Politicals

Since I'm on vacation, I've let myself stop and think...about politics.  Wow, why bother, some might say.  Even when I want to, it's a bit hard to avoid the political arena of life, especially these days.  And, there are spots of decent drama, even though they seem to be perpetually overwhelmed by what isn't (decent drama).

I often wonder how this is hitting the next generation.  Forgetting, in the doing of that, about how it is hitting me. I think my leader thought above (I used the word 'avoid') comes from the sense that almost none of the stuff being bantered about seems real.  It feels much more like a lot of posturing about things that aren't real, than substantive work.  I guess I'm just not that into 'positioning' in order to get things done (it doesn't seem very effective anyway) and more interested in having serious conversations about differing points of view and then actually getting things done.  I get the sense that I am not alone in this.

The other challenge is that politics seems to be an awful lot about sweeping generalizations and the search for truth up there somewhere, when it seems to me that the truth is quite simply and much more on the ground.  So, at the risk of sweeping generalizations, here are some of my more specific political thoughts:

1. I have a hard time with the Republican political disposition because it seems to me that it is rather snobby, particularly as it relates to the poor.  This is a serious problem for me, as the heart of the more significant things in life is concerned with the poor.  I see very little room for snobbery.  And, I don't like the 'pull yourself up by your boot-straps' mentality that always seems to be within arms reach for Republicans to swing against the poor.  "Do it yourself; I did"...is a gross misinterpretation of what anyone really has ended up with.  When you're down, this is not what makes the difference.  And, it's not an explanation for why, when you are up.
2. I have a hard time with the Democrat political disposition because it seems to me that it believes that government should solve all the problems, of the poor and of most anything else.  Let's make a law about everything that's wrong.  And, when it believes that, it ends up believing that money is the solution...and that it just needs to be applied more appropriately.  I don't think government is the solution, though I do believe it has a key role in protecting people from some of the really ugly results of capitalism.  Capitalism will crush people with its greed.  Government, in theory at least, can help protect the victims of greed.  But, I also have a hard time with the unconstrained spending of money as the answer to people problems.  Money, in many cases, may actually be the problem.  But, people's problems are deeper than what government exclusively can and should be dealing with.

So, what to do?  Where does that leave me.  Like in a lot of things, I think I need to just stay in it.  Don't disengage.  Do my part...every day.  What about you?  How do you respond to politics these days?

The rhetoric will blow away in a day anyway.  But, probably just not for a while...more later on the people, process, and details (it may be much later...which may not disappoint too many of you).