I get SOOOOOO fed up with hearing "conservatives" (neoconservatives) cry about how bad the demcorats are for doing EXACTLY THE SAME THING that their precious Bush did for the last eight years.  I get even MOREEEEEEEEEE fed up with said "conservatives" whining about the EXACT SAME THINGS that they MADE FUN OF Ron Paul and others for pointing out DURING the last eight years.  Grrr... 

I really think a lot of this goes back to our educational system.  If the schools I attended are any indication of the rest of the country then not only are students actively discouraged and sometimes punished for individual thought but they are indoctrinated into the belief that our news organizations are unbiased and provide all information all the time because the days of "yellow journalism" and propaganda are in the past and then they encourage emotional appeals and responses as the height of thinking, argumentation and truth.

It usually appeals to emotions directly to want to help people who are struggling.  If someone believes that emotions and the ultimate proof of correctness and appropriateness then there is no way in which anyone can argue against them to get them to change their mind until you change that belief.  Thus, when someone proposes giving money to people who aren't working so they can continue to survive it is automatic that anyone who disagrees with that program is mean-spirited, doesn't care and maybe even is evil because on first glance they are depriving someone of the means to survive.

That is where the similarity between the parties comes into play.  At this point they generally agree about what is right and wrong because emotional responses are generally pretty similar across any group of people.  The difference is in how they approach more ambiguous issues like abortion and how they choose to approach that emotional cauldron.

i wonder if anyone watched the video except me..

Awesome well written blog! I'm glad to see someone using their brain, since both sides of politics have turned most people's grey matter into oatmeal. I'm a firm believer that both parties need to go. EVERYONE OUT! We are the people, we make the decisions. Every politician in office needs to be fired and we start fresh.

@huuddathoughtit - if the representatives refuse to impose term limits the ballot box is where they will be imposed.

@mejicojohn - I watched it John  

@PreciousOnyx - I think more people are where "you are at" now than in a very long time. To use an analogy,  How many times do you get beat before you dont believe the guy is a abuser? How many times do you have to be lied to before you realize he can not be trusted?

where you are at though is a very good place to be. our founders were ones to distrust the government and thought it to be healthy. today it is considered subversive.

@mrcolorful - education is indoctrination and we have indoctrinated children to believe that government is the end all and to be trusted. The exact opposite premise we were found on.

@Paul_Partisan - I believe I recall seeing you pointing out something that someone on the left did you didnt agree with.

@ProvokingThought - That is certainly true.  When you blindly trust a person or entity you generally don't evaluate their actions too much.

@ProvokingThought - Very true...

I take everything I hear on Fox with a grain of salt but make me feel less like puking than the other networks - and I can only take so much of Fox too. I agree that a lot of "conservatives" nowadays are just socialists banging a drum on the other side of the aisle. The Republicans need to pay attention to the 06 and 08 elections - they've lost their base because they've betrayed their base's values. If they don't show that they'll stand for what we believe in they're going to lose our votes - and many have jumped ship. It seems like the Dems aren't paying attention either - they're moving further and further left when the country has and probably will continue to lean to the right.

@ProvokingThought - The first part.

@nudged - abusing peoples trust in a organization is wrong and as you note, both parties do it.. I think they poor have wrongly viewed that the democrats are looking our for them .I was up in Johnsonburg last night, a heavy union democrat town to hear from our US Rep and State Rep and there is a twon where people are convinced the democrats have their interest at heart, yet in the healthcare bill they had a provision against black liquor, a by product of paper production  At Domtar they rely on the alternative energy credit  that black liquor provides. It is in the healthcare bill the union supports.  The party and the union turn the supporter/faithful into useful idiots. Of course like in other regime, we aso know that the most expendable and the first to go are the useful idiots.

Of course I agree with your social abuse argument. It is also the same type of manipulation that gets people to terminate their own believng it is their right and choice. I wonder if we could ever get a reliable fiscal impact study on the economic impact  abortion has had on our culture. There are certain unknown quantiies-you can not figure if another bill gates, alexander graham bell, einstein, etc would have been born and created a ground breaking invention, but you can figure the impact on social security, work force, etc.

The point I was making you had political mores programmed into you like most people did. The belief that the democrats have about their cause being righteous is every bit s strong as your is. I was taught not to trust political parties but look at people. I remember my parents watching Walter C and never hear them talking about Johnson, especially when Tom when was in Viet Nam and we had a 6 x 4 south east asian map taped on our wall listening fro reports about the 1st Cav 7th division. I will never forget how sick my dad was when Tet broke and we knew Tom was up in Hue City. I remember their distrust of Richard Nixon as well as them not being able to believe that George Wallace was actually a serious candidate for President, yet a sitting governor.

There is also a false assumption that when you do not trust party a, that you in turn do support party b. The only way you support one party over another generally is that you accept or reject the presuppositions of a party that you would be most inclined to vote for or against . Obviously conservative presuppositions lead you to lean more to republican candidates in shared presuppositions. My position is that is dangerous to accpet the presupposition that the party candidates actually support the party platform or ideals  and not to trust the fact that just because they are a R or a D that they in fact support those presuppositions. There has been intentional infiltration of both parties under the big tent party philosophy by opposition parties to change the philosophical make up of the party.