You Know Something Matters When...
I admit that I'm not a very religious blogger, as is evidenced by my sporadic posts and almost non-existent readership (excluding my few and faithful friends – thanks guys!).So, I find it almost comical when, after several consecutive posts of nearly no traffic at all, I get 6 comments on my latest post within a matter of a day or two. And by comical, I mean mind boggling.
For any of you that are still gasping for air as you recover from laughing at my astonishment over 6 comments, I hope you all pass out. (devilish laugh…)
What this all means to me is that if I want my popularity on the web to grow I should keep writing more polarizing posts (j/k).
In many ways I am beginning to feel like my good friend Jeff V., who so effectively summed things up with, "I [] am just so sick of politics." This is a growing feeling among many, and yet I'm concerned that such frustration is less a result of people not caring about the political landscape anymore and more a result of not knowing how to make a real difference.
Granted, you can follow the advice of our current presidential candidates and get involved in local government, volunteer in your community, and other related activities to try and influence politics. But I believe the real issue is not just our lack of involvement, but a feeling of helplessness at being able to reverse the last 50 years of post WWII policy and politics. Since I'm already going way beyond my initial intentions of this blog to stay as clear as possible from politics, I won't spend the time needed to outline my thoughts on WWII politics. (I know, such a sad loss…)
I do appreciate a discussion I had with Chris Rock after reading his comment on my previous post. We talked about how the differences of belief each of us hold about people, government, social issues, and everything else in between is what has given rise to a fairly polarized political atmosphere. My comment on how Hollywood's perceived endorsement of Sen. Obama should make you want to run in the opposite direction is a direct reflection of these differences.
I do not question Mr. Obama's morals, personal character, or ability to lead the country as a result of Hollywood endorsements. What I run from are the general ideals and values that are held by the extreme left, to which Sen. Obama's voting record will attest he belongs. That is what I believe Hollywood and the liberal media are endorsing. That is what I dislike based upon my personal value systems and beliefs about people and the roles of government. That is not to say that I'm proportionally enamored with the doctrines of the right, just that I personally identify better with more of them than the left.
If for nothing else, I would rather put a cranky, old, creepy Bush wannabe in the White House because of the type of people he would appoint to the Supreme Court. The only way John McCain could convince me to vote otherwise is if his yet-to-be-revealed policies are a disastrous step in the wrong direction.
And that's all folks. My politicking is done. (You can all shout for joy now, it will only hurt my feelings a little bit.) :)
4 comments:
Agreed. I'm not a big John McCain fan. The way Duke and I see it, our choices for Pres. this year are "left" or "WAY far left". I hate to simply vote for the lesser of the two evils (which is why I voted for Bush's second term), but I can't imagine NOT voting. It seems like a slap in the face to our founding fathers. I don't know. The future certainly is bleak if the best and brightest our country can put up are Obama and McCain. Although, I believe that part of the reason the country is leaning so far left right now is that people are so sick of Bush politics. If I didn't think it would cause irreparable damage, I'd say we NEED some far left whack-job in the White House, so that the country could get over it all. I think 4 years of Obama-led socialism would wake people up to their awful state, don't you?
That's the exact comment that Chris said to me yesterday. It's like we as a nation can't gravitate to persons, ideals, and policies that are the right compromise of ideologies—rather, we seem to relish complaining from the fringes and point the finger of blame at everyone else but ourselves. I would love it if my preferred conservative ideologies were more widely shared, but we're a nation of diverse viewpoints and beliefs, making a functional meeting in the middle the first step to getting something done. It's always the extremes of both major parties that offend and polarize, not the general philosophies. If the solution were simple we would have figured it out a long time ago (I hope!).
I totally agree with you Heidi (and you too JR :). I did NOT want to vote for McCain when this election started, but now I feel he's definitely 'lesser of two evils' :). Although I have to say that I want to vote for him more now because of Palin. I think she's great :). I've never been that into politics, but now with the way everything is it scares me NOT to be involved.
I enjoyed our discussion and thought a lot about it. I've put together some of my own political thoughts if anyone cares to read them.
Yes, politics are polarizing, but I believe that the right leader could unite this country. I sure hope it happens.
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