Archive: Opinions

I have a friend who posts questions on Facebook.  All his friends weigh in, and it is fun and interesting to see all the differing points of view.  After the election he posted, facetiously I believe, "Wouldn't it just be easier if we became USA--Team Blue and USA--Team Red?"

This is the problem with modern American politics.  While we complain about our legislators being on Team Red and Team Blue and refusing to cross the aisle to actually get something done for the American people, we think of ourselves as being on Team Red or Team Blue.  It's not just politicians that have split our country.  It's us.

I don't agree politically with a lot of my friends, so I tend to sit quietly at parties when politics are discussed.  People talk boldly, assuming everyone agrees with them, calling their philosophical opponents all kinds of names, accusing them of being stupid, corrupt, or worse.  I remember one friend saying that George Bush wasn't HIS president.  I remember being introduced by a friend to a woman who was moving to Canada because she didn't like the result of a presidential election.  My friend characterized the woman as brave.

I didn't see it that way, but I was polite and didn't say anything.  It really bothered me.  I saw it as close to treasonous and cowardly.  This is a country that invites citizens to work within the system to make things closer to their view of better, yet this person was fleeing.  Like Canada is perfect!

Last time I checked democracy was supposed to be a way for people who don't entirely agree to run a country and live together productively.  If more people think one way they get to drive things for a while.  The check and balance is that things go wrong or people don't like that way any more, and representatives are replaced every two or four years, depending on the term for a particular office.  It's not close to perfect, but it's a decent way for the majority of people to have the country go in a way they think it should go.  It's probably the best way humans have come up with.

The way I see it we are all part of Team Red, White, and Blue.  We share core beliefs that freedom and our basic system of government are good things, and we argue about the details.  Or that's the way it's supposed to be.  Red used to mean communists and blue used to mean smurfs.

Splitting the country into Team Red and Team Blue is clearly not working for us.  This year's Congress was reportedly the least productive Congress ever.  I blame extreme partisan politics.

And I don't like that presidential candidates have to satisfy extremists in their party in order to be able to run for President.  It's crazy.  They are not going to be just extreme left or right thinking peoples' president.  They are hoping to be president of all of us.  Why don't they act like it?  Because our system has been so bent that it doesn't function any more.  We're either Red or Blue, and never the twain shall meet.

Just because a candidate you like loses doesn't mean you have to wait four years to be an American again. Grow up!  This is how our system works.  This Red/Blue mindset is really, really bad for our country.  It's bad for people.  I think it is so distracting that no real substance exists anymore, especially in Washington.  Our country is going to continue to decline unless we can find a way to band together and for for positive outcomes for all Americans.

Rereading the last paragraph, it struck me as very un-American.  It is long past time for Americans to be Americans again.

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