come to the realization that we had probably been provoking this particular part of the world for the better part of 40 years. I'm not saying that we deserved 9/11, I would never say that, I'm just saying that it was not completely out of the blue, but that's a discussion for another time. The point is that we became entangled in one war, and then two wars that not only failed to produce the capture of our attacker, at least the one pinned with most of the responsibility, Bin Laden, but was so completely mismanaged that I fear we have not made the country safer but only reseeded the fields of hate and discontent towards our country. Young men, women and children whom we may have been able to engage in global dialogue are now prime candidates for extremist recruitment. Don't get me wrong, I believe that our troops are doing their best to "win the hearts and minds", but war is war. Let's not forget that Bin Laden's reasoning for hating the United States stems from the long standing presence of American Troops on what he considered sovereign soil of Saudi Arabia. That is a far less offense than having your home invaded by troops in the middle of the night and parents taken away, or killed. Again, let me be clear, I believe that our troops have to do what is necessary during war, I'm just saying that there are consequences.

Bush and Cheney took control of the situation and the power, and never let go. The dismissive nature with which Cheney approached any questioning of decision's made by the administration was frightening. Even more frightening was the impotence of Congress to keep the administration in check. This is when what I refer to the, "your either for us or against us" campaign began. I say campaign because that's exactly what it was, a campaign against anyone who would question any decision made by the administration. In effect, if you don't believe in what we are doing then you are a terrorist! At the time this was just something to roll my eye's at, but since then it has become a blue print for the Republican party. Attack anyone who opposes you by using fear, wherever you can find it. Quickly it became a contest between Bush and Congress to see who could be more inept. The war in Iraq, the Katrina debacle and giving the rest of the world the finger are only the highlights. Was this really what was best for the American public? Creating a culture of fear and mistrust of not only anyone who remotely looks middle eastern, but also anyone who disagrees with your point of view? All along the way there was Fox News, propping up the President even when he was clearly botching things and MSNBC ready to crucify him for the smallest infraction, although by the end of his eight years they didn't have to try all that hard. It was to late, the damage had been done. By the time Congress decided to grow a pair and start asking for some accountability in the form of e-mails and phone conversations they had no teeth. No matter where you come down on the issues surely you can see that without the power of checks and balances ours ceases to be a democracy.

The end of the Bush administration and the election cycle, this is when the government quit trying to destroy the country by themselves and enlisted the help of the American public. No longer would we be spectators, after all, there is plenty of hate to go around. The Democrats, through none of their own doing, stumbled upon Barrak Obama. Dynamic, charismatic, a polished speaker, something sorely missed during the eight years of Texas backwoods charm shown by President Bush. I have my issues with Barrak since he was elected. He has not done what he promised to do and I am dissatisfied with his presidency so far, but during the election he was the definition of the cult of personality, just one problem... he was black and he had a name that was different. The country would never elect a black president with a foreign sounding name, would they? Not if the Republican fear machine had anything to say about it. This is the part that really makes me want to cry, literally. I have a knot in my stomach just thinking about it. It's not because of any candidate or affiliation, no, it's because this is the part where the hate and the fear mongering really get nasty. What happened in this past election and what continues to happen to this day is not a country that I can believe in. I almost want to stop and erase those last two lines. Not because they might make me look weak or unmanly, but because they might make me look to much like Glenn Beck. Make no mistake, this is not some conjured up sadness or pain based on a partisan agenda or false fear that my country has been taken from me. By the way, if you are part of the group angry because your country has been taken away from you, you are an idiot! No one has taken anything from you. Your life has likely not changed one bit since the election. Quit being a closet racist. I am sad because ignorance and hate are being sold as a commodity. Used for an ulterior purpose with no regard for what damage may be done. The fear mongering was really ramped up during the election and continues to this day. Barrak was accused of being everything from an actual terrorist who, once elected, was going to turn the country over to Al Qaeda, to a socialist "Hitler". Which are two totally different things, socialist and Hitler. They questioned his birth, his religion and even whether his wife was patriotic enough. Really? His wife does not love America... Really? These things are wrong! No matter who is saying them and who they are said about. If they were said about a Republican candidate I would feel the same way, wrong. It was bad enough that Fox News was promoting and propagating these ridiculous comparisons and in many cases outright lies, but Palin, the Vice Presidential candidate herself was using these phrases to whip up her crowds into hate filled frenzies. I saw the coverage, and I heard the comments shouted by the crowds. I saw the smile of satisfaction on Palin's face. What would they have done if someone would have taken matters into their own hands? It wasn't a very far stretch. We hunt down terrorist and kill them. Barrak Obama has dark skin and a name that sounds like a terrorist name. He and his wife give each other a terrorist fist jab. This was the platform, fear. He's a black man, he's a terrorist, he's a socialist. I stupidly thought that once he was elected things would change, and I don't mean the Barrak Obama "change". That never happened either. I mean the hate and fear mongering. It continues, and members of Congress have gotten on board, standing in front of crowds speaking of watering the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants. These are our congress men and women invoking thinly veiled threats against our legally elected President for no other reason than he is not of their party. Where does this road lead us? How is it that our elected officials, those with whom we have entrusted the running of our country, can behave no better than kids in a high school. If you don't agree with something, fine, get together and come up with something better. Instead, their time is spent opposing each other for the sake of opposition, the sake of the party. What is the goal? Even in the economic crisis that we find ourselves in, nothing. Fixing the problem is not as important as placing blame and pointing the finger at every opportunity. Republican and Democrat alike. The election cycle is officially four years long. It doesn't stop. This country will crumble around our government and they will be to busy pointing fingers at each other and posturing for the next election to stop it! This recession is bad, and I had hoped that maybe some good could come out of it. That perhaps we could come together, and regroup as a nation. Coming back stronger and better than before, but that country is not this one. Those people, not these. That is a scene from a movie, one who's actors are all but extinct now. We are a nation of short attention, and weak resolve. We watch a pundit behind a desk spew fear and hate for the sake of ratings and instead of turning the channel or at least checking the facts we show up at rally's and public political gatherings brandishing hand guns, rifles and automatic weapons. Threatening to take back a country that was never taken from us.

Today, I heard a guest on a news show, I don't remember her name, talking about the underwear bomber and pounding Obama about three "terrorist attacks" that have happened since he has taken office while at the same time claiming that Bush had a perfect record of no terror attacks on his watch. This is on a "news" channel. The host of the show didn't even blink, they just continued on. The plan seemed to be, state the lie, state it with confidence and move on. No one will know the difference. This is why I can barely watch the "news" channels any more. I would love to know the news, I just don't want the hate.

Look, I know that it seems like a lot of this has been directed towards Fox News and the Republican Party. Believe me, I really am close to the middle. It's just that a lot of the hate and fear mongering is coming from that side right now. The Democrats have plenty of blame to go around too. I guess that takes this entry full circle, ultimately what I would like is a government that has the true best interest of the people in mind, not just the best interest of the people of their party or the best interest of the interest group that pays them the most money. I hope that someday that can be the government of the United States of America again, before its to late.