According to my last entry, the last thing I wrote here was back in bloody April, so I can safely say my blog feels neglected. My Grandmother recently sought information on how to create a blog, so I told her about my own, and where she could start hers, which she has. And she already has as many entries as I do! So I'm here to try and catch up again, On to my topic!
---
Vitriol and Hyperbole!
Hate and Exaggeration!
...In other words? The midterm elections.
Really... Any election in this country any more, it seems. And I know that the Citizen's United Supreme Court decision has been talked about to death, and no one really likes it, (Except the only people that matter, that is: Politicians.) but Cit. Uni. is an enormous contributing factor to the vitriol and hyperbole this election season. What better way to demonize the administration and the Democratic Congress than with $2 billion in negative ads?
Who cares if the people you're campaigning for are batshit fucking insane, as long as they vote the way you want them to, which, of course they will, because they know damn well who got them elected. I mean, for God's sake... Sharron Angle!? If people didn't hate Harry Reid, and she didn't have $30 million dollars and Sean Hannity, people might think she was literally a Saturday Night Live sketch.
Of course, the same can be said for *insert Tea Party Candidate here* or pretty much any other Republican on the ticket this year. And you might ask me, then, "Chris, what about the Democrats? Don't they run the same type of negative ads?" And I would have to say, "Yeah, probably, but have you even seen any of them this year? Probably not, cause they don't have any damn money."
I mean, sure Unions have always been pretty supportive of Democrats, and environmental movements, and gay rights groups, etc give, and even some more impartial large corporations thankfully give equal contributions to both parties, but in the end, none of that helps, because it is ALL special interests, and they ALL want something in return. And the more money they have and freely give, the more likely they are to achieve their legislative goals, be it rampant deregulation of safety standards on oil rigs and in mines (Thank you Deepwater Horizon and Massey Energy), or the complete dismantling of everything we're worked for in the Health Insurance industry bill, the Republican talking points are gaining way too much ground with the common idiot-- sorry... Voter.
All those batshit insane Tea Partiers are running on Conservative talking points about social issues and then the even more batshit ideas of dismantling systems vital to the proper functioning of the very states and counties they're running to represent. Dismantling public school systems and transportation, ending state funding of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and ending taxes entirely. Now, ending taxes entirely sounds appealing now, but just wait till the state has literally no money... See how good everything looks then. (Seriously. See Missouri Prop A. They want to make it so the people can vote on whether they are taxed or not. No one WANTS to be taxed, but there are fucking reasons for it, fools!)
If the middle 45% (Supposing the extreme Right and Left equal roughly 25-35% each) weren't being blindfolded and tossed into a glass shard pit and told to find their own way out, this country might stand a chance. As it is, the Citizen's United ruling just pulled the ladder out of the pit, so now the majority of independents are just rolling around cutting themselves to ribbons with the vitriol and hyperbole of the extremes. (Mostly the extreme right, whose shards are exceptionally sharp)
Now, this weekend, we have our last chance, I think, of returning to sanity, and climbing out of that damn pit. And it's all thanks to John Stewart.
I highly encourage anyone who may happen to read this to watch the Daily Show all this week. (Barack Obama is on tonight!) As he is preparing for his "Rally to Restore Sanity" in Washington D.C. this weekend. (There will also be a lesser rally this weekend hosted by Stephen Colbert to "Keep Fear Alive" but you don't have to go to that...) Stewart is doing a great series on his show all this week in which some of his correspondents have assembled a group of people from various different backgrounds and political opinions, but the important thing is that they are, TADAH! ALL SANE! They have civil political discourse without resorting to the kind of ridiculous vitriol and hyperbole exampled above. (Even in what I wrote ABOUT the right, not just FROM the right... >_>)
You can go to the Daily Show's web page and see the first two episodes from this week in their entirety. Some great interviews as well as the first two parts of this sane political discourse.
