Pot, Meet Kettle

So the usual explanations for lack of a post; work sucks, no free time, blah, blah, blah. Honestly, the biggest issue has been Kerri's roommate fiasco, which is going to have to be a separate Soap Opera like post.

Some of you may have already come to this conclusion, but I have a rather deep interest in politics (shocking eh?). It started back when I took debate in high school where it escalated to enormous proportions, then rappidly tapered off during the college years. Since leaving school, my interest has been slowly returning, a trend that I've found to be rapidly accelerating in the last few months. I think the growing discrepancy between where the American political climate is headed, and where I want it to be is the primary reason for my concern. (according to the political compass I am a Libertarian (politics) Left (economics) thinker, whereas G.W. is an Authoritarian Right thinker - actually I score out right about where Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are.)

My largest frustration right now is that there are just so many things to talk about right now that I don't know where to start. The American political landscape is currently full of strongly contested issues, and instead of resolving any of them, we keep jumping further and further into the conflict. The largest problem I have is that the contests are mainly about whether to maintain the status quo, or to procede down a more conservative/authoritative path. It's a strange place for America to be, as I remember 10 or so years ago, the "status quo position" belonged to the conservatives. The pendulum has indeed shifted, and it seems to be swinging even more rapidly every day.

However, there's a huge hypocrisy I see to all of this. The same leaders that are currently trying to turn the U.S. into a more authoritarian/conservative/religious nation are the same ones that decry the authoritarian/conservative/religious nations of the Middle East. The only real differences are (A) The size of the nations, (B) The economic/political/military clout of the nations, and (C) The religion in question (Islam vs. Christianity). I'm intruiged to hear a justification for the dichotomy between what our leaders are attempting to foist on the rest of the world (by force if necessary) and what they are attempting to foist on us.

I don't feign to know what the real course of action we should be taking as a nation is. However, I do know that whenever two or more people are involved, extremism in anything is going to lead to problems. I'd love to see the American public vote a more moderate legislative body into place, a legislature based on people who can think about issues intelligently and logically. Instead, politicians are becoming chosen more and more by their view on specific issues, encouraging people to vote on a compartmentalized context. "Well the canidate is for issue A, but against issue B. Issue B is more important to me, so I guess I'm voting for the other guy."

I know it's a pipe dream (and an oxymoron) but I wish we could return to rational politics.