rivin

Okay, here's the thing that really irks me about the national political conversation, or lack thereof. We really don't, as a country, seem to care as much about progressing as we do about our "side" being right. It doesn't matter what party you belong to, even if it's a third party. I'm going to use the Foley incident ONLY because it is the most recent. There are examples from all sides. Foley has horrible conversations with underage boys. Everybody castigates him, because that is what is expected of them. Then the politicking begins. Republican bloggers and pundits are trying to change the focus to 1. suspicion about the timing of the release of the information, and 2. claims of hypocrisy on the part of the Dems. Dems, nowhere near guiltless, don't wait for even the tiniest scrap of evidence or investigation before it's a "cover-up" and somehow Foley's actions are a reflection on the entire Republican Party. And no matter what they do, if you support a Third Party, any action they take are the signs that it's time for them to go. We seem to have totally given up on listening to the other side. What's worse, the drive for our side to be right, and our side to "win" overrides the general concern for the well-being of America. Democrat, Republican, Independent, you, your friend, me. We're all responsible for a serious breakdown in the national dialogue. We get immediately defensive when a member of the party we support gets in trouble. We try to "flip the script" on the other side. If someone criticizes Bush, someone invokes Clinton, no matter how irrelevant it is. If someone criticizes Kerry, someone immediately points out all the Bush incidents of alleged "flip-flopping." We do it under the guise of "I'm concerned about the welfare of my country" but in truth most of us do it because we want our side to come out smelling like roses, even if our side is no side. How do we fix it? I really don't know. But we need to acknowledge it. A friend once introduced me to a great quote that I had not encountered before: "The first thing you should do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging." How do we get Americans to put down the shovel?