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I don't regularly write much about politics, due to a combination of being largely a bystander and believing that our system just doesn't work the way that it should. However, we're a week away from President Bush becoming a Lame Duck and having either McCain or Obama inherit the troubled times that our nation is going to continue to endure for the foreseeable future:
1) Our financial system is an unmitigated disaster.
2) We're a debtor nation. ($10 trillion speaks for itself.)
3) We're in a guerrilla war in Iraq.
Each of these issues, in addition, trickles down and shows itself in the micro level as well.
1) As Americans, we don't save money for anything. The vast majority of us run paycheck to paycheck, and if something goes wrong, we're fucked.
2) 25% of Americans with credit cards carry over $20,000 in debt related to those credit cards. That's not including any home mortgage, car loan, student loans, etc.
3) Listen to political rhetoric for 5 minutes and tell me our nation isn't at war with itself. Seriously, do it.
The 1st two points aren't going to be my focus, mostly because they're explained away by the "you can have everything you've ever wanted" pipe dream that's shoved down our throats, coupled with a double-serving of financial institution deregulation. The 3rd point, however, really has made me think about politics in America of late. I don't remember anyone at political rallies yelling "traitor!" or "kill him!" in regards to Al Gore or George Bush in 2000, do you? Or Bill Clinton and Bob Dole in 1996? Did either candidate in 2000 or 1996 challenge their opponent's views as "un-American" or "anti-America"? Exactly. We were able to engage in civil discourse back then, and while it was probably a bit more boring, I think it was a lot healthier. What happened? I'm going to run the risk of sounding like Rudy Giuliani here:
September 11th happened.
Before I come off sounding like an insensitive jerk, I realize that event was a catastrophic loss for our country. So many people died for no reason at all, and it's quite an embarrassment that a group could create that coordinated of a strike against us with our own planes.
What's transpired since then...
* We created an over-reaching government department (Homeland Security) that provides near nothing to our nation, except requiring us to put a few extra boxcars onto the National Debt Express.
* We invaded a nation that posed AT BEST a minimal threat to our nation's security, at a huge cost to us, both financially and in the lives of soldiers lost there.
* We created a lawless detainment center, Guantanamo Bay.
* We created a torture prison, Abu Ghraib.
* We watched as a draft dodger built the case that he was more honorable and better suited to manage the Iraqi guerrilla war than someone who received 3 Purple Hearts in the Vietnam War, and win re-election heavily on that argument.
* We saw our Attorney General fire 9 federal prosecutors due to their political party affiliation. He eventually got caught and resigned over the fiasco.
* We've seen our nation polarized in a way that never seemed imaginable, stoking the flames of the "culture war".
Worst of all, and here's where I think we're really in trouble,
We've made politics our new national sport.
It has every element of sports. Name anything we're more obsessed about than sports, and look at the similarities they share with elections. They have drama, twists and turns, and while you think you know who's going to win during any game (election), you don't really know until it's over. We have websites where bookies are taking bets on the election results. Just like sports, we spend ridiculous amounts of money on politics, and really feel like we're part of the "team" even though as individuals we have such a minute influence on the outcome. (I'm going to claim fans at a game can impact the results; why else do teams generally do better at home than on the road?) We get excited when our team wins and relish in it; if they lose we pick up the pieces and get ready for the next battle. (Palin's already being strongly looked at to run in 2012 in an attempt to unite the Republican party behind the "culture war".) And in sports, we yell absolutely despicable things about the other team, things we would be ashamed to say about anyone else in any situation.
The ridiculous invectives thrown from both sides destroy any chance at having a real discussion about issues that impact our nation. And it's just going to get worse, unless someone stands up and puts a stop to it. McCain won't, as it's his party which gets the majority share of the blame in this, as far as I'm concerned. But, while he's received my vote and support, Obama hasn't given me any reason to believe he'll stop it either.
Our nation's birth was catalyzed by people who stood up and said that the way things were, weren't good enough. Dissent. After we won our freedom from Great Britain, the Bill of Rights defended the right to dissent in its 1st amendment. We have a freedom of religion. We have a freedom of speech, a freedom of peaceful assembly. We're allowed to disagree with each other. Yet when people exercise their freedoms, we now call them traitors, shout death threats at political rallies, call their views anti-American. Well, I got news for people who think like this:
* Regardless of your views on abortion, THEY ARE NOT ANTI-AMERICAN VIEWS.
* Regardless of your views on gay marriage and civil unions, THEY ARE NOT ANTI-AMERICAN VIEWS.
* Regardless of your views on tax rates, THEY ARE NOT ANTI-AMERICAN VIEWS.
* Regardless of your views on the Iraq war, THEY ARE NOT ANTI-AMERICAN VIEWS.
We're allowed to disagree. The best thing our nation's had going for it is that we can do this without fear of retribution or reprisal. We're walking away from that safety, and it's a slippery slope before we become everything we claim to fight.
You're probably expecting me to say "we can solve this by voting for X candidate". Wrong. Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, this decay of discourse is a greater threat to our nation than anything in front of us. Whoever's in office the next 2/4/6 years means little if they're not committed to putting this poisonous filth behind us. Because if we don't turn this ship around, we will become what we hate; what we claim to fight tooth and nail. And when that happens...those who died on September 11th, 2001, will truly have died for nothing, and those who committed those heinous acts will have gotten exactly what they wanted from us.
The fallout of September 11th will define this generation forever. How would we like to be defined?
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