Politics Schmolitics

I frequent a site that belongs to a friend of mine. In light of the current political race, there is great deal of conversation about the getting-ever-so-heated race to the White House. Everyone who comments, from what I have seen, favor one candidate over the other. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The problem I see is that there is this sentiment that if a person is not of the same political opinion, then that person is in some way not as smart as the rest of the enlightened folks. Call me crazy, but I often find myself playing devil's advocate for the opposing side.

You see, I believe in a fair fight. Even though we will more than likely agree on the candidate we're supporting in the end, I do not believe in blindly following any candidate. While I don't think my friend does this, I get the sense from some respondents that no matter what is said or done, their ears are completely closed to anything that is not in complete support of their chosen candidate. I think blind faith in a person is very dangerous. It's not just on that site either. I see and hear these exact things, just on the opposite side, with another group of people I'm friendly with.

Both sides consist of people who are highly intelligent, well-educated, well- read, and well-traveled. Yet, both sides will go to the death declaring that the other is misguided, unintelligent, and obviously out of touch with reality. Both sides tend to agree on one thing-- that the other is somehow not as highly evolved as they are.

So, where does the truth really lie? What really is in the best interest of the future of America? Both sides agree that there has to be change in some way. But, what is change? What does it look like? How elusive is it really that so many intelligent Americans cannot agree on it when they see it?

I'm so sick of people supposedly breaking down the issues in a nonpartisan way, while all the while including their slants and biases in creative wording as they break down the issues in a nonpartisan way. So, I'm going to break down the issues myself. I will include my opinions in a separate post after I present "just the facts." Maybe in doing so, we'll see which candidate really stands for what we stand for. Maybe there will even be a couple of surprises along the way. The election is a month away. Politically, that is an eternity.