Uneducated Democracy
"In dire need of reason in a truly deaf nation; Without an education there is no real democracy; Without an education there is only hypocrisy." - Serj Tankian
There's no debating that the political climate in this country is tense, to say the least. Anyone who has at least a few Facebook or Twitter friends has likely seen highly charged arguments from both sides. I typically try to avoid the chaos by keeping my mouth shut on Facebook, and the majority of my Twitter followers are either liberal, don't care, or just don't say anything. I've been debating ending my 5 year hiatus from blogging to let loose my political musings for a few months now, but I just didn't have the time or energy (that's code to say I'm both burned out on politics and also incredibly lazy). Yet this morning, I finally saw the straw that broke the camel's back. I cannot stay silent any longer.
For those who do not know, I am a liberal. I am a supporter of President Barack Obama. That is not to say that I am a Democrat, because frankly I feel the two party system is broken. I firmly believe that both the Democrats and the Republicans are manipulating things behind the scenes to keep the Libertarians (a.k.a. the party with real ideas) at bay. The term "Libertarian" only gets used on the extremists, like Glenn Beck or Ron Paul. Nobody ever applies this to the *true* Libertarians like Penn Jillette or Bill Maher. Just like Mr. Maher, who is one of my personal heroes, I choose to vote based on the person rather than the party. Because of this stance, I am confident in casting my vote to re-elect Obama in November. I admittedly have some problems with him, but on the whole I like the job he's done - particularly ObamaCare. That would've been of direct benefit to me personally if I was still at my last job. Besides, he's far better than the alternative.
What got to me this morning, not surprisingly, was social media. I am used to the constant shots on Obama, the typical Facebook statuses of "Romney 2012" and "Paul Ryan is my homie" (I'm from Wisconsin) and the like. It annoys me, but I've just unfollowed, not defriended, most of the people who post nothing but mundane political statuses. This morning, however, the hashtag "#DescribeObamaInOneWord" was trending on Twitter. Now of course there were reactions from both sides, and very few of them intelligent. "President!" was the most typical response from the left, with "failure" or "Nobama" being the response from the right. The following were mine, which were actually meant to be better thought out and at least slightly amusing:
After making the mistake of actually clicking on the hashtag, I saw this Tweet:
So, what, that makes him black George W. Bush? As I recall, Bush spent most of his time during his Presidency at his ranch in Texas, and when he wasn't doing that, he was starting two wars that killed millions of innocent citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq - Iraq, by the way, being the first nation to pledge aid to the United States after September 11th (more on that in a future post). Oh, and did I mention, Bush didn't actually *get* Osama bin Laden? Yeah, Obama did that. Well, the Navy SEALS actually did that, but Obama was the one that spent the resources and gave the go-ahead. Yet still, the night we found out Osama was dead, I actually saw the Facebook status, "Barack sucks. Kill BOTH Osamas." WHAT?
Yes, that's right, one of my Facebook friends actually said he/she wanted the President to die! That sort of thing would've never flown under G.W. Bush. In fact, I seem to recall the people who are now complaining about Obama being the exact same people who incessantly told me that Bush was President and never to question him. Yet what I wanted from Bush was real answers... I certainly didn't ever say I wanted him to die! What do these people want from Obama? Do they even know? I'm starting to think this boils down to racism, pure and simple. Sexism, too, because what woman would vote Republican right now? I actually know a few, and I can't fathom why. I know gays who are voting for Romney as well. I don't understand it. It's literally voting your own rights away. Religion plays a role into my argument here as well, but I won't get into that right now.
My question is this: Are people really this stupid? Paul Ryan claimed that Obama closed the GM plant in Janesville before he was even elected. I know people who have met actual workers from that plant who believe Paul Ryan's statement. They experienced the closure first-hand, under Bush, and still blame Obama! I recently got into an argument about history with someone, and the reply I got was "I'm educated in history" - Twenty seconds on Google provided me a slew of very credible sources which pointed to the contrary of this person's "facts." When confronted, the person's reply was essentially, "Well anyone can say quotes or use Google." ... Then why don't you? Unfortunately, people trust the "news" outlets (*cough cough Fox News cough cough*) rather than actually doing their homework.
In the Information Age, there is no excuse for uninformed voters to exist. If you've got a valid reason to vote for Mitt Romney (though I don't know how you could), fine. If you simply don't like Obama as a person, fine. But please, don't vote if you don't actually know what's really going on. Oh, and yes, I realize we are actually a democratic republic and not a democracy, but that's yet another rant for another day. Hello, Blogosphere, I'm back. Did you miss me?
