ZRoberts1991
Rookie
- Feb 15, 2015
- 29
- 7
- 1
Hi I know this is my first post but I've actually hung out on these boards for months reading through what others have had to say. Some people have pushed me towards writing a political blog and putting my thoughts out there so I bit the bullet finally and wrote my first post.
Most on this board have always struck me as being very knowledgable so I figured this would be the perfect place to put my thoughts up and welcome any feedback and criticism. Look forward to having a discussion on where our two party political system is headed.
The Tuskegee Point
Here are my thoughts below
This is my first post through this site, and my main goal is to fully understand our political system and how our government will run through the course of my lifetime. I’m essentially still an innocent child in terms of grasping the nuances of our political system, I haven’t necessarily been corrupted yet or held firm beliefs for years that are hard to eschew. I’ve merely taken in whatever information that’s been available to me, and tried to formulate an opinion based off that information. I’ve done my best to not keep it one-sided, I’ve consistently read literature and news that come from all sides of the political spectrum. If there’s one conclusion I’ve been able to draw upon so far, it’s that the two party political machine in this country has become quite dangerous. Over the next few decades we will likely see the rise of the millennials, and it’s clear that our generation has become rather disenchanted with this system as half of millennials consider themselves independent. I do firmly believe it’s our role to move away from this system to some extent in the future as we begin to populate positions within the government.
The danger that has arisen with our system of Democrats versus Republicans is the polarization that exists within these parties. We as citizens should first look at the issues within our nation, formulate where our beliefs lie on those issues and then affiliate ourselves with the party that fits within the majority of those beliefs. However, this is not how it often works. In 2011, David McRaney authored a book titled You Are Not So Smart, in which he references more than once that when people affiliate themselves with a political party they will then adopt all the views that political party identifies itself with. Once you affiliate yourself with either the democratic or republican party you will then seek out literature, media, and entertainment outlets that conform precisely with your views. You will not often weigh the counter-arguments, which is how we have reached this stage of polarization. All it generally takes is for one person to be impassioned about a single issue, before they align themselves with every belief of a specific political party.
I must make it clear that the individual is not necessarily at fault within this scenario. Our system has now designed itself to the point where the word bi-partisan is becoming extinct if we exclude the millennial generation in this premise. News media was never supposed to be slanted towards a side of the political spectrum, it actually counteracts the principles journalism is founded upon. Unfortunately, that is no longer the world we live in today. Nearly every forum of news somehow finds itself aligned with a specific political ideology. For every Fox News there’s an MSNBC, for every Rush Limbaugh, there’s a Bill Maher, for every Michael Moore, there’s a Dinesh D’Souza. These means of media have infiltrated almost every issue within our society. It has become nearly impossible to discuss an issue that hasn’t been politicized, even if it’s rooted in science. I’m still in shock that the science of climate change has become partisan. The same can be said for stem cell research as well. When political affiliations supersedes the role of science, we are putting ourselves in a very precarious situation. Nazi Germany was well-known for only allowing science that fit its views as a National Socialist society, pretty much rendering the scientific method obsolete. We are allowing ourselves to now succumb to the ways of Nazi Germany in this regard. I know that’s an extremely bold statement, and while we’re still far off from suppressing the honest search for knowledge to the extent that the Nazi’s did, we’re closer than many of us would otherwise believe.
The area in which our two political party system has really begun to hurt us as a nation is the hateful and vitriolic attacks the parties continually lob against each other. The word unity within our political system has been fading for some time now. But it’s affected more than just capitol hill. This partisan hatred has now spewed over into the general public. I’m aware that the twenty-four hour news cycle can make it very hard to offer elongated researched reports, but the short snipe attacks that are offered are severely hindering us. Politics have become a topic that is now off-limits in social conversations if the two people sit on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Many seem to accept this as the norm, but there’s something clearly wrong about this. Honest debate between two people with different views should never be considered taboo. However, with the maniacal hatred the parties have for one another, these honest debates have turned into shouting matches with neither person offering any real concrete understanding of the issues they find themselves entangled in. Both political parties have a tendency of taking very complex, multi-facated issues and making them seem extremely simplistic. Barack Obama is not socialist because he wants to socialize our healthcare industry. If that was the case, then nearly every American would be a socialist because the majority of us approve of our public education system, which is rooted in socialist principles. Republicans also aren’t all ignorant bigots just because they recognize that differences with different cultures of this country do exist and it’s fair to take them into account when making policy decisions. These points are very well illustrated in Thomas Sowell’s book Ethnic America. If we are to heal the wound that continues to fester between these parties, we must stop with the generalizations that each tend to endorse.
I’m aware that it may be much too late to reverse the blind partisan allegiance that exists within some of the older people within this country, but it should not be passed down to our younger generations. I hope as millennials, that we can take in all the good that those who preceded us pass down, but also weed out the negative habits that can lead us in the wrong direction. Obviously, feel free to express your thoughts in the comments section.
Most on this board have always struck me as being very knowledgable so I figured this would be the perfect place to put my thoughts up and welcome any feedback and criticism. Look forward to having a discussion on where our two party political system is headed.
The Tuskegee Point
Here are my thoughts below
This is my first post through this site, and my main goal is to fully understand our political system and how our government will run through the course of my lifetime. I’m essentially still an innocent child in terms of grasping the nuances of our political system, I haven’t necessarily been corrupted yet or held firm beliefs for years that are hard to eschew. I’ve merely taken in whatever information that’s been available to me, and tried to formulate an opinion based off that information. I’ve done my best to not keep it one-sided, I’ve consistently read literature and news that come from all sides of the political spectrum. If there’s one conclusion I’ve been able to draw upon so far, it’s that the two party political machine in this country has become quite dangerous. Over the next few decades we will likely see the rise of the millennials, and it’s clear that our generation has become rather disenchanted with this system as half of millennials consider themselves independent. I do firmly believe it’s our role to move away from this system to some extent in the future as we begin to populate positions within the government.
The danger that has arisen with our system of Democrats versus Republicans is the polarization that exists within these parties. We as citizens should first look at the issues within our nation, formulate where our beliefs lie on those issues and then affiliate ourselves with the party that fits within the majority of those beliefs. However, this is not how it often works. In 2011, David McRaney authored a book titled You Are Not So Smart, in which he references more than once that when people affiliate themselves with a political party they will then adopt all the views that political party identifies itself with. Once you affiliate yourself with either the democratic or republican party you will then seek out literature, media, and entertainment outlets that conform precisely with your views. You will not often weigh the counter-arguments, which is how we have reached this stage of polarization. All it generally takes is for one person to be impassioned about a single issue, before they align themselves with every belief of a specific political party.
I must make it clear that the individual is not necessarily at fault within this scenario. Our system has now designed itself to the point where the word bi-partisan is becoming extinct if we exclude the millennial generation in this premise. News media was never supposed to be slanted towards a side of the political spectrum, it actually counteracts the principles journalism is founded upon. Unfortunately, that is no longer the world we live in today. Nearly every forum of news somehow finds itself aligned with a specific political ideology. For every Fox News there’s an MSNBC, for every Rush Limbaugh, there’s a Bill Maher, for every Michael Moore, there’s a Dinesh D’Souza. These means of media have infiltrated almost every issue within our society. It has become nearly impossible to discuss an issue that hasn’t been politicized, even if it’s rooted in science. I’m still in shock that the science of climate change has become partisan. The same can be said for stem cell research as well. When political affiliations supersedes the role of science, we are putting ourselves in a very precarious situation. Nazi Germany was well-known for only allowing science that fit its views as a National Socialist society, pretty much rendering the scientific method obsolete. We are allowing ourselves to now succumb to the ways of Nazi Germany in this regard. I know that’s an extremely bold statement, and while we’re still far off from suppressing the honest search for knowledge to the extent that the Nazi’s did, we’re closer than many of us would otherwise believe.
The area in which our two political party system has really begun to hurt us as a nation is the hateful and vitriolic attacks the parties continually lob against each other. The word unity within our political system has been fading for some time now. But it’s affected more than just capitol hill. This partisan hatred has now spewed over into the general public. I’m aware that the twenty-four hour news cycle can make it very hard to offer elongated researched reports, but the short snipe attacks that are offered are severely hindering us. Politics have become a topic that is now off-limits in social conversations if the two people sit on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Many seem to accept this as the norm, but there’s something clearly wrong about this. Honest debate between two people with different views should never be considered taboo. However, with the maniacal hatred the parties have for one another, these honest debates have turned into shouting matches with neither person offering any real concrete understanding of the issues they find themselves entangled in. Both political parties have a tendency of taking very complex, multi-facated issues and making them seem extremely simplistic. Barack Obama is not socialist because he wants to socialize our healthcare industry. If that was the case, then nearly every American would be a socialist because the majority of us approve of our public education system, which is rooted in socialist principles. Republicans also aren’t all ignorant bigots just because they recognize that differences with different cultures of this country do exist and it’s fair to take them into account when making policy decisions. These points are very well illustrated in Thomas Sowell’s book Ethnic America. If we are to heal the wound that continues to fester between these parties, we must stop with the generalizations that each tend to endorse.
I’m aware that it may be much too late to reverse the blind partisan allegiance that exists within some of the older people within this country, but it should not be passed down to our younger generations. I hope as millennials, that we can take in all the good that those who preceded us pass down, but also weed out the negative habits that can lead us in the wrong direction. Obviously, feel free to express your thoughts in the comments section.
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