Political debating amungst the rest of us
My cheeky sense of humour got me into a political debate with an old aquantaince on Facebook this week and it's been nothing short of painful.
Having been a liberal my entire life, never supporting the war, even though I come from a military and mostly Repulican familily, it hasn't been easy. However I have always stuck to my guns (no pun intended) and am an open-minded, see no colour, respect your race, religion, creed, sexuality, whatever. I have always been extremely pacifistic - have a great theory on 'paint ball' wars versus this real amo crap, and belive in socialism - not 100% but I do believe sharing the wealth isn't the worst thing in the world. It works, for the most part in many places, could use tweaks, but what system is perfect.
Now I have this aquantaince whom threw the question in why suddenly everyone thinks it's "cool" to be liberal. Well, because it is. Because not wanting guns on the street is cool. Because helping other people is cool. Beacause supporting gay marriage and accepting people for who they are and what language they speak IS cool. Being a good person inside & out, well that's cool, and that's what I would want my children to see.
Not trying to get a president in office that believes in (and she copy & pasted this into our argument - yes, I was arguing from the heart and mind and I got some copy & pasted website retort. I know) Pro Guns, Pro War, No socialised healthcare, No Gay Marriage, English must be the frist language of America, anti-abortion. Yes, wait until it's out of the womb, then shoot it.
To me America has become completely split. Those who have become middleclass borderline racists and those who know how it feels or can at least empathise with those who know how it feels to be at the bottom.
Before I received my cut & paste reply, I had asked her (regarding what she calls 'crap healthcare', and she's a hard working American & deserves the best doctors - socialised medicine was the topic) about the other hard working Americans. The ones who are right now everyday losing their jobs, but have been Hard Working Americans (seems to be a coined phrase) for years - they don't deserve any help? It's their fault the American economy is fkt? What about the people that are just over the line of getting goverment help, but can't afford insurance for them or their children and someone gets sick (I have friends & family back home in this situation). From what I know, the parents just do their best to not get the kids sick, but the parents, no matter how bad, can never go to the doctor, but if the child gets sick, eventually, it's them to the doctor or food/rent/bills. Then if they get prescribed medicine, well...
It does my head in, makes me angry and I thought maybe I would get a valid argument that I could understand. I used to be very into politics when I was at University. My first elevtion I voted for Ralph Nadar, the Green Party. That was the first time George Bush came into office. Not long after that I began to realise how absurd it all was and how impossible it was to convince some of the close minded selfish stubborn people out there to see the damage they were really doing, just to save money that their kids are going to have to pay taxes on when they die anyhow.
-end rant-