Wrapped in my rants as I often can be, it's easy to fall prey to the occasional and almost-terminal tunnel vision. Every now and again, though, someone calls "bull$#!t" on me...and it turns out to be spot on. A friend called me out yesterday, albeit very gently, and it got me to thinking. Her point was that, while Conservatives may be guilty of behaving like spoiled children, Liberals (like myself, oddly enough) too often get caught up in the "Are not! Are too!" flame wars...and in this sense, I think she's right. I've spend a good part of the past 24 hours or so reconsidering my part in the pointless sturm und drang that passes for political discourse these days. My righteous anger, however justified I might think it to be, has, to the best of my knowledge changed nada. So the question, then, is something along the lines of:
Legitimate political debate...or just so much mental masturbation? I'm going to leave that question unanswered...primarily because I'm not at all certain that I'd like the answer.
I will freely own up to my anger- because there are certainly no lack of viable explanations for that anger. Since the 2000 Presidential election was stolen by Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © , I've watched the country I love be hijacked by a cabal of neoConservative thugs whose primary allegiance is to political power and their own self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement. I've watched a seemingly endless parade of young Americans return home from Iraq in flag-draped boxes...and what have these wasted lives purchased? I've watched greed and avarice become the order of the day- to the detriment of the middle class and those without the money or influence to buy policies favorable to their interests.
I've watched this country become so terrified of terrorism that it is willing to countenance any action- no matter how immoral, illegal, or counter to our civil rights- that can be packaged and marketed as necessary to defeat the terrorist menace. We now have our very own concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in which Americans hold "enemy combatants" without charge, without access to legal representation, and without access to the very rule of law that has been the hallmark of this nation since its inception. (Here's an ironic aside: yesterday was International Law Day...not that anyone actually noticed. Yeah, you remember the rule of law, don't you??)
We've become so afraid of "the evildoers" that we've stood idly by as our government has created a terrorist "no-fly list" that includes, in addition to every American named "Dave Nelson", former South African President Nelson Mandela...and I wish I was kidding.
I grew up believing that America was a country in which you were limited only by the boundaries of your dreams and your ability and willingness to work to make those dreams become reality. Now I find myself living in a country in which the rich get richer because the playing field has been tilted in their direction by a venal and corrupt government providing the finest representation money can buy. Hard work and the willingness to dream are no longer necessary and sufficient, because in The Worst President EVER's © America, you get exactly the opportunity you can buy...through donating to the Republican Party.
I continually struggle with trying to find the right tone. While I don't want to be a pessimist, given the tenor of the past eight years I find it increasingly difficult to maintain anything resembling optimism. I will continue trying to find that happy medium, all while I'll no doubt frequently come down with both feet on the wrong side of that line. Hey, I'm only human...and a horribly flawed, often thoroughly dysfunctional one at that.
I'm just doing what little I can with what little I've got....
