Fear and Ridicule in Politics

As expected my last blog about my voting Libertarian has started a conversation about my choice. Luckily it’s only with my cousin and he has to love me. The good news, for me anyway, is that after looking at the Barr bashing website he recommended, I’ve decided to blog about the ugly trend of Fear and Ridicule in politics. Now this website is obviously far to the left even though they claim not to represent any one party or recommend any one candidate.

“And remember, the Religious Freedom and First Amendment Coalitions do not represent any political party nor do we recommend any political candidate, nor are we involving ourselves in the political process.”

Now who are they trying to kid with this? At the very top of the page is a video titles “I’m voting Republican”. While I did get a kick out of it, it’s an obvious attempt to paint conservatives and Republicans for that matter as dimwitted war mongers, who hate the poor, the sick, gays, education, and just about everything else in this world. The video plays on and on with ½ truths and childish scare tactics aimed at misleading the masses into thinking that all of the evil talked about in the video will somehow be unleashed if a Republican takes office in 08.

Here are some of the lines that caught my attention.

An African American couple say they want to know that even if we’re separate we’ll still be called equal.

Really, are these people serious? Did they just skip the history lesson on the founders of the Republican Party? Do they not know that the party was started by anti-slavery activists?

A lesbian couple says they want to be told who they can love and how they can best show a lifetime commitment...

Talk about stereotypical propaganda. It’s not just Republicans who are against the whole gay marriage thing. Yes as we learned during recent debates, Obama and Biden are also against it; and me Mr. Conservative Republican? Well honestly I could care less. I’d be fine with allowing gay marriage as long as text was put in making sure that churches could not be forced to officiate a gay wedding, be forced to curb sermons against homosexuality or so long as schools would be forced to ask a parent before teaching on the subject to children. Essentially I’m ok with it as long as it doesn’t infringe on my beliefs as a Christian.

While I’m not voting Republican this year, I still believe in some of the core conservative beliefs that the party “supposedly” holds dear, and I don’t appreciate some website trying to make all Republicans out to be wacky, gun toting, homophobes.

Now today’s entry is about fear ads plain and simple. The left isn’t the only side out planting the seeds of terror into the American people. Both sides have run some pretty nasty campaigns that essentially make the other candidate sound like the worst thing since AIDS. Politicians need to learn the simple statement taught to most kindergarteners everywhere; “When you point the finger at someone else there are usually three more pointing back at you” the thumb doesn’t count because it usually points somewhere totally different.

What we have done is foster the notion that in order to survive politically we need to point the finger and blame someone else for the country’s woes. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with saying that someone’s approach needs work, there’s also nothing wrong with pointing out what hasn’t worked in the past and offering solutions to improve it, but the demonizing and negative campaigns do NOTHING to fix the problem. To quote yet another school yard proverb, “If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem”. You have to love those nuns for telling you this stuff every time you do wrong.

So what exactly is wrong with modern politics? Simple most of these guys will go out of their way to blast and put down the opposing party, and they will spare no expense to make sure that the American people see that person as a vile good for nothing. The political arena of today looks less and less like a competition between two intelligent people, and more like school yard banter. In truth both of our current parties are out there right now hoping to scare the election in their favor. Neither one is really saying what they intend to do to fix the problem, and answering any criticism their ideas might draw; instead they’re focused on tearing down their opponent. They’re focused on placing blame on their opponent, and making sure that the American people are too scared to vote for anyone else but them.

Let’s look at some of the comments coming from each side:

Democrats claim McCain is simply Bush in another body. They claim that he’s simply going to continue to ruin the country as Bush has done. The goal is to scare Americans to vote for someone who will change government, and not make things worse. In truth McCain has always been a bit out there, and on his own with respect to the Republican Party. He’s been courted by the Democrats, and is considered rather liberal by most conservatives. Personally I don’t like McCain enough to vote for him, but not for any of the reasons above. My problem with him is with his view on the war. I feel we should begin an orderly retreat, but also take into account that we cannot leave the people of Iraq in the mess we’ve put them. McCain is willing to stay in Iraq as long as it takes to win, and I for one don’t feel we can ever truly win in Iraq.

Republicans are trying to show Obama as too inexperienced for the position, and scaring Americans into believing that he’s going to raise taxes and make things worse for the country. Obama has been attacked because of his religious beliefs, his citizenship, and his acquaintances. In truth while I don’t believe in the principles of the Democratic Party as a whole, I do admire their desire to at least try something to fix the country. Will I vote for Obama? I don’t know now. YES that’s right I may just have been swayed. (<-- moment of insanity.), but that’s a blog for another day.

Today’s blog is simply a request to politicians everywhere. Please don’t bash the other party, tell me the problem, tell me your solution, let me decide if you’re worthy to lead, but don’t bash your opponent; it’s ugly, it’s petty and it’s beneath me. In truth it simply makes you look like a smaller person with something to hide.