The thing is though most of my friends on the left think I am far to the right and most of my friends on the right think I am far to the left. For example:
I think lower taxes are good. I think that the forced redistribution of wealth is theft. I think that devaluing the currency through deficit spending is not only a bad idea, but a sin. I think a strong military in a dangerous world is a good idea. I think that police profiling is common sense. I think anyone who is actively hiring people and contributing to the economy needs as little over sight as can be dictated by common sense. I think abortion is murder. I think public schooling is broken and needs to be radically revamped. I think marriage is a Church institute which should only be given to one man and one woman. I think most of these things because I am a Christian and I try to color my world view with my faith. Because of this most of my left leaning friends think I am a raving loon on the far right of the spectrum.
Also;
I think that a society that does not care for its poor is doomed. I think schooling our children is among our paramount responsibilities and not doing so is a capital crime we commit against ourselves. I think recognizing our place in the world is important. I think AZ immigration law is fascist. I think businesses which employ illegal labor are slavers. I think permitting abortion in rare cases such as tubal pregnancies is a right and moral thing to do. I think government over sight of businesses is good because child labor is bad and weekends are good. I think paying taxes is a command from God. I think to deny same sex couples the rights of contract which have been attached to marriage is discriminatory. I think these things because I am a Christian and I try to color my world view with my faith. Because of this most of my right leaning friends think I am a raving loon far to left of the political spectrum.
I have wondered for a long time why that is. I think I have the solution. Money.
The polarization of American politics is not the result of one side of the aisle steering a course far afield of anything ever seen before, but money. The free range of money in politics has dragged both parties away from the center because of well funded groups who want nothing to do with compromise and view every political question as a sporting event to be won and not a problem to be solved. A great example is the health care debate.
America is among the wealthiest nations on earth and while none are refused medical care outright because of county hospitals and the like, the over burdening of such institutions is a direct result of the outrageous cost of healthcare squeezing out those who desire private care but cannot afford it. Therefore those who in the past would have gone to a family doctor now head to the ER when a child is sick because their middle income can no longer afford them a family doctor's visit. Because of this over burdening the equity of medical care and access to quality care, especially specialized medicine, has been lost to a great portion of our population.
At the same time, when Congress attempted to tackle this problem, the solution was a trillions of dollars expensive bill which plans to curtail cost by cutting payments to doctors and scaling back access to the very medical science it was intended to avail to the people it claimed to serve. So in other words the only solutions (apparently) on the table were; do nothing and do worse.
Why?
Money.
Those who stood to be most hurt by the over haul of the medical system were doctors and insurance companies, and insurance companies have more money and therefore they wrote the bill. No really. The powerful lobby interests on Capitol Hill which the insurance companies support assured that their lapdogs on the left and right gave them the provisions which they wanted couched in language which the constituencies of said lapdogs would not find to offensive. So you are not cutting back payment to doctors you are controlling costs. So you are not increasing taxes massively in spite of the fact that there is enough money in the healthcare system already if the bureaucracy is controlled, you are increasing access.
The point is that massive money pours into the Nation's Capitol every day to serve the will of the causes which gave the money in the first place. And of course people do not part with their treasure unless they care deeply about the cause, and therefore any compromise on the part of the one who has taken the money for the cause is not seen as cool headed governing, but betrayal. New Jersey's governor comes to office and says that the state simply cannot afford to pay the level of benefits it has in the past, which is true, to state workers, and rather than being seen as a man who has a grasp on the problem he is vilified by the left. Obama dares to say that America needs to rethink its energy policy (as in ya know America needs to actually have an energy policy because "use it until its gone" is not a policy) and he is seen as tree loving hack who hates jobs and America and children and puppies who wipes his butt with the flag and is secretly a Muslim.
The selling of interest and the rabid support of the cause heads to that interest has dragged the parties away from the center because to be in the middle is now seen as being a flip flopper and weak instead of cool and considerate. And do not think one side has a monopoly on this sort of behavior. No matter how vitriolic and censorious the TEA Party folks might be, the hate spewed on them by the far left which can be easily seen if looked for is just as venomous and disgusting. Of course both sides of the aisle complain about this and cite their preferred news agency (Fox and talk radio on the right CNN, MSNBC on the left) as proof of what the other side is doing. In fact the very fact that left and right leaning news agencies exist at all is because of the money which has been poured into politics. After all if people are willing to give their money to advertisers on Fox news in sufficient numbers, then Fox News will continue to air because it will always have enough money to do so because it is giving its viewers what they want.
This phenomenon has not helped America, just in case you haven't noticed, but rather has shown us what we are and no one wants to admit it. Think about it. Each year some new bright star rises up and says, "I will not play the political game in Washington. I am from outside the beltway and will serve the interests of the people." Really the last three presidents have all run more or less on this platform when they initially got elected. The problem is that while people complain about the partisanship in DC what they want is not and end to politics, which would mean a drift toward the middle, but rather the elimination of the opposition. For this reason the divide grows more each year more and more people are disaffected by the system and left to vote, not for the candidate they think best, but for the one they find least repugnant. The marginalized middle grows less interested all the time leaving the hacks to run the show and each year more people ask themselves, "Where did it all go wrong?"
So what is the solution?
A third party.
A party which thinks business is good, but not to trusted carte blanche. A party which recognizes that illegal immigration needs to be stopped at its source which of course is unscrupulous employers and those willing to patronize them. A party which knows that people need affordable goods and that Wal Mart is the great satan. A party which actually believes in religious freedom. A party that knows that gun ownership is a right to be protected and that there is no harm in knowing who has guns. A party which knows that personal liberty is sacrosanct and that at will abortion is probably not one of those liberties. A party which is willing to take care of poor families and provide day care and lunch and breakfast at schools which do not consist of saw dust and gristle. A party which recognizes that ADM being able to say who serves on the USDA and EPA is bad bad bad freaking idea.
In short a party which could raise no money and therefore will never exist.
I guess we're screwed.
But it was fun while it lasted.
Just thinking.
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