Friday, October 10, 2008

And now this...

I was talking to a friend the other day about the state of politics in this country nowadays. Of course, my knowledge is limited and a lot of what I say may be nothing at all. However, I'll tell it to you anyways.
I told her that I think politics has always been divisive, with Democrats on one side and Republicans on the other. Politicians have never really gotten along well if they're on opposite sides of the aisle, and sometimes don't get along well even if they are on the same side of the aisle. However, what I think has changed in recent years is that it's no longer the politicians who are divisive, but cities, neighborhoods, and even homes. My friend is voting for Obama but her husband is voting for McCain and she realizes that this is sometimes a point of contention in their house, as it is in many thousands of others across the nation. I don't know if the divisiveness will end with the election, instead, I think that it will just continue to grow until something changes. One side will always be unhappy and the other side will always gloat in their victory, at least until the newly-elected president makes a mistake, which is bound to happen.
This all came to me when I was reading this article, which was just so profoundly disturbing. They're calling Senator Obama personal names and insults, as though they were bullies on the playground pushing the new kid in school around. Worse yet, they're throwing thinly veiled threats at Obama. I give the McCain campaign credit for trying to subdue their crowds, but I can see how it's hard given the crowd mentality that can build up to seem like a witch hunt at times. It's just so unbelievable to me that the attacks on both sides are getting personal. Maybe McCain is to blame a little because he is running negative attack ads (though so is Obama), but I don't think the blame can be placed squarely on either of the campaigns. I don't think the blame can be placed on anyone, except maybe the obvious.

No comments: