Thanks for the help!

I must hand it to the first two individuals who left comments in reference to my inaugural blog entry. Sometimes coming up with an inspirational subject matter to write about can be difficult. So many issues out there that deserve attention it’s good to have such an important problem brought to light. These two individuals though passionate in their replies, supply no facts, offer no solutions, nor do they raise any real questions. They simply supply disrespectful, political rhetoric, designed to incite anger in their perceived political opposition. This will not help fix anything. In order to do what is inherently American, and come to a compromise that will move this country forward we first must speak to each other with respect.

          This has been a growing problem within our country’s political process. The two parties have waging all out political war on each other at the expense of the American people. Both political parties have spent many hundreds of millions of dollars on negative ads that smear reputations not spread facts. They both have taken sound bites out of context and used them to tell anything but the truth. Political shock jocks who rule they air waves in order to insure ratings result to name calling not fact recital. These hosts spread disrespectful catch phrases that their clones love to recite in response to anything that might be alleged as political opposition. Most of these clones have little or no answer when you ask them why they support what they do.  What once was a political debate in this country has often deteriorated to the point it resembles something that stinks and that we all don’t want to step in.

          The answers to the problems that face America and its citizens are not all red or all blue, all liberal or all conservative. But rather these difficult answers will be most certainly found through the collective ideas of many, working together in compromise. Compromise is the basis of democracy and it’s through compromise that our founding fathers first lit the fires of freedom. But none of it would have ever been possible without respect. We most certainly will not agree on many things but we cannot move forward as a people and a country without respect.

          We must raise real issues and put forth truth if we are to do our part to insure success in this continuing experiment in democracy. Many generations of Americans have sacrificed so much so that we have the opportunity to speak freely as we do here. All of us should be willing to sacrifice some pride and realize that none of us have all the answers, but through intelligent respectful debate we might find the ones we need.

          So with all this in mind I ask either of these two individuals (or anyone else) to come up with one issue, one problem, and come up with possible solutions and put it out there for an intelligent respectful debate!

We Need Each Other!

The headlines of the county’s financial pages are etched with tales of financial meltdowns, recessions, and corporate corruption. Political battles wage in halls of government and thru the media over deficit spending, tax cuts, health care, jobs creation, and more. We are currently engaged in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as tracking down a worldwide network of terrorist, and all we seem to do is yell at each other. In a time in which this country needs us to come together to solve some critically important issues all we do is scream….

” My ideology is better than yours is!”

    ……and frankly folks it’s time to grow up.

          The main problem as this writer sees it is that we have lost our common bond. That connection that binds us together for no other reason than ultimately we are all in this together. The revelation that as individuals we are all part of something bigger than ourselves and that for any of us to climb to the highest of heights we must help each other because collectively we can rise so much higher than we can individually.

          Currently the largest division that divides our country is one of color, not black or white, red or yellow, but rather green. It is no secret that the division of wealth in this country has changed. The wealthy in America have grown wealthier in the past thirty years than in any time in this country’s history and the middle class continues to shrink as more and more fall into poverty. In the US the top one percent of America currently own over forty percent of the country’s assets and earn over forty percent of the country’s annual income, further widening the gap year after year.

          Politically the two sides are traditionally represented by our two political parties, Republicans the wealthy and Democrats the American worker.  The interesting thing is how the two sides depend on each other but yet politically the two are at odds over just about everything. The wealthy are wealthy because the average American buys what they’re selling and the workers have the money to buy because they are employed by the wealthy. A symbiotic relationship if ever there was one.

           This being true, why have the two sides become so far apart politically? Why do our politicians spend so much time screaming how the other side is wrong rather than coming up with political compromise that would benefit us all? It is not hard to see that our two major political parties the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and the RNC (Republican National Committee) have become extremely powerful and self serving. Both parties control the massive amounts money that is needed for election to political office. They have put their own political power above the good of the country. Their goal is not to make America a better place for all, but rather how many seats they fill in the next election cycle. They will not support any candidate that does not tow the party line and further the party’s agenda. If you step out of line and attempt compromise the money dries up and so does the hope re-election.

          The media can often fuel the fire in the way they report on this clash of political power hungry behemoths. The days of double checking sources and confirmation of facts has given way to biased based reporting that cow tails to a certain demographic to generate ratings to sell more advertising.

Media outlets now pay millions of dollars to political shock jocks like Rush Limbaugh to call opposition leaders names and provide one sided opinions that fuel the growing anger that is welling up between the two sides. This is the way many of Americans now get there political input and ultimately this type of one sided reporting serve little good helping anyone make informed political decisions.   

The problem now becomes how as a nation, do we bring to a halt what has become a lucrative and powerful status quo. Media outlets enjoy the ratings that bring large advertising dollars and the neither party is willing to be the first to compromise for fear of losing power to their long time rivals. In my opinion this is all very short sighted. In the end both sides need each other and this growing gap in America will cause us all to suffer. Strict adherence to either party’s ideology will ultimately lead to further strife and anger between our citizens and not lead to a brighter tomorrow for our children.

The first step in my opinion to bring to an end this senseless power grab is true campaign finance reform. Some type of public funded campaign system which removes the control that our parties have on our elected officials. Let’s let political ideologies go back to being simply a guide for our politicians rather than a set of shackles that bind their ability to lead this country. As far as how to control the media’s influence in all this it’s simple, just change the damn channel!