Party Loyalty: The Hobgoblin of Little Minds

[Wind_Borne]

Watching the news and the pundits talk about the election it strikes me that we as a nation have confused politics for sports. Or maybe it's just that we have become so obsessed with sports that we cannot see the world in any other way. Election coverage focuses on who leads, and who trails, on strategy and tactics. Worse still, people view the Democratic and Republican parties as competing football teams -- and seem more concerned about which team wins rather than the quality of our representitives.

So in the spirit of Emerson ("foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds") :

If you always vote Republican, you vote foolishly!

If you always vote Democrat, you vote foolishly!

If you're a staunch conservative, you're narrow minded!

If you're a staunch liberal, you're narrow minded!

But, if you see the political landscape in 10,000 shades of gray and 16 million colors, if you often disagree with your own political party, and if you like candidates that vex media classification... then please be sure to vote!

[DE FACTO]

I'm not suprised no one made a post to this thread.

You are truely awsome and wise.

I still am cynical about american politics.

[fnord]

I think the parties should be dissolved and candidates should run on issues alone.

I completely agree that adherence to a party or ideology is stupid.

In fact, I think that politics is the last form of socially acceptable bigotry. People who wish they could get away with calling other people "nigger", "fag", "broad" and the like have a free pass to call others "liberal" or "conservative", when, just like most bigoted terms, there's no way to really define them.

Of course, when I bring this up, there's the inevitable "you're just sitting on the fence" response, to which I say, "there's no fence, because we're all swimming in the same water, so stop pissing in it."

It'll be a good day when political bigotry becomes as socially distasteful as homophobia, racism, and sexism. Sadly....people who still have bigoted mind sets will find something else to seperate themselves from everyone else.

[aforceforgood]

Well, now is the time to effect the change- when someone proudly proclaims themselves to be a dem, repub, lib, conservative, or whatever, just roll your eyes at them as if they are being so childish that a spoken response is not even worth the calories it would burn.

The strongest force on the planet is peer pressure.

Or maybe it's derision, I get those mixed up sometimes.

I would love to see this scene; a reporter just start laughing hysterically at a politician while he is putting forth his best "I'm trying to help you poor stupid souls demeanor" while being interviewed, as he says something totally stupid like how prop 56 is going to stop democrats' tendency to tax and spend monies we don't even have by giving them free rein.

Come to think of it, why hasn't this scene occurred many times over?

[Wind_Borne]

OK, here's what we need, cynical, intelligent, and politically savvy little marmosets that perch on the shoulder of every candidate, attentively listen to their comments, and interupt their bullshit with pithy retorts like:

That's not what you voted for on March 16th, 2003.

Yeah? And how are we going to pay for that?

Who appointed you my mommy?

Puh-leaze! You'll say anything to anyone just to get elected!