Okay, lemme sum up ... the Dems have taken the House, they'll most assuredly be taking the Senate, Donald Rumsfeld has "resigned," Walter Wendler has been "reassigned," and Britney and KFed are divorcing ... our world is officially rocked.
With all the changes that are afoot, it will be interesting to see if the result, at least on a national level, will be a new spirit of cooperation and compromise, or if the schoolyard bickering will only escalate ... I foresee the latter. Call me jaded.
Despite the fact that both Pres. Bush and Speaker-Elect Pelosi have put on their "nice faces" for each other (post-election, obviously) and offer sound bites that point toward an optimism about the working relationship between the now divided branches of our government, I don't buy it for a minute. Mark my words, we're in for two long years of the sound of our governmental gears grinding to an ideological halt. But look on the bright side, at least we have 'American Idol' coming up to divert our attention from those pesky issues like stem cell research, border security, and the war in Iraq!
All of these events only serve to further my suspicion that the Left and the Right are just not "wired" to play nice with each other ... at least not those players who get the lion's share of the press. If you think about it, the squeaky wheels on both sides of the fence tend to be the more polarizing figures - These figures, I suspect, don't represent the views, in toto, of most Americans. Most Americans, I'd wager, are caught somewhere in the middle.
The law of non-contradiction tells us that something cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same relationship. Thanks Aristotle! The left thinks they've got it, the right thinks they do ... either one of 'em is woefully misguided, or they're both misguided. Regardless, it all comes down to how dogmatic we're gonna be about our own particular slant on things, I think.
Where does that leave us? It leaves us with a choice to make. Yep, another one. Now that the local elections are essentially over, what are we gonna do with our time? Try to create an environment conducive to an honest dialogue between disparate viewpoints, or continue the vitriolic rants that so often ensue from getting all "hopped-up" about an issue, an individual, or an idea ... Time will tell. We're passionate people, we human beings. Most of the time, everything reverts to finger-pointing and name-calling at the end of the day. If we're also rational, them we have the choice to keep our passions in check and let reason rule the day.
Or, we could all just go have a beer ... First round is on me.
7 comments:
Don't forget that since 1994 the size of the US government has doubled! I'm not sure I believe that it will ever get smaller, but if we don't stop spending like drunken sailors someday we will have to pay for it.
In this regard I wholeheartedly agree with you, Peter. The current administration certainly is not "conservative" in terms of spending. What i'll be curious to see is how we'll go about shrinking the debt ... I, for one, am taxed enough already, thank you.
I consider myself a libertarian-leaning independent. Not much faith in either party. The Reagan Revolution failed. Ask David Stockton.
As for the new Congress, the only thing I hope for (at this time) is an investigation into the (true) causes of the 9/11 catastrophe, and the aftermath.
It would be interesting to know everyone's news sources. What news source would you choose, if you could only have ONE?
I'm sure everyone else's is more highbrow and serious than mine. If I could choose only one, it would be The Daily Show/Colbert Report (okay, that's two, but companion pieces).
Any O'Reilly or Limbaugh fans among our readers?
The main thing I'm looking for from the new situation is more oversight of the executive branch. 140 hours of investigation into how Clinton used his Christmas card list vs. 12 hours into the torture at Abu Graib? That's ridiculous. The current Congers has given Pres. Bush a blank check vis. a vis. the war. Heck even President Washington got investigated by Congress over an Indian skirmish in 1792.
It's probably no secret that I am a "conservative-leaning" person, both fiscally and socially, though this is not to be equated, de facto, with being a Republican (an automatic pejorative for some).
My conservatism is not a simple consequent of my party-affiliation, mind you. Frankly, both parties as they are presently constituted, trouble me greatly. I've never been one to tow the line in this regard.
You know, I may be the only self-proclaimed conservative in our little enclave so far ... will I remain the only voice from the "righter side"? Will I still have a seat at the table (literally!) :)
Beer Man, I'm smack dab in the middle on these things. Not a wing nut and most definitely not a dingy-haired leftist, either. The current landscape sickens me to the point that I opted not to have a horse in Tuesday's race. That's right. I didn't vote. First time ever and I'm an old man compared you. My first POTUS vote was for Jimmy Carter.
Anyway. You're not a lone voice in the woods.
By the way, it's TOE the line, not TOW, although that could me an interesting metaphor in its own right, but I don't think you meant to be that creative.
Ed,
I didn't ... thank you for the correction. Next you're going to tell it's not "making ends meat." (just kidding.) Welcome aboard.
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