Nobody's Right If Everybody's Wrong

The election is over. It's been over for days. But the amount of silly, sarcastic, bitter, and sometimes even mean and hateful comments and images being posted on social media is really quite astounding. I shouldn't be surprised. It was expected to a certain degree. But people go too far, as evidenced in this political cartoon -

Does anyone truly believe that any segment of business or society wants dirty air and polluted water? Or that the president actually wants this country to fail? Seriously. Who is so delusional or twisted to go to that extreme in their thinking? Sure we have problems. That's a fact. But to lay the blame all on one political party or one person or a particular group of people is just ridiculous. 

If you blame the Republicans for the Iraq war and for getting us into Afghanistan, then remember it was a Democratic administration that was responsible for escalating the Vietnam War. And a Republican ended it... in a very tragic and messy way.

If it was Republican financial policies that led to the economic slump and bailouts during Bush's (the younger) administration, then remember it was during the Democrat Carter's term that mortgage rates hit 19% and gas rationing was enacted.

There have been good times and not so good times. Most have, and will have, nothing to do with which political party is in power. Sometimes it's just about bad people doing bad things. And those bad people can come from all races, religions, political organizations, cultures, societies... anywhere. And at any time. That's why it's important to have leaders. True leaders who have earned our trust and have a sincere honest desire to do the right thing. We don't have that now. We have partisans. We have egomaniacs. Or occasionally we elect someone who is simply not qualified. They don't have the experience, temperament, compassion or common sense to handle or even understand the tasks which they have been given. In other words - they are in way over their heads.  A sad side note to this is that we keep putting them back in!  It's madness.

I had lunch the other day with a friend who is older and wiser than me. He said something rather profound, in my opinion. He said, "I remember when there were Republicans and Democrats, and they tried to work together for the overall good. Now it's liberals and conservatives. They can't find any common ground and there's no compromise."  I agree with his observation. This is what we've come to. And it's kind of sad.

Maybe we should hope that somehow we can get back to simpler times when campaigns weren't filled with hollow promises. A time when fewer words were spoken but they had more meaning. A time of action. Maybe we need more people like Senator Stephens -

He does things. Simple. To the point. My kind of guy. I'd vote for him. How about you?

Roger O'Dea       11/8/2014