Ah, populism. Stick it to the man. Gotta' love idealists. (Actually, you don't. At all.)
Idealism, in every day life, is a lot like optimism. Everyone wants to be an idealist. But we all realize we can't, because that's not real, and to quote Yoda: "Work, that will not." (He never said that, but were he involved in politics, i.e. Attack of the Clones, he probably would.)
But at the very same time, being a realist sucks, so we tend to dance in this political middle ground where we don't actually know what to do all the time. We call this state of dancing "being a Moderate." (Because not knowing what to do all the time is actually a human characteristic, and is OK.) And it's what works. Sure, idealists (Who are wrong, about nearly everything.) call us "fence sitters" and say we have no opinions of our own. But, like I said, idealists are wrong. About everything. See, here's the thing. In life, so many unique situations come at us, so quickly, that we can feel like we are under a constant attack. Sometimes, the security blanket we need is the 100% certainty that it is someone else's fault. At this point, joining a grass roots political movement, liberal or conservative, begins to make a lot of sense. All they do is functionally point fingers at their opposite numbers, blame them from everything from the State of the Economy to the death of Christ, and claim that everything good in the world has come from their ideas and Dolph Lundgren movies. Political idealist are a lot like fundamentalists in religion. They believe in a concept so wholeheartedly, so fully, that it consumes them. They simply cannot understand how you (A moderate.) don't agree with them. And because you don't, you are deemed ignorant. (After about two nights of news reports and talk show interviews, begins to sound more and more like unholy.)
The truly baffling thing about idealists is that they are, and I stress this, the minority. And yet somehow, they always end up getting the most air time, and the longest speeches. Every time one side gets a majority in Congress, up springs a new extremist group, pushing to get them replaced in the next elections, with candidates who will make everything better. (Despite over 100 years of this, nothing ever seems to get better, at least according to the growing number of protest groups and extremist parties.)
Enter the Tea Party "Protest" Movement. A group of right wing hippies against "big government." They are a grass roots movement who favor the saying "Don't tread on me." Despite the fact that they are funded by some of the richest men in America, mainly the Koch brothers. (Don't have time to read two blogs? Essentially, the men that fund the Tea Party are at the heart of big business in America. They are so mind numbingly concerned with their profits that they are against public schools.) The deep irony here is that the people that accept this money, are self proclaimed "Christian mothers." They never stop saying that they are doing this so their children can have a better country to live in. Really? By taking money by men like these? (Read about Palin, or O'Donnell, listen to one Tea Party protest, and experience the heart stopping irony of who actually funds them.)
O'Donnel, the newest white woman to run for politics on the Republican billet, has had a string of victories over Democratic nominees, and says this is due to the country "finally waking up." She ignores the fact that men like Sal Russo, savvy politicos who have been behind many of the Republican extreme right wing victories over the past 50 years, have spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on political smear campaigns against her opponents. (Ignoring the fact the O'Donnell very publicly lied about her education, and has had a string of incredibly bad publicity incidents due to her views on sexual education. I.E. She thinks masturbation is wrong, she thinks AIDS research funding should be lowered because it promotes bad behavior, and she thinks that condoms won't work in preventing STD's. Yes, she's against condoms.)
And this is the reality with political idealist movements, the reality that forces me to consistently align myself against them, even in defense of administrations I'm not particularly fond of: these idealists don't care who funds their message, or what they're really saying, all they care about is that people they disagree with are hurt, that their opinions and messages are discredited.
This is not how the political system should work. This is not what a democracy is. We shouldn't make others look bad, but make ourselves look better. Other people's opinions matter, otherwise we would still serve the King. Being ignorant of your own groups goals, and not questioning what it is that you are doing, better defines a cult than a political party. It is absurd to not have anything to say for yourself, but have a myriad of thins to say against someone else.
Politicians and political groups constantly miss the point. Governments do not exist for the sake of Government. (Yes, bureaucracies lead us, and their own members, to believe that, but I assure you, it's not the case.) Government is about the people, about what's best for the nation. And that includes more than just Christians, whites, blacks and people who think reality TV is "totally cool." Politics are about being inclusive, about working together to find the best solution for all of us, and if you can't agree with that, you don't belong in office.
That's not saying don't get together and protest, don't share your beliefs. We need that as a country. Sure, I don't want to hear it, but that's my prerogative. I just don't believe people like Palin and O'Donnell, people who want to force their views upon the people, should be allowed in office. Have your say, get a talk show, throw your rhetoric over the air waves, that is your right as an American. But don't pretend that way of life is best for everyone.
Next up: The Pope's visit to Britain a success! Only 10,000 people protested, and Germany didn't invade!
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