Political Exasperation

I don’t know about the rest of you (Americans, that is), but I am fed up with the political state of affairs into which our country has fallen. Since the last presidential election, the left- and right-wingers have entrenched themselves in their respective corners of the ideological landscape only to leave a void where discussion and compromise once reigned. Gone are the days when some semblance was made by candidates to speak about the issues, and gone are the days when the media picked up on real ideas. These days, the most important topics are the viability of Vice President Dick Cheney as a running mate and whether or not Bush served his duty in the Texas Air National Guard back in the day—news pieces that really have insignificant repercussions on domestic or foreign affairs. We are served daily sound bytes of what each candidate does and does not believe, but the verbiage is repeated over and over monotonously so much so that people tune out. I have had enough!

I would like to examine the possible reasons this ideological blackhole has emerged. Why is it that elections seem to get worse every year, millions of voters either fed up and choosing to abstain from casting a vote or disappointed with having to choose the lesser of two evils? After some thought, here are the primary causes in my mind for the observed problems:

• Soft money and political contributions for inundating advertising
• Two-party system locks one into an either/or dilemma

• Simplification of issues into black and white

  Really, the last two items create the largest problems in my mind, so I will expand primarily on them.

  The US got in a lot of trouble with the world when Bush made his claims for the Axis of Evil (composed of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea) during his State of the Union address in 2002. Many saw it as an attempt to simplify each country’s respective situation into a case of good versus evil. This political tactic was not new my any means, but politicians have opted to use it more and more in an attempt to narrow one’s choices: you are on our side or their side. My experiences of late have shown that this thinking as applied to domestic politics leads people on both sides of the aisle feel that anything associated with the other political party is utterly incomprehensible. I refuse to talk about politics with a friend of mine because he believes that my association with Republicans on some issues makes me a hard core Republican on every single issue. Since when is a person not allowed to have beliefs that belong to different schools of thought depending on the subject? It is this sort of black and white thinking that really annoys me. Of course, our two candidates (President Bush and John Kerry) exacerbate the situation by doing just this: They simplify the issues such that there are only two sides to any question.

  This two-sidedness to every issue gives rise to absolutely no discussion. Why? Each candidate has to come up with new issues to make plain and present in order to appear favorable, and the views of the other candidate are either discounted or ignored. The candidate with the most issues on his side wins. Ugh. This dumbing down of the facts insults my intelligence, and it should instill some enmity in yours as well. Many Americans possess the intelligence to understand the larger picture and the nuances of a political conundrum if given the unbiased/unfiltered facts. Instead, those of us abandoned in the middle that do not ascribe wholly to the Democrats’ or Republicans’ thought processes are forced to contend with the fanatics on either side.

  Polarization and partisanship may well stick around for a while at great expense to possible progress. Only time and future elections will tell if we can pull ourselves out of this rut.

  Oh, and would all you fanatics get off your high horse? Take a few deep breaths, step back, and look how demonizing fifty percent of America serves no useful means to accomplish your agenda. We need to work together to find common ground for progress to take hold.

  [update] I meant to lighten the mood a bit with a link to this funny flash movie: This Land… Take a look, as it is hilarious.