PW Babbles Too Much About Politics

Ahh, I'm back in the virtual world after two days sans cable and internet.  The technician they sent out referred to the root of the problem as a "rotten wire" that he replaced.  Ah, those techies and their technobabble... anyway...

Maria (whose blog you should make time to read, incidentally) was kind enough to post a comment in my last post

I'm curious. Ron Paul is a Republican and fairly conservative. Not sure why you used the word "liberal" regarding his followers. I've watched every single Republican debate (know thine enemies) and I honestly dislike ALL of them, especially Gingrich and Romney. I am intrigued by Ron Paul's statements about racial slurs in his newsletters a couple decades ago. That matters to me since I tend to believe that once you're a racist, you rarely change your mind. I honestly cannot fathom any of these candidates as being worthy of president. So, sticking with Obama. I think he has been unfairly maligned. I compare it to buying a house. If you buy a house in disrepair, it takes time to fix everything. And if all the carpenters, plumbers and electricians refuse to help you, you have your work cut out for you. That is how I see Obama's presidency. He inherited a mess from Bush and the Republicans in the house and senate refuse to lift a finger to help him clean it up. So,he is handicapped. But, I still like him. Plus, I'm in the medical profession and I FULLY support his health care plan. It astonishes me that NO ONE seems to be able to see the big picture regarding health care.

Ok...off my soap box. Carry on!

Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that Ron Paul supporters are liberals.  If it came out that way, I apologize.  I write these blog posts (and especially this past one) shooting from the hip and spend minimal time revising them and making them… you know… concise.  

What I was driving at was that while the majority of Paul’s support is the “libertarian” (and I use those quotes deliberately) wing of the Republican party, Paul’s campaign has managed to dupe a significant minority of progressives, mainly due to his opposition of the war in Iraq and to a lesser degree, his stance on legalizing marijuana.  In my post specifically, I was agreeing with a piece written on CBS.com by the Nation’s Katha Pollitt (which I probably should have linked to).  And even as I write this, there’s a piece in the Atlantic: Should Liberals Support Ron Paul? by Robert Wright.  I’m not suggesting that too many liberals would vote for the guy, but it seems that a lot of people on forums, in conversation etc. hold Paul up as an example of a Republican of principle, which drives me nuts when one takes a cursory glance at his stance on most issues.  Get past the war and pot, and he’s the most toxically conservative candidate out there.  Don’t get me wrong, Paul should be lauded for liberal stances when he takes them.  But they should not overshadow his stances on just about everything else.  And I agree, a racist doesn't change their spots, at least not without a lot of inner soul-searching and struggling with their thoughts, and something tells me that behind closed doors, Paul is very comfortable with racism.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about Obama.  Anyone would have a tough time repairing the damage the Bush administration caused, even with everyone’s full cooperation, let alone the open hostility that Obama has faced.  That’s not to say he hasn’t made mistakes.  He has… but it seems to me that for the majority of his first term, the people voted, dusted off their hands and said to themselves ‘well that takes care of that’ and left him to do his thing.  If Obama let his liberal base down, then to be fair, a lot of his liberal base let him down too.  They forgot the ‘we’ part of Yes We Can.

Yeah, yeah, I know easier said than done, and I sound like a scolding ass, especially in 2009 a LOT of people were more concerned with keeping their heads above water and food on the table than anything else.  Who has that kind of time?  But I think we really failed (I’m talking to Canadians now too, as we STILL have a right-wing tool leading our country, and with a majority in parliament to boot) to take the lessons of Bush-era politics that democracy doesn’t end at the voting booth.  It’s heartening to see things like the Wisconsin union protests and the Occupy movement because at least progressive issues are getting in the news, and sometimes even without a dismissive sneer.  They aren’t instantaneous results, but it’s a step.  And that’s the point.  Progress doesn’t come in gigantic leaps.  They come in steps.  Small steps.  Tiny steps.  Steps virtually anyone can do, even without a lot of time and money.  Enough people do them and the ball rolls.  The key is that those steps need to be consistent ones. 

I don’t see why or how anyone can vote Republican, or at least this modern incarnation of the Republican Party (my knowledge of the Republican Party of years past is sketchy at best).  I’m not strictly talking policy, although I do find their policy hard to swallow.  I’m talking heart – Republican politicians have such an open and naked contempt for people, they barely even disguise it anymore.  I guess it appeals to people who feel the need for self-flagellation, who feel frustrated and unworthy, and blame themselves for the situation they find themselves in.  It also doesn’t surprise me that the main Republican target is ‘government’, which neatly attacks the one institution in society that the public have a measure of power in.  And so many people are willing to believe that ‘government is the problem’ (whatever that means) without once realizing that they, as citizens in a democratic country, are part of the government they despise so much.  And not one of their supporters questions why, if Big Government is so bad, are their leaders more than happy to be a part of it?  It is a living, breathing example of Orwellian doublethink so hideously perfect that I used it when my neighbour’s daughter was having trouble understanding the concept when she was studying 1984 in school.

I do have ties to the United States, as my brother, my sister-in-law and their two kids live in the States, so I hope they choose politicians that don’t openly hate them because they are concerned and compassionate people that would like to live in a country where people look after each other, and not be hysterically labeled socialists because of it.  It seems to me, as an outsider looking in, there’s a lot of needless and confusing fear-mongering in American politics, and it’s something that most non-Americans have a hard time wrapping our minds around.  It not like racism, class divisions, homophobia, fear, mistrust, poverty and crime doesn’t exist here or in other countries.  It all certainly does.  But we somehow manage not to assume a worst-case scenario mentality about things.  More than a few people grumbled when we legalized same-sex marriages, but most of us were leveled-headed enough to be sure that a one-way vortex to hell wasn’t going to open up beneath our feet, that it wasn’t a life-or-death issue.  As we all found out quickly enough, gays and lesbians getting married became background scenery in our national psyche.  It arrived and we did not become Sodom or Gommorah.  Now, apart from a handful of fundamentalist crackpots, it doesn’t even register for most people, liberal or conservative.  I don’t know, but I think that’s what scares conservative politicians the most – the realization that all of us aren’t so much different from one another and we do have far more common ground than we realize.  I think that is the real opposition to social issues.  It isn't a question of morality for them.  It's a fear of the truth that despite our differences in race, gender and orientation, we are more or less the same when it comes to basic human wants and needs.  We want good jobs, safe streets, warm houses to go home to and loving people to share it all with.

Okay, this is why I don’t blog politics.  I get a teensy bit long-winded and get way off topic and my wagging finger gets tired.  I’m having a beer, a nap and then I'm going to a friend's acoustic show at the local pub, and she is going to ROCK!  Later.

- PW