“The Greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.”
~ Thomas Jefferson, 1801
I’m sure you’ve noticed how the two Big Box parties have pitted Americans against each other. The liberal Democrats, who seem to prefer to be called “progressives” lately, take on their issues and demonize their conservative Republican opponents – some of whom have become nationalists and neo-cons – and of course, the Republicans are capable of just as much rudeness and demonization of the Democrats. A lot of us are sick of this. It really makes our country weaker when we have class wars and moral wars.
I used to be an issues voter, you know, where I had one thing that weighed more heavily than anything else. My issue now is the Constitution. They can’t play me anymore!! By the way, I had to laugh this morning when I heard Tim Russert say the other Republican candidates are afraid to go after Huckabee because they don’t want to run off the evangelical voters. Pandering to one group is now chewing on their rear ends!
The thing is, each group of voters who is trying to fight it out in Washington and in the courts believes they are doing the right thing, the thing that would be best for our country. When we let the politicians divide us this way, it stops all constructive dialog. I’m learning that a more libertarian view of things gets the Federal Government out of our way so we CAN talk in a sane way about things we disagree on. And it gets us out from under the manipulation of politicians. They are all using these issues to keep this and that group on their side for votes. It makes it look like they’d rather be in power than do what is best for America.
I think it was the ideas of government-mandated health care that got my attention in a big way. This caused me to look at the Constitution and see that most of what we have been haggling over for the past 20 years isn’t even the Federal Government’s job.
Anyway, if we can’t get politicians back on track so they follow the Constitution none of the other issues will matter. One side or the other of all these different issues – marriage amendment, abortion, health care, taxes, whatever – one view or the other can be deemed to be dissent eventually. I read about a man today who was held up at an airport and they think it was probably a talk he gave that was critical of George Bush’s policies. Well, apparently, he’s a dissident so there’s no eventually – it’s now. He’s a professor and retired marine. Here’s the link to the article – http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/04/4123_terror_watch_li.html
If we were to start paying attention to what the government is doing – supposedly to protect us – we would notice
all kinds of violations and potential violations of our civil rights. I heard a report on CBN News this morning about Anti-Terror Centers. There are 43 of these in the United States. They are supposed to be concentrating on terrorists but all but two of them – one in Kansas and one in Rhode Island – have gotten off into regular ‘ol street crime and natural disasters. Of course, the Administration says the best way to stop terrorists is to gather info on all kinds of crime. From the report I read on CBN’s website, it sounds like Homeland Security just handed out $130 million in a panic, and told people to get busy collecting info. We need to let our congressmen and senators know this is out of hand and needs to be stopped. And we need to remember that we are all Americans, no matter what our view on the various issues and the Constitution is what unites us.
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