The recent polemically wrangling rhetoric about political parties pandering to the baser instincts of the easily-fooled electorate, educated or not, among this obviously polarized pack of pundits has attracted my attention.
Normally, I avoid writing or speaking about, discussing or discoursing upon politics. I used to work for a small weekly newspaper here in Kansas which was actually little more than a soap box for the editor. However, he had a loyal following, primarily because of his conservative views. He once asked me “How did you and your wife get together, and how the hell do you STAY together?” I explained that we simply do not discuss politics in our house, a rule I’ve had to enforce on my sons once or twice. Likewise I dislike discussing politics with friends or acquaintances.
I have recently found a bumper sticker that I actually saw fit to put on my car. I wasn’t actually LOOKING for a bumper sticker, and the fact that I found it in what passes for a “head shop” in Kansas has nothing to do with it’s content.
Anyway the bumper sticker reads “Republicans/Democrats: Same Shit Different Piles.”
I claim no party, and no party claims me. I grew up in the day when people blindly voted a “straight ticket.” If you were one, the other was automatically evil. I refuse to be that way.
I can’t see any difference in what’s being said by EITHER side. They both some across to me rather like the adults in a Charlie Brown TV Special- noise, but nothing intelligible. Come to think of it, what can the President actually DO about these issues everyone seems so upset about? “Bush’s War” was impossible without the consent of the Congress. Support for education, research and all of the other touch-points likewise had to go through Congress, then stand the test of judicial scrutiny. Has the Office of the President been reduced to a mere “prole” scape goat?
Feed the dog, stable the pony and remember where responsibility really lays. Where were all of these people who are upset about abuse in Iraq when Saddam was using chemical Weapons of Mass Destruction against the Kurds? Peace and stability in the Middle East? Get real- the region has been in an almost constant state of war since the locked the gates of Eden. The longest period of stability in the Balkans was under the post-WWII constant threat of Soviet Intervention. Giving the world a Coke will NOT make it all better.
