Bleh

Still not feeling well. Left work a little early yesterday so I could go back home and huddle under the covers. I'm beginning to think that there's nothing really wrong with me, that I'm just reacting to the horrendous amount of political jibberish pervading everything. I was actually pretty excited about Dean because he seemed to have quite a few moments of humanity, which set him above the usual politicians. I didn't agree with him 100%, I didn't know if he'd be a good president, but I was sure willing to hear more from him. And now it seems like it'll be Bush v Kerry. Politician v politician - no humanity in sight. Rhetoric and bile v rhetoric and bile - no honest assessment of the state of our country and how it could be better. Conservative v liberal(-ish) - and that debate sounds like different arguments dressed up in the same language and debate tactics. It's hard to choose from one or the other when conservatives are telling me they're right and how evil the liberals are, and then liberals turn around and tell me they're right and it's those conservatives who are evil.

Both sides should know better.

Since when did politics become telling you how horrid the other side is and how life will just get worse and worse with them, the implication being that the person doing the talking has all the answers and life will be vastly improved under them - until the "other side" gets control of another branch of the government and derails everything? One day, I'd like to sit down with a bunch of arguments/speeches/debates/what have you from both conservatives and liberals. I would just start marking the similarities. Sure, the overall thrust is different, but they use a lot of the same words and rhetorical devices to get you there. I wonder if either side would hear such a comparison? I bet they wouldn't believe it.

Ideology is a terrible thing when it blinds you to something. It's a worthless thing when it blinds you to the fact that you're no better than the folks you are railing against. Moral superiority is a terrifying thing indeed.

I may lose my stomach lining because of it, but I'm going to keep hoping that one day politics will figure out that demonizing the opposition isn't the way to improve our country and it's certainly not helping society in general.