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Bipartisan lament


Posted: Oct 29, 2012

I've been thinking about the latest twists and turns in American politics.  The vast problems facing the country as a whole and diametrically opposed Republican and Democrat Parties.  The intractable nature of the argument.  And here I am complaining about it and yet I'm just as partisan.  Anyone who's read my posts knows I'm a liberal, even though I view the Democratic Party as a massive failure.  I look at these two parties we have and shake my head.

Meanwhile, down on the citizen level of things, I see nothing better.  Conservatives quote Fox News like it's gospel and we come back with MSNBC.  We live in a future too idealistic to survive the rigors of reality and they live in a mythical past that never happened.  So I try to bridge that gap in my mind.  I try to put myself in another person's shoes and try to see what they see. 

Whose reality is right?  Whose news is fact and whose is faked?  Whose belief systems would translate best into real governmental mechanisms?  I get on Huffington Post and find nothing about Libya.  I get on Fox News and it's everywhere, but it's all so vague and unsourced.  Is Fox News lying to push their agenda, or is Huffpo concealing to push their agenda?  Which source of news has no chance of bias?  Do we just believe whoever agrees with our view?

I hear the Republicans talk about what they want from the government and I hear  theocracy and anarchy.  The rich remain on top because they're better than all of us in every conceivable way, the church and government are one solid object, abortion is illegal and done in back alleys, our whole country is a wasteland of pollution, fossil fuels have run out but we won't stop using them, the prison system has become a legalized form of slavery on minorities, millions of men, women and children seeking the American dream are deported back to their deaths, and hundreds of years of science and reason are out the window. 

The Republicans hear me talk about my ideals and see socialism and fascism.  A world where Christianity is banned, guns are illegal, millions of babies are being killed, all companies are owned by the government, failed green energy companies are everywhere, criminals run loose in the streets, Mexico has annexed the southwest and four thousand years of religious tradition have been destroyed. 

The irony is that we're both afraid of the exact same thing:  The other side will take away our freedom and make us like them.  That they will destroy all that we are and all that we love.  So we hate each other and once you hate someone, they really should be afraid of you. I love this country.  It's my home.  Generations of my mother's family lived, worked and died here and it was the sanctuary for my father's family against the horrors of their homeland.  I only want this country to live and thrive and for as many people as possible to have the experience I did. 

On the other hand, tomorrow I'll wake up and I'll still be a liberal and we'll still be fighting over whether not to vote for the guy who wants socialist fascism or not to vote for the guy who wants a theocratic plutocracy. 

;

Democratic Party isn't a "failure," just out of fashion for a while. We're now - ENDING a 30+ year conservative/business era.sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I posted an article a few days ago about this--the big view.

Looking at the long view, it doesn't make sense to regard the Democratic Party as a massive failure for being unable to turn the tide that came in with the Reagan era. Tides are tides. Although during this period it has certainly become almost as corrupt and beholden to its funders as the Republican Party. (Our next BIG job--regaining control of our completely corrupted electoral process.)

The fact is, and I never forget it, the Democratic Party is the party of the
New Deal,
Fair Deal,
Great Society,
GI Bill, etc., that CREATED the middle class.
Truman and Marshall Doctrines that defeated Communism's takeover of Europe and other global regions.
Social Security.
Medicare.
Unemployment insurance, minimum wage, overtime pay.
Bringing electricity to rural homes and communities.
Walking on the moom.
Civil Rights Act of of 1964.
MANY other of the other things that have made us a great nation to be part of. All the reason why, although I'm naturally independent, I register Democrat.

As for bipartisanship, we once DID have this and will again. Many of these achievements were accomplished by working with Republican progressives, even though they all happened under the leadership of Democratic administrations. But there are NO conservative progressives in the GOP leadership today, and they've almost entirely stopped running for office. Most switched parties long ago as the GOP moved farther right, and those remaining were TOSSED out more recently--for trying to work with the other party.

So Democratic failure? No. Just lacking the national will needed for progressive action or to stop the dismantling of great achievements of the past. The wheel's turning again though, slooowly, and the will is building--because of the need for what progressive ideology accomplishes. There's a lot of damage to repair and a lot of great things we need to move on to.

A new progressive mood and era will also change the direction of the GOP. We've been here before--remember the Scopes trial era?

So it starts almost too slowly to realize after 30 years going the other direction. Slowly climbing out from under a disaster--just like the last great progressive era--but it is happening. Even if we were to see a serious setback with a President Romney. Knock wood.


That is the nice thing about extremism - Fanatical Hypocrite

[ In Reply To ..]
Movements like the Tea Party that are so selfish and dehumanizing tend to burn out. Hopefully then you're right and the Democratic Party will be able to move ahead and the Republican Party can get back to its roots of fiscal conservatism, where both parties can find compromise and move us in new directions.

I have been disappointed not just in the backwards progress, but the fear of anything new. Making green energy work can't be so much more difficult than getting to the moon or rebuilding after the civil war. It seems as a country we've become so afraid of failure that we don't want to invest in new technology. Considering that innovation is what kept us on top for 50 years I find that apprehension sad.

Anyway, thanks for your post. It really cheered me up. It's easy to forget how divided the nation can get and still hold together, but we made it through de-segregation, hundreds of military conflicts and Nixon, so I guess I need to have more faith in the country.

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