I have asked the question aloud many times here in the last few weeks. However, I have never really felt the need to write about this question at all. That is, until now.
America is a nation divided, Liberals hate Conservatives, Conservatives Hate Liberals, Moderates think they are both crazy, and Libertarians hate everybody. I mean, how much more can this Nation stand of this sort of a thing? It is about as bad as the McCarthy era, only worse. At least back on those days, there was a bit of civility amongst the people. Nowadays? Ha! We are fortunate that the readers of “The Nation” and “The National Review” do not have access to the Nations Missile defense system; otherwise, I truly believe that this Nation would be blown to kingdom come.
Keith Olbermann; A man that I respect highly, not only as a writer, but as a political commentator, made a comment on his show a while back, which was possibly one of the most brilliant things to ever come out of that liberal talking bobble head’s mouth, since I have been watching his show. It was, in fact, a short quaint statement; something that I would never expect to hear out of his gullet anyhow.
“A truce would be nice”
I do not believe that Keith realized what he had said. Possibly he did. Perhaps Keith is feeling what many people, I think, are feeling as well. When is the civility in Politics ever going to come back? When are Conservatives and Liberals going to be able to be around one another, without wanting to shout epitaphs at one another? When are things going return back to normal here in America?
I ask this because a few things have happened here in the last few days. For one, a writer, of whom I have a great deal of respect for, decided that the political discourse in America had just gotten to be a bit much and he stopped writing. Second, I happened to notice that a copyright law blogger, just decided that the whole idea of writing had just become too depressing and that he was stopping.
My question is this; has the political atmosphere in America gotten so poisonous that it has seeped into the general consciousness of society to the point where political writers and even non-political writers are just to the point where they are ready to just throw their hands up and give up? Has this President caused this? Has this war caused this? It absolutely boggles the mind.
I write this; not with a solution or an answer, but a question, what will it take? When will the return to normalcy begin? Will it be after the President has left office? Will it be after the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have finally ended? Will there ever be a day in this country; on this planet, that Conservatives and Liberals, Republicans and Democrats, and yes; even Libertarians will be actually able to exist in the same Country and be able to understand one another, but not necessarily agree? Is this normalcy even possible anymore? Did it ever exist at anytime in the past?
Martin Luther King Jr., his politics aside, made a profound choice of words once. Those words spoke of “of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane.” I believe that the President of the United States of America, in his misguided mission to bring Democracy to the Middle East, has injected the people of the United States of America with a drug of hate. A hatred of a War; A hatred of a war that no one wanted to be involved with, a hatred of war that was unwanted, unneeded, and very unjustified. A war that was sold to the Nation like a book sold to a blind man, only the pages in this book, were blank.
This hate is not visible; it is not much readily seen. However, there are times when it comes to this surface and rears its ugly head. Just this past week, John McCain’s campaign produced a political ad, attacking Barack Obama. In this ad flashed the images of two well-known white starlets and then an image Barack Obama. Yes, the underlying message was that Obama was in the same league as these women. However, on the sub-conscience level there was a comparison to be made, between White and Black. Barack Obama instead of taking that “Higher Plane” that Dr King spoke of, he allowed himself to be dragged into the hate game. He goes off and makes a comment like “I don’t look like those guys on the Dollar Bills.” Some people would say that Obama played the race card, which is a misconception, what Obama did was play John McCain’s hand sub-consciously. This all comes from that drug of hate, of which Dr. King spoke about.
What is the antidote for this drug of hate? That is a very complex answer. What we need is a truce, a truce that says, I do not agree with those who are of another political persuasion, but I wish them no ill will. Because whether we want to admit it or not, regardless of whether we are Conservatives or Liberals, Democrats or Republicans, we are all still Americans. This is our country and the quicker we all talk ourselves down from the ledges, remove ourselves from the battle stations, and try carry on a civil discourse, rather than the poison of the past. We will never be the nation we were, before September 11, Before the War in Iraq, before President Bush took office. Before everything went berserk in America.
That truce is looking very good right now.
