partisan black hole.

i have been thinking quite a bit about politics for the last few months. my feelings have bordered on anxiety at many times. i do not feel well represented by the current government. that is not because it has been Republican dominated for the last eight years (although this has not helped). it is because i believe our democracy has some pretty big flaws.

one problem is that too many citizens do not participate in our democracy. there are many reasons for this, which will need to be parked for another post.

another overwhelming issue is the dominance of partisanship that serves to completely destroy the possibility of thoughtful and evolutionary debates and policies. a two party system ultimately swings people to the far left or far right and creates antagonism.

this all came to a head for me this morning while reading one of my favorite blogs, urostream. keagirl's last two posts had generated so much feedback, much of it ugly, that i couldn't help but post my thoughts.

i voted for barack obama. i am proud of my vote, but i do not believe that obama will "save the world". i do not agree with all of his positions, but i do believe he is the right person to lead our country forward. i do not know what ultimately what will come out of his presidency and feel that it is wasteful to debate this.

if we place all of our hopes in one person, we will always be disappointed.
barack obama will be our president, but we will still need to be active in our democracy.
if citizens only participate on election day by pushing a lever then nothing will ever change. partisanship will abide as the rule and the media will follow. some people will hold fast to their party affiliation just as blindly as they would their baseball/football/hockey team. if we do not educate ourselves this pattern will repeat over and over and over.

there is a difference between debate and verbal warfare. we must be cautious to not believe that "all people" of "that" category can be summed up in any one way.
are all liberals pro-choice?
are all conservatives pro-war?

if we do truely love our country, we will find a way to use our differences to become stronger as a people. there is no irony in the fact that a 'partisan' is also a weapon.

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"change is inevitable. change is constant." benjamin disraeli

"mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. the foundation of such a method is love." martin luther king, jr