Warning: the following is political in nature and should not be read by anyone.
If I were to tell you: “Hey, this square is green.” — what would your response be?
Unless you were colorblind, it should be something along the lines of “Why, yes. It most certainly is green.”
After all, there’s really no disputing it. Logic dictates that the square is green. The common and widely accepted criteria of how the color green is defined, has been met. Hell. Ask a child, a senior citizen, someone from Greece, it doesn’t matter. It’s green.
Why then, if I were to say: “I’m not voting for Hilary Clinton. She’s a liar!” — would a common response be “Well. At least she’s not as big of a liar as Jeb Bush.”
It’s as if one type of liar is somehow better, or more justifiable than the other.
Obviously Ben Carson’s beliefs on the origins and purpose of the pyramids are wrong (personally, I’d categorize them as borderline psychotic.) Yet to defend the man by saying, “Yeah? Well. It could be worse: he could be a socialist” is dizzying to me.
Again, justifying one’s questionable beliefs because they’re not as disagreeable as anothers.
I’ve long said that the two party system in this country is broken. It is. Politicians across the U.S. no longer seem concerned with doing what’s right for the country but rather not allowing the other party to do what’s right for the country. The notion of compromise no longer exists.
Sadly, we the people, have become even more divided than those who represent us. People will defend someone like Donald Trump – not because he might make a good president – but because “he’s not Barack Obama.”
Even worse, we tend to judge, and in some cases even alienate, our own friends and family because of their political affiliation. As a country, we’ve somehow gotten to the point where merely having a different opinion on something is frowned upon. We either need to think, believe, bleed and behave 100% Republican or 100% Democrat or else rational conversation simply cannot occur.
If you’re somewhere in the middle, you’re virtually non-existent.
Ask a Democrat if the square is green. They may (or may not) say Yes. I guarantee, however, if they say the square is, in fact, green – there will be a line of Republicans in full disagreement with some going so far as proposing a bill labeling all green squares as a threat to the US.
Now ask a Republican if the square is green. Upon acknowledgment, the Democrats would respond vehemently; attacking and disputing the fact and/or demanding a new color be added while taking their case to social media and the Sunday morning talk shows.
It has to stop, people. We need to stop fighting amongst ourselves. We need to stop politicizing EVERYTHING. We need to raise the bar and hold elected officials (and those running for office) to a higher standard.
We need to call a spade a spade and stop defending candidates and their stupidity because of some polarizing, semi-archaic, political belief system.
We need to do better and stop settling for “it could be worse.”
