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StrangerThan -> RE: Do you believe there actually is a solution that could be agreed upon? (3/1/2009 6:22:32 PM)
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I admit. I didn't start paying much attention to politics until the Clinton years, and mostly what I noticed was how hard Republicans worked to find the next Watergate. The skewering was constant, the nightly news almost like a celebrity roasting only there was nothing funny about it. I remember folks arguing politics before that time frame. What I don't remember was such intensity and outright hatred in the attacks upon each other. For the first time, I realized that politicians didn't do what was best for the country. They did what was best for their party and for them.
Bush came along. The polarization deepened. The bickering between sides grew stronger and laced with more and more disdain. 9-11 came and for a while much of the rhetoric died. Bush had a 90 percent approval rating then. I had no problem, and still have no problem with the invasion of Afghanistan. It was Iraq and the seemingly endless series of fuckups, evasions, the constant spitting on the constitution, and the erosion of personal liberties that came after where he lost my support.
Now Obama is in office. I'm willing to give the man a fair shake to see what falls out. So far, I'm not impressed, but hey, it's early in the game. The rapid push for the stimulus/tarp package that might just be the road to hell for the american economy, the pork, the pet projects, the immediate turn around on his own campaign promise to put bills out for review... none of it shows me any change, any real responsibility, anything other than Dems have two branches of governement and are going to use it to further their own agenda.
Like Republicans before them, they're missing a big lesson of the Republican years. That being, no matter how much support you have going into the fray, when you cater to the special interest and the fringes in the party, you start losing the people who elected you. Those aren't the party faithful. Those are the swing voters. But I digress.
What I see now in terms of the gulf. Its no longer a gulf. Its a chasm. The hatred is well seated between the sides. There is little to no decent discussion between them. No matter how you start, it devolves to mud-slinging and devolves quickly. What I also see now is a lot of true anger, not just the pouty kind of crap that happens when one side wins and the other loses. It is real and it is strong. I've heard and seen more secession talk in the past few months - both blue and red - than I have my entire life. Whether or not something needs to happen isn't a question I can answer. What I can tell you though is that a man once told me that fights break out in certain ways. First there is the issue or issues between people. Second comes the name calling and the shoving. Then comes the fists.
Along that line, we seem closer to the end of the second step than anywhere else along the graph.
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