United we Stand – Divided we Fall
I told myself I would not get political on my blog when I started it years ago. I decided that I would post this article I've written because it is a topic that I have been thinking about a lot. I’ve been doing a lot of research as of late. Trying to wrap my mind around why America is so divided. Why the Left and the Right feel the need to pick a side and demonize one another. What is it that makes us feel so strongly? Why are we always fighting? Why is it the left calls the right a bunch of racist hypocrites while the right calls the left a bunch of useless parasites that are destroying the country? It is all kind of crazy when you step back and look at the big picture. I'm not a Lefty or a Righty. If I did have to give myself a label (stupid labels) I would say I’m a centrist with a leaning towards the left. My history teacher in High School used to tell me I was “the most conservative liberal” he ever met. I'm just a guy who is trying to look at the situation, dig up as much information as I can, so I can figure out what is going on. Right now things seem so insane and divided. I just don't understand why we can clearly see all the problems before us, Dept, Jobs, Tax code, healthcare, environment, yet we do not give our best efforts to figure this out together. Instead we choose to bicker among ourselves. Point fingers at each other. Live in our Fox News or MSNBC bubble. Only listen to our side, never really trying to figure out where the other side is coming from. We convince ourselves that we are on the good side and the other side is evil. It is counterproductive in my opinion. I just wish we could look at things from a more logical view. Put our beliefs aside just for a second and, make an effort to listen to what one another is trying to say. We all want to act like we are reasonable yet, we forget that part of reasoning is listing to those opposing views. To allow your ideas to be challenged is real reasoning. In science if you come up with a theory and the proof to back it up, you have better expect others in the scientific community to rip your proof apart and challenge your theory. That is how in the end we come to true reason. By letting others rip our belief system apart a little. It is one reason I like having discussions with people who oppose my views. I can learn something from these discussions. It helps me be more reasonable. The thing is you have to be open to being wrong. You have to be open to compromising. It upsets me when I hear politicians say that they are unwilling to compromise. If they can not find that middle ground then, they can not come to any solutions to our problems. Therefore they can not get anything done. I just wanted to express some of my views as I see them in this article. Some things that I think we feel strongly about but, when we look at a bigger picture, not from the left or right but, from the perspective of being American Citizens, we could find some common ground. You can feel free to rip what I’m saying apart. Please, when I hit a nerve or question your beliefs, explain to me why I’m wrong. I would really like to understand where you are coming from. I would also like to hear any ideas you have as to how we could get along better and, find some common ground. Just keep the Bush and Obama bashing out of it. I don’t think saying one or the other is evil and trying to destroy the country is productive at all. Honestly I wish all our problems where the fault of one man. Then the solution would be so much easer. Here are some views of mine as to what issues the Left and the Right need to stop being so one sided about and have a real discussion.
The Right needs to stop being so Anti-Tax and the left needs to stop thinking that entitlements are sacred. The view on the right seems to be Less taxes. They are frustrated with the government wasting their money and giving tax dollars to those, as they see it, that have not worked to earn it. The right believes in hard work and being rewarded for your hard work. That seems reasonable to me. The right does need to understand however that taxation is a necessity in any society. Starving the beast that is our government will only hurt us all in the end. I agree we do need to add many reforms to the current system. The government is wasting a lot of our tax dollars. When you think about it the right’s view of taxation makes a bit of sense. Quit wasting our tax dollars! I agree with that but, don’t we need to fix the convoluted tax code? Why should middle class Americans Pay a higher percentage than some millionaires? I think we need to make a tax code that is simpler and fair. Even if it means raising someone’s taxes.
The left needs to stop coveting entitlements to the point where no one is allowed to touch them. Most of these programs need to be reformed. Welfare, Medicare, these entitlements can be reformed in a way that will save the tax payer money and, improve the quality of these programs. As far as welfare goes, why don’t we turn it into a jobs program? What if we helped someone who is down on there luck get re-educated? They can receive payments as long as they are willing to take a class to learn a new skill. Then we can get them back to work quicker so, they can be productive. Is this not something reasonable to both sides? Is it not a way to keep the safety net in place (which I feel is important) while we make sure everybody is doing their part?
The right has to stop being blind to the fact that America has done things wrong when it comes to foreign policy, education, healthcare, ect.. America is not and has never been a perfect nation. Our constitution states that we are trying to create “A more perfect union”. How can we work towards that goal if we think we are already perfect? American students rank 17th in the world. Our healthcare is ranked 37th in the world. We have fought wars in other nations that where not necessary. We have meddled in foreign affairs when we should have minded our own business. I would say that leaves a lot of room for improvement. I understand pride in our country. We should be proud of what we have accomplished in America. We should take pride in our homeland. Lets just keep in mind we can make it even better.
The Left needs to understand that America is still one of the better countries to live in. Have some pride in your country. Stop looking only at what America has done wrong. Every now and then would you please look at what America has done right? I just want to state, on a personal note, that it really upsets me to see people in the “occupy movement” deface our flag. Yes, you have the right to do it. Many Americans have fought and died to give you that right. I think you dishonor them every time I see a flag being burned, written on, stepped on, ect. I don’t think treating our flag in such a manner is a good way to show how much you care for America. It is hard to listen to you telling us how you would like to fix our country when I see that you are showing no respect for it. It is hard to take you seriously when you show no love of country.
The Right needs to stop believing capitalism unchecked is a perfect solution that will fix all of our financial problems. I think if 2008 showed us anything it is that the market unchecked can be very dangerous. The Free Market is great. It helped make America a prosperous country but, you have to realize, the free market seems to work its best when there are some checks and balances in place. I heard this great metaphor the other day. “The Free market is like a garden. It needs a little oversight and occasional tending to so, it can grow and be fruitful.” Capitalism without oversight is irresponsible. Human beings by our very nature can be greedy. Greed needs to be put in check. It is the sad truth’
The Left needs to stop thinking that the free market is bad. The free market has built this nation. Without it we would not have been able to build a strong middle class at all. Again, it comes down to oversight but, the left has to keep in mind not all oversight and regulation is beneficial. There are regulations in place that do restrain the growth of business is some areas. What we need to do is keep what works and, get rid of what does not work. Regulation when done right is good, when done wrong it is not so good. You would think that this is a simple thing to understand.
The Right needs to stop thinking that Government is all bad. I do understand the thinking behind a smaller, more efficient government. Unfortunately if we want to live in a society that gives everyone a fair shake you often times do need a government that is willing to keep things within that society in check. We became a Super Power by doing something very important. Our government decided a long time ago to invest in the education of our children. It put in place the equal rights act, we built roads and bridges to connect our states making it easy to move goods from one coast to the other. Have we forgotten how important these things where? How fruitful it made or country? Government can be one of the great tools we use for building a better society. It has it’s role to play and we need to stop acting like it does not. It is the system we all use to make our voices heard and, try to make our country better for us as a collective. Another side note, It looks really hypocritical when you say that you want a smaller government yet, you think the government should control a woman’s reproductive rights, the government gets to say who gets to be married and who does not. The government gets to tell you if you can smoke pot (not that I want to) or higher a prostitute (again I have no inclination to do that, just making a point here.) You want a smaller government till it conflicts with your moral beliefs. You can’t have it both ways. You want a nanny state or you don’t!
The Left needs to understand that government is not here to solve all of societies woes. I don’t think you understand how dangerous that way of thinking can be. A Government that is trying to create a utopian society always fails in the worst way. Take for example Karl Marx “communist manifesto”. On the surface it sounds like a good idea right? I perfectly fair and even society where we all do our part. Well, truth be told, that is not possible. When countries have tried communism it always fails. There has never been a perfect, fair, society in human history. Why? Because one factor is never taken into account, the human condition. Human beings can be lazy, greedy, power hungry. You will always have one guy working his butt off while another is doing as little as possible. It is just the way we are. Another thing that we fail to see when we are pining for a perfect and fair society is that you would need someone making sure everything is fair and perfect. You would need some major oversight and control. You would need someone telling you what your role is, what you should be doing, what you should eat, what you can say. That is a slippery slope is it not? That would start infringing on your rights to be you. When you really stop and think about it is very scary. The Right hears the left cry for more fairness and it scares them that what the left is calling for is a Utopian Society. I don’t blame them for being frightened with that idea. Throughout history we have had societies crumbled because they gave to much power to their governments. They expected and depended on their governments to make everything perfect. The role of government should be to better society but not at the expense of infringing on the liberties of the people.
These are just a few of the major points I wanted to touch on. There are so many more but, I do not have the time to get into them. Most of this is just my views and thoughts. I am open to the fact that I’m full of crap and, totally have a messed up way of looking at things. Sometimes the hardest person in the world for us to truly understand is ourselves. We, including me, let our morals, and ego cloud our judgment. Our self perception is skewed by the picture we paint of ourselves and the way we want to project this image to others. We are imperfect! It is ok though, we are only human. I just don’t see any real progress in the future of America until we stop demonizing each other and start listening to each other in a manner of sincere understanding. Lets put our egos aside and really try to find our way back to the middle ground. After all, we are all in the same group. We are Americans. We need to remember that. We need to remember that for better or worse, we are all in this together.
Thanks for your time,
Mark
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