The Bobcat Nation

Judging mainly by internet postings, this blog entry and the related article have hit it right on the head.

http://www.reason.com/hitandrun/2006/02 ... tml#012624

So, are you telling me that as a conservative whos not really fond of Bush's fiscal policies, that I'm really a liberal.

I get the guys point, but think he's pushing it a bit extreme.

ChiOCat wrote:So, are you telling me that as a conservative whos not really fond of Bush's fiscal policies, that I'm really a liberal.

I get the guys point, but think he's pushing it a bit extreme.

If you were a person of high prominence in the political/pundit arena, and you criticized Bush for his fiscal policies, it is quite likely that somebody would label you as a liberal out of spite and as "punishment" (as they are just using it as a derogatory term, and many people don't even understand what the terms really mean anymore). It's bizarre, but probably true. It's just an example of how silly politics has become and how it is all about sound bites and very little about real discussion.

And it's that real discussion, incidentally, that I really like about our crew on this board right now. Now if we could only take over the country and usher in a new age of enlightenment.....

Bay Area Cat wrote:

ChiOCat wrote:So, are you telling me that as a conservative whos not really fond of Bush's fiscal policies, that I'm really a liberal.

I get the guys point, but think he's pushing it a bit extreme.

If you were a person of high prominence in the political/pundit arena, and you criticized Bush for his fiscal policies, it is quite likely that somebody would label you as a liberal out of spite and as "punishment" (as they are just using it as a derogatory term, and many people don't even understand what the terms really mean anymore). It's bizarre, but probably true. It's just an example of how silly politics has become and how it is all about sound bites and very little about real discussion.

And it's that real discussion, incidentally, that I really like about our crew on this board right now. Now if we could only take over the country and usher in a new age of enlightenment.....

Oh, so now I'm not a person of prominence?

I was thinking just that this morning watching the press conference and all the bru ha ha over "how, and when, and who, and why" the info about VP Cheney shooting his hunting partner was released. It's just silly, that something like this is being made into an espionage-scale scandal.

I've said this before, and I still believe it to be true: the two-party system is the primary cause for all of the political polarization in this country, and it is the one thing that is most likely to bring the country down in our lifetimes.

"Liberal" and "conservative" are not terms that have any real meaning to most people anymore; they are used more often as insults aimed at specific individuals by members of the "opposite" group. "Liberal" to most people means "anyone who supports Democrats," and "conservative" means "anyone who supports Republicans." For most of the country, there is no intelligent discourse on issues anymore; you're either a "liberal" or a "conservative," and whichever side you're on, you buy into that side's rhetoric lock, stock & barrel.

If more of the "fringe" political parties on both sides (i.e., the Green party, the Libertarians, and others) would gain power, this wouldn't be as much of a problem. Since there would be more than two cookie-cutter sets of views to choose from, people would have to actually think about issues to decide which of five or six viable candidates they supported. The polarization that we have today would not exist, because the existence of a greater number of strong parties would create middle ground instead of forcing candidates to take polar opposite positions from each other on so many issues.

Just my .02 worth. Moral of the story? Vote your beliefs, and if that happens to be Libertarian, Green, or whatever other party, just go with it...your candidate might lose, but if enough people start to do so, perhaps in twenty years society will have changed for the better.

--GL