Uncivil Discourse
I’ve been reading a lot of forums lately. So much so that I’ve been completely demotivated to discuss much of anything here. The vitriol and disconnect the average internet peruser shows is disturbing. It doesn’t matter what the topic of conversation is, it always breaks down to Obama being a socialist bankrupting the country versus Obama being a guy trying to fix the mess the last guy created. The anti-obamaites seem to think the pro- or even just meh-obamaites are kool-aide drinking sheep that are following their savoir over a cliff. Has it always been like this? Has the division of the country always been this harsh? Or has the rise of the internet just given it voice? Or is it just that the fringes now have a forum to scream at all of us and create the impression that it’s really this bad?
I voted for Obama. I was actually a Joe Biden supporter after hearing him on The Daily Show. I didn’t agree with everything he had to say but he struck me as calm and logical, which is all I really want from my President. I was on the fence about Obama, I didn’t think he could win in November and I would be damned if Sarah Palin was the Vice President of the United States. I’ll be damned if she is Vice President of Micronesia as far as that goes. But after his acceptance speech, and his selection of Biden, I got on board the Obama-wagon. Now there’s this ground swell that “the majority of the country” doesn’t want Obama and he’s being shown the door. If that were truly the case, how would he have gotten elected in the first place? There were no hanging chads this time, Obama won both the popular vote and the electoral college. It’s funny to me that they say the Left aren’t thinking for themselves and just doing whatever Obama says; Liberals are notorious for not being on the same page. Liberals have too many variances in their beliefs and are often splintered into smaller groups. That’s why so many deals had to be made on Health Care. The Right’s ability to close ranks and get on message has been their greatest strength since 1994. So who’s really drinking the kool-aide?
I haven’t agreed with everything Obama has said and done. I was against the bailouts; I don’t believe Health Care should have been his first at-bat; I want him to take a firmer stance on his campaign promises and get out in front of the story when they are missing self-imposed deadlines (Quantanamo, Iraq, etc); and if he truly wants to be bipartisan, he can’t let the Democrats in Congress lead the charge. Does this make him a bad President? No. If you have to agree with everything your President does, you’re not looking for a President, you’re looking for a cult leader. So again, who’s really following their savior?
But the Bush-bashers aren’t any better. I was very critical of Bush and his policies, but there are people that honestly believe Bush orchestarted 9/11, Iraq, and everything else that went wrong from 2000 to 2008. Frankly I don’t think Bush is smart enought to pull that off. People were convinced he was going to bankrupt and destroy the country. What happened? Some stuff. Some bad stuff, sure, but hardly the end of civilization. Now it’s the other fringes side to make the same claims.
You know what else? Washington couldn’t keep a blow-job a secret, do you honestly think they can keep an honest to god conspiracy secret? That’s how I know Washington is on the level, there are too many people happy to destroy the other guy to keep things quiet.
Back to the point at hand, what the hell is going on with our citizenry? Are we going batshit insane? I was thinking back and I know this kind of back and forth stretches back to the Gore v. Bush election, but I don’t remember it being like this in ’96. But the Republican Party were convinced Clinton was a one-term mistake and the country would come to them as they had in ’94. But it was that entitled attitude, and some mistaken battles with the Populist Clinton, that cost them. They didn’t see that, unfortunately, and started an all out war on “THEM.” And that’s when it started.
Of course Bob Dole was a statesman open to a reasoned exchange of ideas. If he ran today he would probably be eviscerated by his own party, or he’d have to betray his own beliefs and run to the Right the way John McCain did in 2008. McCain was also an reasoned statesman, until the Party destroyed him in ’00. He spent the next eight years becoming baby-bush and praying his final run at the High-office would be successful. Unfortunately he couldn’t forsee the swing the country would take and it was too late to correct. If he had stuck to his principles, he would have been a strong Moderate Republican candidate, or more likely the first third-party candidate with an actual shot.
I started this post without a clear point to make and it’s natural flow of ideas have led me to this conclusion. You want to talk about sheep? Obama will not be the death-nell of this country any more than Bush was. There were just mile markers on a roadtrip that started when Newt Gingrich founded his Church and recruited his parishioners and they started evangilising on Fox and Drudge and Rush. There’s talk that he’ll run in 2012. I don’t think he stands a chance but the Politic is a fickle bitch, so who can say.
Which brings me to a new conclusion. The internet shmucks keep quoting We The People. Well, if We The People keep encouraging the never ending election cycle, WE THE PEOPLE will be the harbringers of our own destruction.
