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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A Good Thing? (Rep Govt V)

So the Republican Party ascended to power over the last 25 years by polarizing the nation with its "you're either with us or agin us" tactics, by falsely setting itself up as the moral center of the country, and by taking advantage of what it's traditionally done best and Democrats have failed at...governing.
Now that the current inept and uncredible administration has shown us what we get when we vote by "tradition," by sound bite and by focusing on the possible negatives instead of proven positives, the Democrats have a chance to regain power, either half or all of Congress this year and perhaps the White House in '08. But will it be a good thing for the country if they do so by using many of the same tactics, by rallying its base further to the left and making the country even more polarized, thus leaving the majority of the country in the middle essentially unrepresented?
So while we're left to decide between a course without a plan or a plan without a course -- or is it neither -- keep in mind that we should be voting for candidates who represent positions on issues held by the majority of us, which can be substantially different from what we're told our majority position is, a sadly successful tactic because far too many of us wait to be told what our position should be or we're told what supposedly the majority position is and then go along with it.
The only way we can truly have a government that represents our views is to have views based on as much unbiased and divergent information as possible.

5 comments:

Dennis said...

Nice post Zebster. Sadly, I think the Democrats will use the same tactics as the Republicans in an effort to win. The old adage "you can't govern if you don't win" still applies here. In my view the only thing that will change the landscape in Congress is an infusion of independents that could sway a majority. Then you have somethings to parlay about.

Good to see you posting on Watchblog too.

Dennis

David said...

The last two presidential elections have been fiascoes, causing the elections in off years to be somewhat of a circus as well.

I am saddened by our system of politics where the goal is to "Take back the government/White House/Senate/House" rather than to emply sound ethics and judgement in order to lead a nation.

I really don't care who wins any more (well, I do when it comes to 08 and a certain New York senator...bleh!)becaue it will end up more of the same babble from Washington.

Voter apathy? Well, perhaps, but I'll work through it.

Zebster said...

Although she's said she "isn't planning on running," if the 08 election were held today, our choices would be 2 of the biggest "decide your opinion based on the political wind" candidates...her and McCain. Bleh is right.

El Mas Chingón said...

Run, Michael Bloomberg, Run!

Zeb, I had to move back to Blogger. Shoot me an email and I'll give you a detailed explanation for the blog move.

Click here

Ingrid said...

Zeb, if you still want to participate and cross post on the indy texan blog let me know. You can just copy and paste what you post here, I'll have to add you since it's now on Wordpress, I mentioned it in one of my other comments..
Ingrid