It is time to face the facts in this country.
We are dangerously divided. You can’t sugarcoat it by saying it’s always been
this way between people and groups. You can’t dismiss it as just life in
contemporary society. You can’t pretend there is any middle ground any longer.
The evolutionary biologist and author, Richard
Dawkins, has said, “When two opposite points of view are expressed with equal
intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It
is possible for one side to be simply wrong.”
How
true. It’s not that the Democrats are a little right and the Republicans are,
too. It’s no longer true that both sides share basically the same political
ideals. They don’t. Maybe once, but not anymore. Democrats are not without
their own hypocrisies, blunders, irritating passiveness, and cheap compromises.
But there are clear differences in the crafting of traditional, well meaning,
good for all of society political legislation, which they are still committed
to, and what Republican and Tea Party leaders are doing. Big differences there!
It
is time to say the Republican and Tea Party leaders in Congress and many of
them across the country are simply wrong. Here’s what they are wrong about:
The
endless, cynical political obstructionism is wrong
The
shaming, belittling of women is wrong
The
defunding of Planned Parenthood clinics resulting in many of them closing their
necessary services to women is wrong
The
distrust of and hateful resistance to Latino immigrants is wrong
The
contempt for public education is wrong
The
aggressive and hostile and everlasting mocking of the president is wrong
The
old, small minded, fear obsessed prejudices against African Americans is wrong
The
sneering disdain and refusal to accept gays and forever fighting equal rights
for them is wrong
The
bowing down to and worship of money and power is wrong
The
total approval of creating a society of the haves and the have nots is wrong
The
refusal to accept the Affordable Care Act which is now legally sanctioned is wrong
The
phony use of religion to get votes is wrong
The
excusing of and laughing at bigotry is wrong
The
manipulation of the gullible with lies and false threats and getting pleasure
in stirring up their anger and promoting hate in them is wrong
The
list is not exhaustive, but it highlights many of the actions of Republican and
Tea Party leaders whose flawed ideology is breaking down the political and
social structures of our society. Nothing gets done in Congress. Instead of
giving us a model of cooperation, intelligently working together, guiding the
nation in healthy and valuable ways, it displays the worst kind of cynical
bickering and discord and utter selfishness.
Just
once it would be refreshing to see Republican leaders openly say they are going
to work with the President and the Democrats and then follow through with
reasonable, useful legislation that reflects what the majority of Americans
want and not what the rich and powerful elite and the rigid religious right
wing fundamentalists want.
This
is not a careless slam against Republicans. And it is not a blanket approval of
Democrats. It’s simply an observation that the differences between the two
parties could not be any clearer. And though Democrats are not without fault—in
my opinion, Republicans are, in everything they are now doing politically and
otherwise in this country, simply wrong.
©
2013 Timothy Moody
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