Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Politics, the Seriousness of Silliness

Democrats caricature Republicans as greedy bigots. Republicans caricature Democrats as lazy Marxists.

It is all silliness.

We need to realize that the vast majority of Americans all see the same problems and want them fixed.

We all want to have safe borders and welcome immigrants legally.
We all want to help the needy and those unable to help themselves.
We all want fiscal responsibility.
We all want bullying to stop, racial inequality to stop.
We all want justice!

Where we differ is what policies are going to be the most effective in bringing justice and peace and prosperity and freedom and life....

However, on the political landscape all I ever see are crowds swelling and cheering politicians who are the best at describing the problem. Oh they describe the problem effectively, they can be emotional and inspirational about the PROBLEM!

And they make grand promises to solve the problems. And the politicians who do this the best get our vote.

Very rarely do politicians do the boring thing which is detail the policies they are going to enforce in order to get to the solution. Yes, they do it occasionally... they set out written platforms for us to read--after hours on our own time.

What we need in American politics is not emotionally inspiring soundbites but true, nitty gritty, intellectual, limitless time-framed policy discussions. We need to really look at both sides--the outcomes of these policies-not in what the policies hope they would do but what they actually DID!

Time for America to go to school. We need an education in economics, sociology, American history and philosophy. Our politicians need to choose some great professors and let's televise THAT debate. Exciting it will NOT be, but we need to stop ingesting political cotton candy and start on a diet of baked salmon and broccoli.

No comments: