I can never remember if I live in a red state or a blue state (my spouse would say that could be the mad cow disease kicking in), as the colors are both in the American flag I can see outside my window at work every week day. There are some places where the red stripes are touching the blue field of stars, but you would not think that is the case with our two primary political parties in these "supposedly United" States these days.
I tried to watch some of the RNC this summer, but after the robot Callista and creepy Newt show, I could not continue to expose myself to such torture. I have heard some clips of the even more creepy Clint Eastwood performance later in the week, and they make me disappointed that an actor whose body of non-political work I respect would stoop to that level. [I had a good laugh when he later said that anyone who gave him a live unscripted spot on TV got exactly what they deserved.]
More than 160 years after the War Between the States (there is nothing civil about most wars), it seems that we are suffering from an unhealthy level of partisanship. There are red states and blue states and blue dog democrats (not to be confused with the yellow dog democrats) and the number of politically dominated news [and comedy] shows seems to have exploded in the last 10 years.
I find it interesting how the far left and far right perspectives are closer to one another than they might think. The folks in the middle, the moderates of each party (in our primarily two party system) are also fairly close. I like to think of it as a mobius strip, where the moderates are close to one another in the middle of the straight portion, while the extremists are right at the ends where the twist happens.
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| [borrowed from http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/american-flag-2a.jpg] |
I tried to watch some of the RNC this summer, but after the robot Callista and creepy Newt show, I could not continue to expose myself to such torture. I have heard some clips of the even more creepy Clint Eastwood performance later in the week, and they make me disappointed that an actor whose body of non-political work I respect would stoop to that level. [I had a good laugh when he later said that anyone who gave him a live unscripted spot on TV got exactly what they deserved.]
More than 160 years after the War Between the States (there is nothing civil about most wars), it seems that we are suffering from an unhealthy level of partisanship. There are red states and blue states and blue dog democrats (not to be confused with the yellow dog democrats) and the number of politically dominated news [and comedy] shows seems to have exploded in the last 10 years.
I find it interesting how the far left and far right perspectives are closer to one another than they might think. The folks in the middle, the moderates of each party (in our primarily two party system) are also fairly close. I like to think of it as a mobius strip, where the moderates are close to one another in the middle of the straight portion, while the extremists are right at the ends where the twist happens.
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| [borrowed from http://images.yourdictionary.com/images/main/A4mobius.jpg] |
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