When you look at the outright lies, distortions, misinformation, disinformation, and untruths flung about during our political campaigns, it’s no wonder our government is so… well… sorry, I can’t avoid saying it (this used to be a G-rated web site!): fucked up.

During our visit to Washington, D.C. last September, we saw monuments to all the great things our government stands for.

It’s clear to me that no monuments will ever be erected to the colossal (well, I already broke the ice, no? So why not?) bullshit that our political system has become.

I’m not sure, however, that I’d classify Michael Moore (an extreme liberal) as simplistic; he had a point, and was merely using the same logic that the conservative Republicans (note I said “conservative Republicans,” not Republicans in general!) have been throwing at the general public for decades now. The problem is that the Republicans — and a good number of Democrats as well — tend to reduce things to the lowest common denominator — to everyone’s detriment.

That’s why I quoted Obama before, and Shakespeare here: not because I’m liberal, but because he’s got a good point: we need to change our collective world view in terms of our politics before we skin ourselves alive.

We also need to change our collective concept of Lowest Common Denominator before we go politically bankrupt, if we haven’t already.

As for working together, good luck. I think we’re starting to see the coming of age of the “me” generation, which has been pampered by their parents, treated like the star of the show and center of attention for all of their childhood, and have a general lacking of teamwork and cooperation skills. It’s all about them, their views, interests, their way or the highway, etc. ad nauseum. The sixth-grade-Michael-Moore-logic isn’t helping either, people will sooner shout a dissenter down and fling insults than hear their opinion out (at least on my campus, and I’ve been leaning very little to the right or left lately, I’m more fed up than anything.) We need a wakeup call.

No one wants to do the hard work to create new solutions to societal problems; they’d rather “divide and conquer” and use the majority of the polarized to dictate their tiny world view, regardless of how oppressive or restrictive that view may be. In the meantime, we strangle our own creativity, which we could better use to help solve some of those sticky problems.

The solution set is to go back to working with each other, not denigrating what others say, and including any serious comment for consideration. Compromise, which is the political art of letting something you don’t agree with happen while you get something you want to happen that others dont want — to the benefit of all — has been long forgotten, sadly; we view politics as war rather than teamwork, which is a rapid descent into Hell.

I have a problem with sin taxes in general because they represent society’s attempt to strangle the sin without having the guts to make it illegal and then deal with the consequences (as we did with Prohibition and alcohol).

Sin taxes are a shirking of public responsibility. Sin taxes are the refuge of the gutless.

B’shalom,

Jeff