Last night I updated the http://www.tp.org homepage a little bit as well as the http://blog.tp.org/ page. I think it looks a little better now. This morning I decided to read some of my friend's blogs for the first time in months. Wow. I was kinda shocked actually.
My friends and I have a private forum setup to keep in touch with as we're pretty spread out all over the world at this point. For the first couple of years we kept it to the core group of friends that grew up together, then we expanded it gradually to include all kinds of folks that we thought were "high speed, low drag" individuals. Recently there were several sets of hurt feelings when some political discussions got out of hand. Things happen, folks get emotional on the Internet, and unfortunately feelings get hurt. It was bad and folks owe each other beers all around.
So, back to my story of reading other's blogs. Wow. I never realized how strongly some folks care about politics. Being raised as I was, politics never mattered so much to me. I was (and still am) thankful to live in a country with the freedoms that exist here. Those freedoms allowed my family to practice the religion they chose and to live their lives in accordance with that. Other than forced military service during the draft, politics didn't interfere so much.
So, what I'm saying is that politics wasn't a big part of my most of my life. It is only recently in the last couple of years that I've really started paying any attention at all to politics. What I observe is folks taking stands against "people"... political "people" but still people. Being one new to paying attention to the political system I'm still not sure why folks "hate" or "love" certain politicians. When I stand back and look at it I see issues. I then rate those issues on what I find important to me, then I decide who best represents those prioritized issues. Of course, I've not actually voted or even registered to vote. I most likely will this year though because the election outcome will affect me and I figure why not throw my small vote into the ring as well since I'm going to have to live with the results anyway. We'll see though.
So, the shocking thing to me has been the intense hatred of some of my friends (expressed in their blogs and sometimes on the forums) for President George W. Bush. I really can't figure my friends out sometimes. I look at the issues and for me they are:
1) Military, Population Protection, Justice
2) Economic
3) Social, Population Education
4) Environmental
I've also list those in the order or importance to me. To be clear I think the government's "job" should be 51% #1, 24% #2, 15% #3, 10% #4. Obviously that skews my vision quite a bit. Personally I just don't understand the hatred shown to a guy who is president. I guess my friends are just crazy. Oh well, I can deal with that. I'm not all there either, but this one really puzzles me. I guess I'll just have to deal, because all of my friends are all very good people, even if they are crazy in their political views.
"I guess my friends are just crazy"? Way to show the love, guy. :) Some people might feel just a little picked upon.
The strong emotions against GWB don't seem all that different from the "Clinton-hating" from '92 to ... well, it's still going on, actually. For some folks who might be targets of his administration's social conservatism -- gays and their friends, for example -- I can understand it being personal. You shouldn't expect people to be dispassionate about politics, in the same way that it's perfectly reasonable for employees of Microsoft competitors to "hate" Microsoft or Bill Gates.
But it's gotta be rational. I go out on the web and I read atrios.blogspot.com or www.thismodernworld.com and think, "You people expect to win in politics with this stuff? Madder-than-thou attitudes sprinkled with profanity?"
By the way, you might be interested in this site: www.spinsanity.com.
:) I love everyone! I just can't imagine such anger and hostility is all! :) I am better off since 2001 that I was before. This year my tax burden was less as a percentage than ever before. I feel more secure with everyone being spied upon through the patriot act than I ever have in the past. I am glad Saddam is no longer torturing his innocent populus. I am glad there is a woman in a leadership position in Afghanistan. I am glad that we're looking at ways to get more oil to make sure we do not repeat the middle 70's oil crisis. Oh well. I just think folks are crazy for getting so worked up about it, but I still love all of my crazy friends.
My theory on people's passion for armchair politics is similar to that of utopia. It's the state of striving/hating/pushing/etc that's the actual utopia. If everything was perfect, we'd be miserable(seriously, I had this way before the Matrix).
Sure that oasis in the desert is a mirage, but it has you moving, which is better than stagnating.
If some people hate Bush, great. The more people we can get to particpate in government, the better, even if it's misdirected.
Glad to hear you're participating. Read up on your options and make an informed voting decision. That's all I ask of anyone.
Glad to see more blog activity from you too.