Everybody is Crazy Except the Person I Agree With

Consistently we hear that politics is less civil now than it ever was in the past. I am not sure that is true. Certainly in the disputes over slavery leading up to the Civil War physical violence was not unknown. Grover Cleveland's illegitimate child was part of the campaign when he ran for President.

Today with the 24 hour news cycle at least it feels nastier. Yet I believe that most politicians do what they do because it gets them elected. I am a Democrat and I do not see myself voting Republican anytime soon. That said I do think the country was much better off 40 years ago when there were conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans and the parties were not so inclined to be in lock step.

Yet as a Democrat I think it is safe to say that Republicans vilify Obama in most unspeakable ways; he is a Communist, a socialist, the Antichrist, he does not love American, he does not believe in American exceptional ism and on an on we go. I am not an Obama fan. I think that you could call me sorely disappointed. I do not feel the need to go beyond the fact of I do not like his policies. It is an educated decision I am making. Why the hyperbole on the Republican side.

However wrong we may think Republicans are, and I do think on most things of fiscal fairness, taxation, etc I think they are very wrong, Democrats also resort to hyperbole. Tom Coburn the Oklahoma Senator is a quite Conservative member of the Senate. I in many cases do not agree with him. However when the Presidents debt commission came out with its findings he did not automatically rule it out. He was a grown up saying we have to consider everything. The left vilifies him. I think we need to be careful about understanding the difference between the person and the position. Tom Coburn is an obstetrician who has delivered thousands of babies. He is not a bad man. I may not agree with all his policies but it would be ludicrous to call him a bad man.

Even the venom spouting Michelle Bachman has merit. This woman we are told has been a foster mother to countless children. It takes a special person to do this and I have no doubt she has done so for the right reasons and improved the lives of all of these children a great deal, a difference maker in their lives. Yet she says some of the vilest things about our President and is one of the most polarizing figures in our current political scene. I think that I would be hard pressed to say anything positive about her political opinions. I wish she would use that same Christian benevolence that she proclaims and clearly uses in her personal life to the political discourse. But no one should think she is evil.

Both sides are at fault. Politics will never be as clean as we want it to be, it will never be as clean as we imagined it used to be and in fact never was. It can be so much better than it is now however.

Tom Coburn and Michelle Bachman are good people. The President is a good person too. I do not agree with any of them much of the time and I am a good person who wants the best for our country as well. Maybe if we can all agree on that there would be more chance of this country recovering its footing.