The end of politics in politics.

[GutZ]

Given the recent discussion about plans failing or working (L vs R), Do you guys think if Obama's plans work out, that the whole left vs right thing will die down as well?

 

This whole conversion from Bush to Obama has really kicked up the parties drive to make everything politic. I am pretty sure if Obama bought a dog, there would be a political story attached. Say a white poodle, would be seen as "Obama brings white slave to white house!" joke of course.

 

Also have we sort of brought this upon ourselves with the vindictive behaviours (Atleast I can say I attributed to it) with the attacks on Bush. Even though I do find there is slight difference because his action have been brought to light as being wrong, and I think outrage was somewhat justified.

 

I just see that we are slightly forcing politicians to be too much of a politician, which is far from how I usually viewed them. I am starting to see that politicians are a product of their base. That base is slowly fading with the BS.

 

Are we ever going to be getting out of this cycle? If Obama fails it's going to chaos. Are we really dependant on one man to create good change? The more I think about Obama has to have the toughest job in the world right now.

 

Someone at CERN could make a blackhole that would devour our galaxy, and we would be fighting Obama's plan lol.

 

Will there be a time when parties can agree to disagree and sit in the same room without all the drama and BS? I am not saying we have to guilt accept our oppositions opinions, nothing wrong with a solid arguement, but I kinda feel like, we are all missing the point or something.

 

(nothing strongly for a specific topic, but generally around the idea I plaster all over the place. Trying to give no limitations if that is allowed, I like free discussions they can go bad but they can go good too)

Edited August 11, 2009 by GutZ

[DJBruce]

I highly doubt that their will be a time of partisan peace in the near future. Regardless of the outcome of Obama's current policies. In a few months the campaign for midterm elections will begin and only further the partisanship. Once the dust from the midterm elections settles there will be about a year and a half from the presidential election which means the parties will go into overdrive attacking each other. So I don't see an end to this partisan ship for at least three years or so.

[Pangloss]

Actually Obama did buy a dog, but it happened early and didn't become too politicized.

 

I agree it's a problem, and it's not going away any time soon. The main thing that distresses me is when I see friends and intelligent people participating in it. But given our distance from daily news events and raw facts, and the complexities of some issues like global warming and health care, we can't make do with raw data, we need analysis. But at the same time it's become almost impossible to get that analysis without a political vector attached to it.

 

I suspect that when historians look back at this period in a century or two, they'll say that humanity was just beginning to learn how to be globally connected and behave as a community. People in that time will laugh at today's spin-doctoring (from all sides!) and wonder how people could not see through it. Maybe they'll even judge them with a scoring system: "Aw, isn't that cute -- he performed a full Rush with a three-quarter Moore and a follow-through half-Hannity!"

[navigator]

Maybe Obamas dog should have been more politicized. After all he thought it was prudent to spend six months choosing a dog, but tried to pass socialized health care in a matter of weeks...what did he care though, he made sure he was exempt from it. Where he screwed up was thinking the American people were too stupid to put two and two together.

 

Politics have become so devisive, as illustrated above, I too am guilty. I believe it is our reponsibilty to respect others views, even if we disagree, and find a happy medium in an effort to arrive at some form of unity. Problem is there will always be greed and until the lobbyist are more strictly regulated, our elected officials motivations will always be suspect.

[GutZ]

Pangloss: That's an interesting point. I think the Obama administration has taken a good first step by making websites that give specific information to the public directly.

 

I was a very skeptical person of the administration at first and I still am but how this administration has handled the issues lately has been impressive.

 

It's too bad they can't create peer review panels for government lol.

 

I think to these recent partisan wars have really opened my mind to what I do as well. I have no idea why I fall for it sometimes. I don't think I have been totally realistic. Maybe it just becomes easier to do. "It's the republicans fault". Little comments here and there escape you. When you see it in such an overwhelming matter you really see the effect it has and how damaging it can be.

 

I hope this will be the case for a lot of people.

 

navigator: You have no faith at all in the government at all do you? lol. Why? In regards to the health care..with a gloomy economy how long do you think it is appropriate to wait?

Edited August 11, 2009 by GutZ

[iNow]

Maybe Obamas dog should have been more politicized. After all he thought it was prudent to spend six months choosing a dog, but tried to pass socialized health care in a matter of weeks...what did he care though, he made sure he was exempt from it. Where he screwed up was thinking the American people were too stupid to put two and two together.

Wow... another baseless assertion, and example of poisoning the well. You're nothing if not consistent, navigator.

[Pangloss]

I think to these recent partisan wars have really opened my mind to what I do as well. I have no idea why I fall for it sometimes.

 

We fall for it because sometimes the partisans are right, or pass along useful information. The difficulty arises from separating the signal from the noise. You can't just do the opposite of whatever a partisan tells you, because that may just be what a different partisan wants you to do.

 

But it's not so bad -- we can't be that bad at spotting the noise or we wouldn't be talking about it, right?

 

My wife's cousin is an austrian-type (free market) economist and a tenured professor of economics at a prestigious university. He calls Obama a socialist. He tells his students this on a regular basis. Three cheers for academic freedom, I guess, but I wonder sometimes who he thinks he's helping. He's certainly not promoting free market economics and a rejection of progressive politics when he behaves that way. Same deal with the plethora of left-leaning professors, who've probably pushed more people right than left in recent years, thanks to conservative talk radio making them sound like the devil incarnate.