Conspiracy Theories

Was it the murder of President Kennedy that changed us. The King. Then Bobby. Did we start to believe that we could believe nothing. Or perhaps it as some say is that the mind reels that one man, one lost soul, can forever alter the future of all people with a senseless act. Thus the belief that it must be something bigger.

I ask this as we listen to the constant drumbeat that Obama is not of this country, that he is a marxist, a socialist and all the like. First we should acknowledge that no one would do this stuff, along with any other thing that happens in the political world if it did not work.

We must ask ourselves why it does. Is the atmosphere in Washington more toxic than ever before. Some say yes, some say no. What is very evident however is that what drives that all pervading toxicity is the 24 hour media frenzy.

Too many people are getting rich making opinions and too much money flows into the political coffers from lobbyists. This has always been so too.

Today we believe everything is a conspiracy. There is a sizable group that believes 9/11 was an inside job. As ludicrous as that is too you and me the fact is that there is a market for all thought, no matter how crazy.

I tell my kids that they should give each other the benefit of the doubt. If my son sits in a chair my daughter was in right before she left the room to get a drink of water he has no malicious intent, he just came into the room not knowing she was in it. Now in many cases that is not true, he is deliberate in his intent, but the world works better if we practice not thinking the worst of each other.

So much of what goes on in Washington is for show. Fake votes to get a vote on the record that will be used as a weapon.

I am reading a book on Ronald Reagan right now. Far from a Reagan fan I still want to know more about how he was successful. In the book I have just read a story about a bill passed in the California legislature. In this instance the votes were tight, one state senator who was 3 hours away and thus missing the vote, announced he was going to vote for its passage thus breaking the deadlock. So what happens. Out of courtesy one of the previous no votes changed his vote to a yes so that that Senator would not have to have the inconvenience of rushing back to cast his vote.

Tie that against a Republican Senator saying he thought we should pray that something happened to prevent one Democratic Senator from being able to vote on the Healthcare bill.

Things do change, in this case not for the better.