08 Feb 09 Silly Partisan Labels
Do you consider yourself on the right, or the left?
Are you a progressive or a conservative?
Democrat or Republican?
I’m none of those.
Allow me to digress a moment. I hate crowds. Ask my wife. I dislike being in a crowded mall, or in any huge crowds of people. I’m not claustrophobic, I just get impatient with not being able to make progress to where I want to get to, and often with all the noise about something I’m not enthusiastic about.
You see, I don’t care if I’m in a group of 1,000 that are all supporting Idea X. If I don’t like Idea X, I’m not going to cheer for it.
I’m not going to go see a movie that most of the world thinks is the greatest ever, if it doesn’t appeal to me.
I’m not going to eat turkey on Thanksgiving, even though I am ‘supposed’ to because I don’t like turkey.
I am not going to put myself into any one political group either. I hate partisan politics. I hate the way that some folks will trash anything and everything that the Democrats do, simply because they always side with the GOP. Oh, and vice versa too!
No one group ever has the right ideas and policies for everything. Why can’t folks take a good hard look at an issue, and then come forward with some unpartisan ideas of their own, instead of wasting all their energy simply slamming the other side, imply because the other side thought of it?
A current example is the Stimulus bills or bailouts. Heck, the previous Bush administration started it, and it all went through with barely a whimper – give money to the Wall Street Bozos that have FAILED the American people in a bug way, but then, once the administration changes, condemn any further idea of bailout as wrong.
Labels again - now it’s Marxist, Communist, Socialist etc. All soundbytes really, as the majority of folks in the USA have never had a true experience of any of those things, and in any case, what the current administration is proposing is far from Communism, Socialism or Marxism.
It’s all down to these labels though. It’s like bumper sticker mentality, but an exclusive one. Whereas I might have a sticker that says I support a charity, that doesn’t mean I exclude other charities or causes, it simply means I want to promote this particular one, right now.
But the divisive partisan labels you see, are mostly negative. They don’t say that supporting any political view is good, but simply trash every other view except theirs.
There are whole twitter groups now, where the members twitter about politics, but not promoting their ideas, just condemming everything that their group or party hasn’t thought of.
Of course this is nothing new, but I’ve always gone through life looking at the glass being half full, not half empty.
It’s sad to see such negativity. Anyway, the last General Election was a vote for a change in the way things are done. The last eight years haven’t been any kind of spectacular success.
Why can’t people move forward together, and work in a constructive manner, instead of throwing negative junk around all the time, that benefits no-one?
Tags: bailout, bozos, bumper sticker, bush administration, communism, conservative democrat, crowds of people, current administration, huge crowds, marxism, marxist, mentality, partisan politics, political group, socialism, socialist, soundbytes, stimulus, true experience, whimper
04 Nov 08 Elections: The Way It Works, Or Doesn’t
The first time I voted was in 1978. I was still the angry young man then. I was still enthusiastic about politics. Years of disappointments with successive administrations hadn’t yet made me cynical of any real change ever happening.
I was in England. It was the General Election when Margaret Thatcher came to power, and the Conservative Party had an eighteen year run in office. I’ve never been what I would call a socialist, but in those days, I did feel that the Government had a responsibility towards the less fortunate in society, before I realized some of the misuse and abuse this creates, so I was very much a campaigning Labour supporter.
After eighteen years of Tory rule, I finally found myself quite excited in 1997 when Tony Blair’s New Labour was elected. My constituency got a Labour MP for the first time since 1951. It was short-lived. New Labour mostly continued the failed policies of the previous Tory administration under John Major. Gordon Brown is about as much use and about as exciting as a wet weekend.
Anyway, I digress. In all the times I voted in the UK, there were, in my experience, ever any long lines. I never waited more than a few minutes.So no-one giving out coffee or food or anything. The polling station was a five minute walk from my house in any case.
There was the opportunity to appoint a proxy, or have a postal ballot, but never any early voting. Polling station opening hours are 7.00am – 10.00pm.
Walk to the returning officer, get a ballot slip, go to a booth, put my cross in the relevant box(es), fold it, walk over to the ballot box (in front of the returning officer) and drop it in. Job done.
The poll watchers aren’t allowed to talk to you on the way in, but I’d give them my name and address on the way out, so they didn’t come knocking on my door later in the evening to get me to go and vote.
It always seemed so simple, and quick.
Tags: angry young man, ballot box, campaigning, conservative party, constituency, disappointments, early voting, gordon brown, john major, labour mp, margaret thatcher, name and address, new labour, poll watchers, polling station, polling stations, returning officer, socialist, tony blair, wet weekend
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