I voted on Saturday morning, and I was the 696th person inside the city limits of Jamestown, ND to vote early by going to the county auditor's office and doing the American duty of voting. After I voted, not a straight party ticket by the way, I spent about 2 hours reading blogs from both sides of the political spectrum. I came up with one very clear observation. The majority of Americans that blog on politics are too partisan to be of any value to us free-thinkers.
Now let me explain that last sentence.
I read on a right-leaning blog about everything that the Republican Party had done wrong in the past 6 years of holding power in congress. This person wrote about 60 different things that the Republican Party or it's members had done wrong in his eyes. Then at the end, he said that even though the Party had abandoned it's principals and had done everything wrong, that Americans should vote for Republicans. The reason why? Democrats would raise taxes. That is it. That is the only reason that he gave. Now, I understand that lower taxes is important, but is it more important than the federal deficit? How about the corruption that has been seen in congress? What about the Iraq war? How about illegal immigration? I just don't understand that statement about Democrats would raise taxes. Maybe they will, but how do you know with 100% certainty that they would? How would you measure that?
I was reading a left-leaning blog and how the Republicans are trying to steal this election like they stole the 2000 & 2004 elections. Now if you are going to say this as fact, please give me facts that are proven, not conjecture and opinion. Couldn't do that. This writer also said that Republicans would start the systematic detention of people that didn't agree with the Republican Party platform. Again, I want facts and proof that is what the Republican Party is planning. Couldn't get facts again.
Of about the 30 blogs that I looked at, there were many of them that were purely partisan. That's great if you live in a world where everything is a life and death struggle between ideology. The real world isn't like that. Neither Democrats or Republicans are purely evil and though there are differences on how to improve the country, not one party has the correct answers on everything. The one way that you cannot improve the country is to totally shut out the opposing view from yours. The Iraq war is a great example of this. Most people from the Right would say that the Democratic idea is only cut-and-run. I know that is false. There have been many proposals from the left that haven't been cut-and-run. From the left, comes the slogan to President Bush's Iraq invasion, Lie-and-Die. Most Republicans are against the way that the President have handled Iraq, but they are all lumped together like the Democrats.
I am tired of the way this game is played. What happened to the exchange of ideas? What happened to agreeing with people that aren't part of your party? What happened to the civility of politics? What happened to actually admitting that your opponent for political office actually has a good plan for whatever they are running for? If you continuously preach to the choir, doesn't your truth become a self-fulfilling prophecy? If you hear from everybody that thinks the same way that you do, you don't hear anything that challenges your perceptions and might broaden your horizons. Everything could change if the American public told both parties that we don't want all this partisan garbage. Until we decide not to reward partisanship, we will be stuck with this he said, he said game of politics that no one likes.
Thanks Brent, as usual your thoughts are fair and even handed.
2 comments:
Zebster,
I commend you and others that have taken the time to study the issues, and refuse to merely pull the party-lever (i.e. straigt ticket).
Congratulations.
That after all, refusing to re-elect irresponsible, bought-and-paid-for, look-the-other-way incumbent politicians is the one simple, common-sense, non-partisan, inexpensive, peaceful, and responsible thing that voters were supposed to be doing all along; always.
I know it is very difficult to over-come the blinding partisan pressure and hype, but please consider these many PROs and CONs as to why voters should simply stop re-electing irresponsible incumbent politicians.
I voted yesterday (absentee ballot) and I voted for mostly Democrats, with one Republican and one Libertarian in the mix.
I have to take issue with the stolen elections post. Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller have written quite a bit on it and there's some funny stuff happening in my own neighborhood.
We have had Diebold machines issued in the care of teenagers for the past three weeks. These teenagers are going to be responsible for our votes! Keep in mind that if they sign anything to certify the elections that if they're under the age of 18, their signatures aren't legal.
We also ran out of absentee ballots and sent out photocopies to voters. That's not a problem, but what raised my eyebrows is that when those ballots return, a registrar employee will transfer the marking to a real ballot and then counted.
That is not what I'd call a fair and secure election but that's what's happening in San Diego this November.
Also, there's evidence that NRCC-paid robo call banks are harassing Dem voters in several states. In these calls, the computer voice will wait until the end of the call to identify themselves as NRCC. If you hang up early, the computer is designed to call back repeatedly as if it were a harassing call from the Dem candidate.
In addition, there is evidence that Spanish-surnamed voters are being called by GOP call banks and notified that their polling place has changed, although it never was.
Feel free to go to Talking Points Memo and Brad Blog for your proof. Both sites have been gathering evidence over the weekend and have now published it.
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