I have been irrationally frustrated by the political debate on, well, just about everything for as long as I can remember. Like many people who try to stay informed to take a self-righteous stand as the goodly voice of reason battling the dark souls of greed, corruption and the generally misguided and deteriorating conscience of those ‘others’, I have bought into the erroneous thesis that this is an epic battle of two divisive schools of thought. And then it suddenly dawned on me. It’s really one school of thought, shadow boxing with no school at all. “Liberals”, human beings who dare to care about ecological responsibility, social equality, an educational imperative, freedom from ecclesiastic and corporate terror, public safety, public health, spotted owls and other defenseless animals and world peace, march, blog and tweet their facts, figures, charts & graphs frivolously on one side of a debate to which their “Conservative” opponents bring only “Unreasonable Pretense”; taking a categorically dismissive stand, while proposing no alternative whatsoever. It’s like having a schoolyard argument with the “I know you are but what am I?” kid.
“L” – We should take heed to the disturbing science and make an immediate commitment to slow global warming.
“C” – Don’t tell me what to do…and I like it warmer!
“L” – We need to do everything we can to reduce gun violence.
“C” – Fuck you…there’s a lotta shit I need to shoot at!
“L” – Financial institutions and giant corporations need strict regulations to keep their reckless pursuit of mega-profits from adversely effecting regular folks.
“C” – What was your question?
“L” – A non-punitive immigration policy is long overdue.
“C” – Do you think more Mexicans will vote for us?
I mean, how do you have a reasonable conversation with a Republican Party that has now blatantly and publically decided to try to be more inclusive of the people they have worked so diligently to redistrict out of the political process, not to address their concerns or needs, but to woo their votes?
This blogging thing is supposed to be a way for me to blow off steam to ease my pent up anxiety. Lately…not so much.