I must admit, up to this point I’ve been guilty of this myself too. We align much too quickly to political parties. That unfortunately not only hinders our objectivity and the development of our ideas, but it lets us fall in love with our politicians. This past year Obama was definitively the popular choice among the college age kids. Sarah Palin has herself infatuated a particular segment of the conservative America. There were strong grassroots movements for both during the election. And yet, while I voted for Obama and still believe he will do a great amount of good, I do not believe we should unify in full support behind him. While we should definitively maintain that movement and cooperation that elected him, we should not throw that support behind him blindly. I think it is our responsibility to question all our politicians, regardless of whether or not you voted for them, regardless of whether or not they adhere to your party, as long as they are in office they should face constant pressure.
The politicians do not get enough of that pressure to do whats right these days. I’m not referring to just criticism. They get plenty of that. Unfortunately, that criticism is unorganized and usually very decisive. If someone calls Obama a Nazi or a Communist, one of his supporters will get angry, and they’ll spend the rest of their time fighting each other instead of keeping their pressure on Obama. We need organized, united public pressure on ALL politicians, not just the ones from the opposing party. That’s how the lobbyists do it. While obviously the two parties are friendlier to some groups than others, when it comes to major issues, the special interests do not discriminate. The health insurance providers, when facing a great, great threat to themselves in the government healthcare overhaul, donated to the campaigns of all Senators on the health care committees, regardless of their party affiliations. Baucus, the main man behind healthcare overhaul, received the most contributions. But if the lobbyists are so indiscriminate, why is the public so party oriented?
After November 4th, 2008 that Obama movement, that involved millions of volunteers, dissipated. It’s quite disappointing, because if that same organization and unity had survived, they could have been very influencing in the two major issues in right now: healthcare and global warming legislation.
Instead, we have been blitzed by a horde of ads, paid for by both sides of the issues. Regardless of how you feel about the healthcare legislature, you’re just tired of all the media focus on it. Especially when you think about who is paying for these ads. Believe me, the middle and lower income families that are the ones who would most benefit by healthcare overhaul cannot afford to run nationally televised ads all day long. Those commercials are viewpoints we should be very careful in supporting.
I truly hope that we realize that we are not enemies. Republicans and Democrats are just party affiliations. At times they feel only like divisions invented by clever political think tanks to keep the American people divided and unable to fully exhort their influence in our political system. Yet we cannot continue wasting our attention bickering with one another, while letting the politicians in the party we identify with to scamper off without pressure. Conservatives should not hear the Republicans in the Senate and House hear the end of it for not taking an actual role in healthcare debate. If you are a Republican and you are unhappy with how healthcare in shaping up, you shouldn’t attack Obama, or Pelosi, or Reid alone. You should also attack McCain and every other Republican choosing not to participate the debate.They were elected to represent you, to work for your interests, and yet they are abstaining from the debate for what are mostly political reasons.
Spread your criticism equally among all elected politicians America. We better hang together, or else we’ll definitely hang alone.
More on this in the future..
