 "Photo: Anthony Salinas / The Pan American")
It says something about us when the term “socialist” has become such a loaded one that throwing it into any discussion about politics will raise eyebrows and blood pressure on both sides of the political spectrum. It says something about us when putting a Hitler mustache on Obama’s picture seems just as natural to the Right as doing the same to Bush’s portrait used to seem to the Left.
I won’t lie, I’m not an exception. It’s hard to watch Glenn Beck for more than five minutes without feeling the urge to punch the next Republican I talk to. It’s hard listening to Sarah Palin stumbling through a stump speech without honestly worrying about the intellectual capacity of a significant portion of American.
And yet, listening to Keith Olbermann rant about the inherit evilness of the Right Wing, it’s not hard to imagine the Right wondering the same thing. It says something about the nature of the political spectrum when both sides are so passionate and stubborn. It suggests that there is at least a shred of truth on both sides. Immanuel Kant once said that when there are two legitimate yet opposing arguments, the truth or solution lies somewhere in between.
It doesn’t take much thought to realize that both sides are wrong. The Right Wing, with its promotion of “traditional” beliefs and quasi-conservative political viewpoints, asks for the deregulation of government programs and the downsizing of government, all the while asking that government impose laws on human sexuality, marriage, religion and abortion. The Left Wing, while eschewing those arguably “Christian” beliefs as the basis for political decision-making, has been responsible for a lot of government bloating and unnecessary entitlement programs.
While one side invades your private life, the other empties out your wallet.
Both poles find their most vocal opposites sharing a single quality: a misinterpretation and perversion of the classical liberalism this country was founded on. It makes me wonder, what are we actually arguing about? How can a person honestly and legitimately take a side when both are so obviously wrong? Why are we taking sides instead of trying to come up with something better?
The real problem, with both sides and with politics in general, is that we’ve lost our sense of pragmatism. No one will admit it, but it doesn’t matter if the solution works anymore. If it doesn’t follow your party’s ideals, than somehow it’s wrong. No one’s really looking for answers. Every decision is viewed as an opportunity to spread conservative or progressive ideals or to satisfy the base.
The truth is though, none of it is working. When you have a political environment set up the way ours is, all that’s left is an uninformed philosophical tug-of-war and a government unwilling to piss people off to get things done.
It isn’t the government’s job to give you your morals, or to feed you. However, if the government can manage to do that without infringing on anyone’s individual liberties, then there shouldn’t be a problem. If there’s any ideal a government should aspire to it’s the principle of utility – the greatest good for the greatest number.
We need to stop arguing about who’s right, stop arguing about what direction our country is taking, stop pointing fingers at Right-Wing nut cases and Left-Wing communists and realize that if something has always worked, than that’s OK. But if it needs to be changed that’s cool too. It doesn’t matter which way we’re moving, as long as it works.
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