The Culture of Politics and A Vision For the Future

The Culture:
Tensions are high. Divisions are clear: Left vs. Right, Liberal vs. Conservative, and Democrat vs. Republican. It has been made clear that you are either one or the other. Whichever label you choose, you have a sworn enemy on the other side.
In the last two weeks, we have seen three despicable acts of domestic terrorism, each of them equally terrible and repulsive. The killings of George Tiller, Pvt. William Long, and Stephen Tyrone Johns (the guard at the Holocaust Museum) are tragic, and should have never happened. However, the aftermath of these events has been almost as disgusting.
In the last several years, politics has boiled down to the following: If you prefer free market solutions to government takeover, you are right wing. If you support abortion, you are left wing. If you don’t want to give more than half of your paycheck to the government, you are right wing. And so on.
My question is: who decides what is left or right? I am not even sure if most people could tell me what constitutes someone as being left or right wing.
Enter political commentary. So far I have heard both sides accuse the other of being anti-Semitic and Nazi like. Suggestions have been made that President Obama has been fostering a hate of Jews. Both sides have been quick to jump on each other. They point fingers as to who should get the blame. Whose fault is it then? It is not the work of one person. Not President Obama, not Rush Limbaugh. It is all of our faults.
Today, we are allowed to be on only one side. This has made it easy for one side to paint the other as (insert your favorite adjective here). They try to make the entire group accountable for the actions and words of one person who considers themselves in the group. Then they demonize individuals, which by association hurts the whole group.
The game changes when people are allowed to make these broad brush strokes. What the majority of the group believes doesn’t matter. Instead, it comes down to how each side is perceived. As the old saying goes, “perception is reality,” and both sides know it. That is why you will hear that Obama is either anti-Semitic, or is being controlled by Jews, depending on who you listen to. That is why you hear that pro-life people support the killing of Tiller. That is why you hear that James Von Brunn is a “Right Wing Extremist.” (No doubt he is an extremist, but what makes him Right Wing?) You will hear that Republicans are anti-Immigration. You will hear that Democrats are socialists. You will hear that President Bush was a Fascist.
We now have public opinion being formed by ludicrous statements that can easily be refuted. We used to have journalists who would search for the truth for us, but we can no longer count on that. Instead, we accept the statements that talking political heads and pundits say, because the average person generally doesn’t have the resources to find the truth.
The lack of truth has caused people on both sides to cement themselves in their ideology, and refute everything that comes from the other side. This has helped create the culture of today’s world. A culture has been created where people have stopped listening to each other. People prefer drowning out opposing viewpoints instead of focusing on what is actually the best solution. Thinking is done by people who have microphones, instead of people thinking for themselves. Talking points have become arguments. There is no debate on issues. Both sides are guilty of these things. Rhetoric has become more important than ideas.
There are some people who are trying to overcome the culture of politics and create a new one. They are people who are sick of seeing their country slip away. They have decided that no one else is going to change things, so they have to. Those are the people who are doing what they can to bring sanity back to this world. My favorite happens to be Mike Huckabee. Governor Huckabee has stayed above the fray. He coined the phrase “Vertical Politics.” This basically means that Americans don’t and shouldn’t care about whether something is left or right, but only if it brings the country up or down. This is what’s going to bring our country back. Governor Huckabee has been called a liberal, an ultra conservative, a populist, fringe right wing, big government, you name it and he has been called it. This reinforces the absurdity of the use of labels.
(Labels are relative. What one person considers conservative, another may find it liberal. Labels are also effective, especially for the leaders of the group, but not the individual. Have you ever voted straight ticket? Did you actually recognize everyone on your ticket? Too many of us do it, and the consequences are now evident.)
We have a culture of politics that thrives on division and demonization. It turns out good for politics, but bad for America and ideas. Personal attacks are not only common, but looked on as part of “the game.” It is now nearly impossible to have friends of the other label because of the hate and rhetoric.
Party politics is crippling this country. We have politicians who are too afraid to speak out against their party for fear of donation deprivation. Or worse yet, we have politicians picked specifically because they will follow party lines. What we need are courageous politicians who will stand up and vote on their principles, and not on politics.
The Vision:
Now for the important part: What we can do about it. First, and most important, treat others as you want to be treated. This is one for all the ages. No one likes to be lied about, so don’t tell lies about others. Nobody likes to be misrepresented, so don’t misrepresent others. Don’t assume you know everything about someone because they say they are a Democrat or Republican. Assume equality until proven different. Second, THINK FOR YOURSELF! Don’t allow others to think for you. You can listen to people you respect, but get both sides of the argument. Don’t formulate your opinion before then. Finally, keep an open mind. Many people think they have one, but when it comes to someone they disagree with normally, they shut it out. People have a tendency to reject the idea without considering the facts. Do not dismiss the message because of the messenger.
It is not an easy battle to win, and it involves every single person in the country to win it. We need to overcome the politics of hate that is tearing our country apart. Each person must take it upon themselves to put an end to the madness. When the country wakes up and has a true paradigm shift, our country will hold no bounds. I can’t even imagine the things that we will be able to accomplish. The country and the world will be much better places for it.