I am dating two girls at the same time and I want to propose marriage but am unsure of which girl I want to marry. Each of them is almost identical to the other. They both know that I want to marry one of them so in order to make my decision on who to marry a little easier, they are each given a chance to tell me why they think I should propose to them. The only problem is that instead of each of them pointing out what is good about themselves as an individual, they instead spend their time with me degrading and harassing the girl that isn’t them in the hopes that I will make a decision based not on how good they themselves might be, but rather on how bad a decision I would be making if I were to choose their rival. For anyone to make a decision about someone based solely on them NOT being someone else is ludicrous and ignorant. So, why is it that our political leaders expect us to do the same exact thing every election day?
Despite that being a pretty weak parable serving as a testament to one of one of the many faults in our political system, there is an element of truth to it. Not the me dating two girls part, though thanks for the assumption. I am talking about how almost every single political ad doesn’t tout that candidate’s individual accomplishments but rather the faults of that candidate’s opponent. Almost every political ad I see wants me to give my vote to the person that they aren’t as opposed to the person they are. “You don’t want to vote for my opponent because they are this thing you probably shouldn’t like. On November 7th vote for me because I’m not my opponent.” I don’t want to vote for someone because of things they don’t do. I don’t make any other decision in my life like that. I don’t listen to Ben Folds because he’s not Britney Spears. I want to vote for a candidate who will actually do something, which leads me to write about what I think the biggest fault of the Democratic party is.
Worst segue ever.
Understand that I am a proud Democrat. Sorry mom. I haven’t always been a Democrat though. I was a Republican because of my upbringing. I grew up in a very conservative and very Christian home. I was raised thinking a whole slew of things were evil that weren’t. When I got older I realized that most of it was pretty lame, but that is an entirely different therapy session. As I voted in every election I realized that I was voting for people who best reflected my views and it just so happened that those people were Democrats. While it doesn’t much matter what your affiliation is anymore, I still didn’t want my name on any list with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly or George W. Bush.
As a Democrat I feel that the biggest problem that my party has is that they are using the same ‘hey at least we’re not that guy’ strategy. “Hey everyone! Look at how bad Bush is doing! Vote for us.” Well what will you do different? “Well, we uh, geez. Um, we’re not really sure but at least we’re not Bush!” While that is an excellent quality, I don’t think it’s a strong enough platform. There’s a better than good chance that I couldn’t get a job just because I’m not Hitler.
That having been said, I am still going to vote Democrat Tuesday because at this point I feel that anyone who still thinks that the war in Iraq was a good idea is displaying an ignorance that is appalling and I don’t hear the Republicans coming up with any good ideas for how to deal with it. Whenever I see a poll that states that a certain percentage of people in this nation are against the war, I am always surprised that the number isn’t 100%. Anyone with a modicum of common sense in their head has to know by this point that Bush is incompetent and this war is getting our soldiers killed for no reason. There are almost as many dead Americans as a result of the war that died on 9-11. It’s taken awhile but Bush is about to get Bin Laden numbers.
I know that it might seem that I’m some crazy left-wing Democrat with an idealistic world view. Perhaps all of what I have said is wrong. The thing about me saying that I might be wrong shows that at least I’m open to the possibility of my not being right. I will be the first to admit that I know very little about many things. I am however aware that people make mistakes. Mistakes are to be learned from and this war is a testament to the fact that this administration and the current majority party have not learned from their’s. People are dying at the cost of someone’s fear of a bruised ego.
I am not wanting to bash anyone for their beliefs, but rather ask people to examine why it is they believe what they do. Do you believe in something because it is the right thing for you or because someone on FOX news told you it’s the right thing for you? Do you make decisions based on fact or opinion? It is a fact that the war is wrong. It is an opinion that there shouldn’t be gay marriage or that abortion should be illegal.
This Tuesday when you vote, vote for the individual and not the party. Please remember to vote though. The least we can do is honor those in our military enough by exercising the right that soldiers before them died to protect for us.
No matter what your party affiliation, it is never right to allow people to die for nothing and by supporting people who endorse an action where that very thing is happening right now is an exercise in both callousness and ignorance.
RIGHT NOW
SONG - Jesusland by Ben Folds - I figure I should go ahead and encourage people to listen to a song about how people misconstrue the teachings of Jesus Christ for selfish purposes. I am batting a thousand with the Republicans right now. Sorry about that.
MOVIE - Wag the Dog - Watch this movie and try to not think about what is happening right now in the world.
- Joel David
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