I don't think Wendy means she's closing this thread. That read more like a yellow light to me. Use caution if you're still here and kicking.
(And incidentally, for those of you who *are* sick of these discussions, and I so don't blame you, and do come here to escape all this, erm...don't read any further, ok? Go read Tank's very excellent fic in progress. I understand completely. I'm nearly done, myself.)
Ok, I swear, with the yellow light firmly in my field of vision:
The campaign left this country even more polarized than it was 4 years ago.
I am just fed up with campaigns in general.
Were they always like this? I want to know.
I listened to the ads for my local elected officials on the radio- complete with ominous creepy music and a grim voice intoning all the ways Whoever is going to Ruin my home town Forever if elected...
In the political realm, it isn't enough, apparently, to say 'here is where we disagree.' You have to tear the other candidate down completely, make them look nearly criminal. So much so I find myself wondering, "How on earth did Whoever get elected in the first place, if s/he is in league with Axe-Murderers??"
I find that ridiculous. And so many I know just find it exhausting, so they tune out completely. It's hard work to shift through and find the actual ideas.
I want a race between opponents that just tells me how Whoever and Whomever think on the issues.
The end. Let me take it from there.
Don't tell me the sky is going to fall, the sun is going to turn to blood, if I cast my ballot for one over the other. And most especially, don't tell me at the end of a long, bloody campaign season, "Whoever ran a good race. Is of noble characer. Has been an asset for your home town..." Because how am I going to believe that when for the last six weeks I heard nothing but dire predictions of swarms of locust if I let that person get elected?
After election years such as this one and the previous, we could easily forget there is common ground.
But there is. It's buried underneath all the noise. We're are living proof of that. Unless we live in a compound, most of us live and work among people who are not completely like-minded. We understand that and get along fine. We've done well on these boards with issues that are raw and potentially explosive, and we've shown a maturity our elected officials seem to lack.
I'm tired of the division. I'm tired of those who work on both sides to make it deeper. Who see winning as justifying any means.
There are always going to be differences. That's who we are. There will always be issues on which we are never going to agree. Since that's a given, let's turn our attention to what we have in common. To what we can compromise on, reach a middle ground, rather than this no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners approach to governing and being governed.
That would be a revolution of its own.
CC- pushing soapbox back under desk, removing preach-y halo...checking that yellow light.
Incidently, the Whoever of the creepy music did get elected, and thus far our town hasn't fallen into the river. I'll keep you updated, though, just in case.
