Left and Right and Silly

~~By Kenosha Marge

I admit freely, openly and honestly that for many years I voted a straight Democrat ticket. I admit freely, openly and honestly that for many years I was a nitwit for doing that. I didn’t research and I didn’t even care all that much about investigating whether the person who got my silly vote so easily was worthy. If it breathed and had a “D” after it’s name, it got my vote. Come on admit it, most of you did the same thing.

Now all those years and silly votes later I am appalled at my lack of integrity. How can someone, anyone treat their precious right to vote so cavalierly? How could I? I hang my head in shame.

Like many of the left I pooh-poohed the sight of voters in Iraq proudly showing their “purple” fingers. They displayed their “purple” fingers proudly and courageously. Because I was so partisan and loathed George Bush I missed something very important. Among all the death and destruction a good thing happened. Just because I hated the war and those that supported it was no reason to dismiss the joy those people felt because they were finally allowed to vote. Did they all vote intelligently? Do we? They dodged gunfire and the real fear of death to vote. Many Americans stay home if it rains. I am ashamed that my partisanship made me dismiss that pride and courage.

I was a person who had always prided myself on being a good citizen because I always voted. Now I see myself as no better than those that didn’t vote. They might have been lazy, but I was stupid. Sadly there are a lot of voters, left and right that do the same thing I always did. Sadly they haven’t seen the light. If it lives and breathes and spouts the correct talking points and has the “right” as in correct consonant after their name, they’ll vote for he/she/it. Isn’t it amazing how easily satisfied we have become about the people that are supposed to represent us?

The newly smarter me now looks at actions instead of words and deeds instead of the doer. And guess what? There are many times when I would not vote for the Democrat. The first time I came to that conclusion I was totally goshwoggled. How could I have been so blind? Kinda like many people feel once the honeymoon is over.

Having decided in my old age to take off the partisan blindfold I discovered a world of things I had not acknowledged as worthy. If all worthiness is in my party then your party is unworthy. Had I ever trimmed all the rhetoric and high-flying phrases down to that simplicity I might have noticed what a nitwit I was far sooner. I must admit that the words “ better late than never” don’t sound so good to me right now. As we used to say back in my day, it sounds like a cop-out.

I also should have noticed far sooner that are media is no longer made up of the same kind of people we had when I first started watching the news with my parents. It is no longer a “Chet and David” media world.

I always suspected that most politicians, even a Democrat or two, lied occasionally. It didn’t occur to me that people in the business of informing the people did the same thing. People who had their own little section of the Constitution wouldn’t be so crass. Would they? Are they? Damn.

The majority of the print media as well as those that infest our airwaves and television screens are people with little or no integrity. They “spin” the news to make it say what their corporate bosses want it to say and then collect giant paychecks for being liars. Prostitutes give more bang for the buck than presstitutes. They have a higher customer satisfaction rate too I suspect.

One of the sleaziest of these overpaid slugs, by the name of Olbermann, has one of the lower ranked and rated programs on cable news. Olbermann is consistently beaten and beaten badly night after bloviating night in the ratings. This would seem to say that his bosses–that would be GE–are willing to pay this cretin enormous amounts of money to lie, spin, twist, and distort the news for public consumption and to hell with ratings. I am happy to report that the cretinous Tweety Matthews has even lower ratings..

I admit to having watched Olbermann for a while. His shtick grew old very quickly. He did bash Bush when few others were willing to do that. He also made a nightly habit of beating up on some dimwitted or demented female personality. What was with that, I wondered. Time came to prove that is was because the man is a rampant misogynist. Probably has a small or inactive weenie too. That he uses Murrow’s tagline is repulsive.

Now that I have finally opened my eyes and looked around I find that there is very little differences in the two major parties. They both pander shamelessly to their base, they both promise the moon and deliver a pizza, and they are both corrupt. Their issues may at times seem polar opposite but in the end they are alike in that all they truly care about is getting rich, getting power, and getting re-elected.

Common sense, which I once thought I had should have made me see the error of my ways long before I did. The Democratic Party had to show such corruption that I could no longer ignore it before I admitted the truth to myself. None of us likes admitting that we are/were wrong.

As a resident of the great state of Wisconsin I should have been more aware. We after all have foisted men like Joe McCarthy on the public. We have also gifted them with the likes of William Proxmire. Seems almost schizophrenic doesn’t it?

We carry through on that tradition to this day. Our two “Democratic” Senators, Feingold and Kohl both have a “D” after their name. One really does represent all those old-fashioned democratic ideals that I have believed in and thought I was voting for all these years. The other? Not so much. I am proud to have voted for Russ Feingold and equally proud to have voted against Herb Kohl. Both these actions are now done with both eyes wide open and without a partisan blindfold in sight. I even find myself agreeing with my Republican Congresscritter Paul Ryan now and again. Imagine that. A short time ago I couldn’t have.

***

Links of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Proxmire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece_Award

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=44963

From Family Fun to Family Feud: Obama Crashes the Dinner Party…

~~Posted by kenosha Marge

I remember some very lively Holiday Dinner table conversation when I was growing up. That’s because my mother and her family were all Republicans and my father and his family were all Democrats. Politics was often the topic.

I remember heated arguments with yelling and with laughter. We took our politics seriously in my family. What I don’t remember is the anger and the hate. Nowadays in order to be a good Democrat you are supposed to hate the Republicans.

Republicans are also expected to hate Democrats. Who thought this was a good idea?

I’m not very good at hating. Most of the time loathing is the best I can manage. Hate takes too much energy and often harms the hater more than the hatee.  Hating someone simply because they favor one party over another would be like hating Chicago Bears fans just because I am a lifelong Packer Backer. Well… maybe a Bears fan…

I grew up to become a Democrat. That was fine with my family because my Republican Mom voted for JFK and my Democratic Dad hated Ike and loved Truman.

In our family voting was stressed, not who you voted for. Of course around those holiday dinner tables you had best be prepared to defend your choice. Those who offered nothing but Talking Points were laughed out of the conversation. Voting was stressed but it was expected that when you voted you made a good decision based on all the information you could find.

I was a moderate, loyal Democrat who voted a straight Democratic ticket forover 40 years with one small exception. I voted for a Green Candidate, one Rae Vogler over our DINO Senator Herb Kohl. And I enjoyed doing it. And will do it again if given the chance.

I am now a moderate, liberal Independent. I saw first hand the ugliness that has infested the party I supported for all those years. I saw arrogance, corruption and misogyny and I was disgusted. So I became disinclined to support them for what they have become. Don’t even get me started on what I think about the media. Now there’s something I could almost bring myself to hate.

The Holiday Dinner table conversation now tends to keep away from politics. Someone always gets angry and someone always insults someone else and the conversation becomes nasty and juvenile. We’ve come along way baby and it isn’t for the good. Politics affects our lives every single day. We must talk, reasonably, about them and not in an echo chamber or how can we grow and learn?

I confess that I have reached the point where I am not interested in a conversation about Obama. I know all I care to know about this person. The time comes when you decide you have all the information you need to make a decision.

I’ve reached that point.

Having reached my decision based on information garnered over many months I don’t want to argue about it anymore. You have your idea and I have mine and if we are both content then that’s that. Right?

For most of my family that’s okay. However one Obamacrat Granddaughter regards me as a traitor and has even gone so far as to suggest a bit of racism on my part. I nipped that in the bud quickly and forcefully. I do not hate my Obamacrat Granddaughter. I confess to being a little disappointed because she doesn’t make a good argument for her choice. She spouts talking points and facts run off her like water off a duck’s back. She was raised better but now, sigh, seems to only listen to her boyfriend; a condescending jerk who regards me as an over-the-hill senile female person unable to understand and appreciate his brilliance.

So here we sit. Still a family divided but not with good humor and respect for other’s opinions. Now if you don’t agree with one side or another there’s a pretty fair chance you will NOT be receiving a Christmas card this year. Who knew; disagree with a relative and save a tree.