Political Comment

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies." ... Groucho Marx

I bought several copies of the hardback book, "Do As I Say (Not As I Do), Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy" by Peter Schweizer, with the full intention of sending a copy to each of my liberal children. (I kept hearing in the background of my mind, the cowboy song, "Don't Let Your Children Grow Up To Be Liberals ... ahh ... I mean Cowboys." Oops ... Freudian slip!)

As the Christmas mailing time approached and passed, the books stayed glued to the kitchen counter. Some force was preventing me from sending the books. I handed one to Patrick, when he was here Christmas Eve, but it was left behind.

A couple of days ago, I was talking to my daughter, Courtney, and I mentioned the book and that I might send her one. She posed the question, couldn't a similar book be written about Conservatives, too? I had to admit that was certainly a true statement. If that is true, and it is, then why was this book written? Obvious: To make money. Do you think a book entitled, "All the great things Conservatives Say," would sell? Of course not! So maybe there is a book titled, "All The Lies Conservatives Tell Us." I'm sure it would sell well.

Bottom Line: Anyone who has been alive in this world for more than a couple of decades, most likely has several of the "Not As I Do" or "All The Lies ... " stories that can be dug up about them and, with great fanfare, flung to the public like meat to a hungry cougar.

Now here's the point I'm leading to: The more I listen to TV News, whether it's Fox, CNN, CSPAN or Katie Couric, the not-too-subtle hook is to stir up controversy. Know why newspapers overwhelmingly report "bad news?" It's because no one would buy the paper to read about what a great birthday party George W Bush had. But, if George W Bush had a slip of the tongue and said something foolish, it would be all over the front page. Example: A Rhodes Scholar, by the name of Dan Quale, misspelled potato ... and it was the talk of the nation for months. In fact, it was probably a major contributing factor to his political demise.

We now have one of the most virulently polarized political societies. It doesn't matter if it's a person-on-the-street, a major network news outlet or even the used-to-be-prestigious New York Times: Each "point of news outlet" now has a locked-in-concrete political view. The heck with trying to further well being or reporting true facts, what is now important, it seems to me, is a hard-sell on whatever their slant is. The "facts" are what they rationalize them to be. The result: The whole country is "choosing up sides." This is not good: No one will listen to other points of view because the assumption, which is probably true, is that the opposing points are probably a "slanted pack of lies."

It's always been my point of view that if you introduce a problem, you better be ready to introduce a solution. Here's mine: STOP listening to TV news ... and try to understand that the other good citizens of this USA are just as vitally interested in the survival of the country and our way of life, too.

Remember the words of Courtney: "Can't they say the same thing about Conservatives/Liberals, too?"

Let's all take a deep breath and step back from the talking-heads and try to ask ourselves, what would we have done in the same situation, knowing the same "facts" that were available at that time. (And I'm NOT referring to the invasion of Iraq!) And another one of my favorite questions: Does it pass the Smell Test? Apply that to every situation.

Thanks for reading.