Still Working to Understand

The favorite pastime of political advocates is assigning nefarious motives to their opponents.  Flipping channels last night, I endured the pain of the Bill Maher show long enough to get the gist of what he's railing about these days.  Bill's the polar opposite of me politically, and I find it difficult not to assign nefarious motives to his political points of view.

Somewhat predictably, he made it clear that nothing Obama's been caught doing bothers him much.  To him, it's small stuff compared to his Great Satan, G.W. Bush.  His message was, so what if Obama made stuff up to cover his tail on Benghazi - that's nothing compared to what Bush did in Iraq.  So what if Obama's using the IRS to harass his political adversaries - everybody does that.  So what if he's investigating reporters - they probably deserved it.

I heard him wrap up his show claiming the biggest scandal perpetrated by the hated Republican Party is that Carbon has reached 400 parts per million in our atmosphere, therefore the GOP is purposefully bringing death and destruction to the entire planet.  Hyperbole much, Bill?

Something I have learned in individual conversations with Democrats is that many of them are extremely loyal to their party.  That loyalty translates into a blind support for Obama, regardless of his actual actions in office.

Try to tell them about Fast & Furious, the IRS harrassment of his enemies, Benghazi, sending his EPA out to shut down the entire coal industry, making sure all Federal lands are off-limits for oil and gas exploration, trying to outlaw fracking, investigating news reporters, supporting infanticide, and on and on.  They'll reject every story out of hand, and refuse to even consider whether or not they are true.  A favorite response from a Democrat to any attempt to educate them is, "Oh, you're just listening to Limbaugh".

Because if they actually are forced to face the truth about the leaders of their chosen party, it would destroy them. Because they have given their entire mind, heart, and soul to the Democrats.  Because they've spent a lifetime convincing themselves that they're good, caring people because they support Democrat good, caring causes.  If all they've invested suddenly is revealed to be a sham, their life no longer holds meaning.

I'm sorry for them.  See, I don't have an emotional connection to Republicans.  I actually disagree with the Republican Party quite often, and really don't care much for many of the party's leaders (McCain, Graham, Boehner, Cantor to name a few).  I don't hate them, but I don't believe they truly have and act on any definable set of principles.

But Republicans promote policies that I prefer over those promoted by Democrats.  I agree with Republican policies about 80 percent of the time, and Democrat policies maybe 2 percent of the time.  So I've got noplace else to go.

I tried to defend Bush when he was attacked unfairly, which was pretty much every day.  But I was against many of his signature achievements, especially Medicare Part D and No Child Left Behind.  I didn't oppose his action to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, but then became concerned that he seemed naive that Iraqis might embrace us as liberators, as we found quickly that they did not.  And it took Bush way too long to realize that a Marshall Plan for Iraq simply wasn't going to work.

But now we have a president who pushes policies I strongly disagree with just about 100 percent of the time.  He's an egregious and shameless liar who makes me cringe whenever I hear one of his speeches.  And his corruption and tyrranical tendencies are just now starting to leak out and become public.

I'm old enough to not be as worried for my own future.  I probably won't be able to retire with the same level of Social Security and Medicare benefits as my parents, but I'm doing all I can to prepare to enter retirement self-sufficient.  I'm more concerned for my children, who are going to have to suffer under what looks like will become a totalitarian regime.  They won't have an American Dream to pursue, and will be stuck in the gray drugery of life in a Socialist society where dreams are frowned upon.

If only there was something I could do to wake people up so they could shake off the bonds placed on them by an entrenched government.  Beyond this small blog and supporting candidates who seem to share my worldview, there doesn't seem to be much I can do to have an effect.