Divided We, Umm, Stand?
Tim Bean
7/9/2012
I think it is fairly safe to say that there is a pretty divisive spirit running through our country right now. Well, maybe that isn’t entirely accurate. I believe that most people here in the good old U.S. of A. are actually pretty damn apathetic and horribly uninformed (which is a nice way of saying ignorant) when it comes to the who’s, what’s, how’s and why’s of the governance of their country. Outside of the apathetic and ignorant though, there are those who do pay attention (somewhat) to what’s going on here, and while these people are in the minority, when compared to their ignorant, apathetic peers, there is a clear demarcation line dividing this group into two distinct camps. These camps are better known to us as the Democrats and the Republicans; and there is nary a bit of common ground or concession that either group will grant the other, with the exception of hating each other.
Now some of you out there may be thinking that “hate” is an awfully strong word, but I believe that it is entirely accurate. If you are one of the sheeple who subscribes to the dogma of either of these two “illustrious” political machines, then you undoubtedly believe that the sun rises and sets on which ever candidates your party puts up for election and that the candidates put forward by the other party is evil incarnate. In a perfect world then your favorite political party would hold supreme power and those members of the other party would be exiled to some God forsaken part of the globe, never to be allowed to return. With that kind of attitude it kind of makes you wonder if we really are the “United” States of America.
If there are any of you out there who doesn’t believe there is this kind of divisiveness in our country then you might be one of the uninformed, and maybe even one of the ignorant, though I don’t really want to be in the name calling business. All I ask is that you watch one hour’s worth of MSNBC, then switch over and watch an hour of Fox News and I can guarantee after those two hours of watching these supposed “news” outlets you will hear decidedly different views as to what is wrong with one side or the other, and probably done with a little screaming too. If that doesn’t convince you then simply find an article online somewhere that discusses politics. Some of these articles themselves can be fairly partisan (like those “news” networks) while others can be fairly nonpartisan, and it doesn’t really matter to me which one that you choose to read. I say that because it isn’t so much the article that will show the divisive nature of our country, it is the comments section below the article. Granted those who take the time to post their narrow minded, partisan opinion following an article should not be construed to be in the majority, but I think I have already established that those who pay attention to politics are in a decided minority to those who choose to be in blissful ignorance; but once you read even just a fraction of those comments you should realize that there is precious little hope of any sort of resolution and compromise arising between these two sides. If you read the comments for too long then you might even come to the conclusion that we are a doomed society, because of the lack of willingness to concede anything between the believers of whichever political machine; and if you continue reading then you might even become depressed, and maybe even despondent. If you are feeling particularly masochistic and choose to continue reading the comments section you might even wish for blissful ignorance to be bestowed upon you (again) and maybe even develop a feeling that we are in the middle of a non-firing civil war . . . hmm, doesn’t that just sound swell?
