Hopelessly Divided
Watching the Twitter stream during last night's Republican National Convention coverage was telling. On a night that featured Ann Romney, whose goal was to introduce her husband to the viewers, and Gov. Chris Christie whose goal was to fire up the base, the contrast between left and right could not have been greater.
The left whined about rich folks, back breaking work, no health care, union busting, hate, racism and despair. The right focused on God, country and the ability to pull one's self up by one's bootstraps. The right also talked about the oncoming pain that will occur when/if we break the addiction of trillions of dollars of handouts.
What I feel on the morning after the night before is a sense of "will it ever be right again?"
Our nation is divided pretty much 50-50 along the lines of "give us what we need" vs "earn what you get". The right wants limited government and the left sees that as wanting NO government. Something as simple as a WWII vet getting a house and an education from the GI Bill is being held up as an example of something the "Tea Baggers" would have destroyed.
Next week is the Democrat National Convention. The same echo chamber (myself included) will be watching the soaring videos, the rousing words of "Yes we can" and of returning troops and apple pie, of "hard work" and "organized labor" clawing their fair share from the greedy corporate bastards. The right will see it all as a crafty facade while the left see it as getting their due.
What will come of all of it?
In the end, the election will come down to one or two crucial states and we will still be divided 50-50. If Obama wins a second term, the producers of this country will dissolve into palpable funk and economic growth will wane further. If Romney wins, business will probably pick up noticeably because of a boost in optimism.
The looter class (those filthy rich who do not produce anything but make money on gaming the system), the moocher class (those at the bottom who likewise produce nothing, but consume much more than they generate) and the entitled class (those that have contributed to the system over their lifetime, but will extract much more than they ever contributed) will continue to roll on, business as usual.
Wouldn't it be great if we could split the nation 50-50 along party lines? Let the left have their piece and the right have their piece. Then we could see what actually works. Would we have an Ayn Randian world of abundance on one side and mire on the other, or would be have a Utopian world where equality gives everyone what they need and there is no strife and conflict?
(I don't really want to split our nation in half, but at some point, the game needs to play out, like a 38-7 NFL game, not a 0-0 soccer draw. We need to settle the question of who is right.)
Alas, this will never happen, so we are doomed to continue to fight for what we think is right. And, since the gap between what the left thinks and what the right believes is becoming a canyon, it doesn't look like things will improve any time soon.
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but this is the way I see it and I don't see it getting better any time soon.
The left whined about rich folks, back breaking work, no health care, union busting, hate, racism and despair. The right focused on God, country and the ability to pull one's self up by one's bootstraps. The right also talked about the oncoming pain that will occur when/if we break the addiction of trillions of dollars of handouts.
What I feel on the morning after the night before is a sense of "will it ever be right again?"
Our nation is divided pretty much 50-50 along the lines of "give us what we need" vs "earn what you get". The right wants limited government and the left sees that as wanting NO government. Something as simple as a WWII vet getting a house and an education from the GI Bill is being held up as an example of something the "Tea Baggers" would have destroyed.
Next week is the Democrat National Convention. The same echo chamber (myself included) will be watching the soaring videos, the rousing words of "Yes we can" and of returning troops and apple pie, of "hard work" and "organized labor" clawing their fair share from the greedy corporate bastards. The right will see it all as a crafty facade while the left see it as getting their due.
What will come of all of it?
In the end, the election will come down to one or two crucial states and we will still be divided 50-50. If Obama wins a second term, the producers of this country will dissolve into palpable funk and economic growth will wane further. If Romney wins, business will probably pick up noticeably because of a boost in optimism.
The looter class (those filthy rich who do not produce anything but make money on gaming the system), the moocher class (those at the bottom who likewise produce nothing, but consume much more than they generate) and the entitled class (those that have contributed to the system over their lifetime, but will extract much more than they ever contributed) will continue to roll on, business as usual.
Wouldn't it be great if we could split the nation 50-50 along party lines? Let the left have their piece and the right have their piece. Then we could see what actually works. Would we have an Ayn Randian world of abundance on one side and mire on the other, or would be have a Utopian world where equality gives everyone what they need and there is no strife and conflict?
(I don't really want to split our nation in half, but at some point, the game needs to play out, like a 38-7 NFL game, not a 0-0 soccer draw. We need to settle the question of who is right.)
Alas, this will never happen, so we are doomed to continue to fight for what we think is right. And, since the gap between what the left thinks and what the right believes is becoming a canyon, it doesn't look like things will improve any time soon.
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but this is the way I see it and I don't see it getting better any time soon.
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