Looking at Politics, Issue By Issue

Life would be a lot simpler for me if I followed the example of millions of my fellow Americans who joyfully and dutifully march in lockstep with their own political parties, passionately adopting all of the party positions on the issues...even those that, given a little thought, might not be in the best interests of either the country or themselves personally. Yes, many folks can’t wait to turn their radio on to Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage...or eagerly anticipate what FoxNews will tell them to think through their idol Sean Hannity. That’s just on the political right...on the left we have MSNBC and their cast of opinion makers like Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow, each of them looking through the TV “at” the viewer with a look that says I know you’ll believe anything I tell you, you’re one of us. And CNN, while pretending to be unbiased, sometimes has the most biased presentation of the issues, with the moderator usually eager to jump into the fray with his or her presumptions. My political philosophy has me usually landing on the side of the Democrats, but that doesn’t mean that they are always correct on the issues, in my opinion. So it grieves me at times to side with President Trump on border security and national defense while I know that he ultimately isn’t temperamentally or morally suited for such a position of responsibility and authority. Yet my own party’s leaders would go against steps that I feel we need to take to ensure our national security, so it can get to be trying hearing people who are all on one side or the other, usually delivering their viewpoints in a very harsh, judgmental, and personal manner directed at the “bad guys” and those who support them. The way I see it, if you’re a thinking person you’ll have varying views on issues, most of which will probably resonate with your general political alignment and a few of which won’t. It isn’t our responsibility to conform ourselves to the positions of our respective political parties, but rather their responsibility to accommodate and not summarily dismiss ours...