Maybe I'm Just As Guilty As The Tea Baggers

I've been reading over a current thread I was keeping up with at a well written blog I follow by Ian McGibbony, and in doing so, I followed a profile link of a fellow who thinks little of my politcal and social outlook. I delved into his profile and subsequently his webpage and was a bit disturbed. The tone and tenor of his repsonses on the blog I follow had already provided me with an insight to his overall frame of mind regarding our current President and also the Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, but I was definitely surprised by the pervasiveness of his contempt and acerbic wit.

His every entry consists of hostile and derisive commentary about Barrack Obama, and it has made me wonder am I any different? Almost every commentary I make, almost every response to a posting that I issue, and certainly my own works have been similar in their ire towards George W. Bush and his Republican cohorts. I often get caught up in arguing with people for the sake of winning the argument and casting a poor light on someone that I perceive to be a Republican or conservative individual. I have reached a point of almost knee-jerk negative reaction to anyone who is conservative or touts conservative ideaology. Certainly I could pen sprawling and rather convincing arguments for those reactions and my commentary, but I am beginning to see those reasons are irrelevant.

I believe it is the act of picking a "team" and playing/fighting one another that is causing the lack of progress. Don't misunderstand me, the Democratic party holds vastly larger numbers of candidates who are congruent with my vision of what role government should play in our lives...better put even, what role "we" should play in our own lives. I do truly contain loathing for the wildy hypocritcal and destructive Evangelical base of the Republican party. Perhaps I see more of this strain of the party because of Geography and association, but I think that is important to remember the cause is not about blasting these people. No matter how good it may feel sometimes, it is counterproductive. After all the goal is not to discredit the Republican agenda, but to further the Progressive agenda. What is the Progressive agenda? The betterment of society as a whole. It is the "Socialist" brush that this idea gets painted with that causes so much trouble. This is unfortunate because whatever word you use to describe it, helping each other out is not a bad thing. The whole is reflected in the sum of its parts. The rich gentleman who loses a few dollars in taxes picks up edification and further wealth by a strong and successful societal whole.

The us versus them mentality hurts us all. Much to my dismay we all really do have to share the same country. It's just in our best interest to stop blasting each other (this will be extremely difficult for me) and working on building each other up.