We are a bunch of s*** thowing monkeys!

In opening my blog, I am going to do something that hasn't been done before: I am going to keep my political affiliation a secret for a while. My motive in hiding my colors is very simple: the partisan baggage that goes along with declaring oneself as a rider of either the donkey or the elephant in this age and day is so powerful that it siphons true sanity from the political discourse. For example, if I were to declare myself a liberal, all the elephants would try to stomp on me. No self-loving conservative would ever be caught dead reading my blog, except to snoot at all of the stupid leftist wish/wash that was being spewed out of my donkey cheeks. And if I were to declare myself a conservative, every donkey within kicking distance would be after me like a battering ram. There would also be a lack of scrutiny. People of my conviction would come to nod mindlessly to my blubbering, while wondering why the stupid liberal/conservatives couldn't see the jewels of thought coming out of this "genius’s" trunk/mouth. In other words, the lens of party affiliation has always thrown a colored cloth over the political debate, and what I am trying to say would be lessened if I revealed my alliance with the greater powers that be.

In the current political climate, regardless of the ultimate genius or folly of any party's policy, whatever stance on a hot issue that is taken by party A is damned and misrepresented by party B. From top to bottom, names are called, and truth is twisted. Don't believe me? Liberals, go to www.anncoulter.com, and conservatives go to www.michaelmoore.com. I guarantee what you see there will make your heart bleed. The thing is that both of these people love to stretch truth to play the harp of emotion. For you conservatives, let's first discredit Mike. All of you who saw Fahrenheit 911 will remember the "egg-throwing scene," and the assertion that Bush was pelted with eggs during his inaugural parade. Nope, not quite true. The correct sentence would read, "Bush was pelted with EGG (singular intended) during his inaugural parade." (Note that I am NOT directly quoting Michael Moore) There was only one egg, yet Michael Moore had to say "eggs" instead of "egg" and make the world think that there was media cover-up of the egg pelting that went on. (Source: http://www.davekopel.com/Terror/Fiftysix-Deceits-in-Fahrenheit-911.htm) Now for Ann. (lets hear a cheer from the liberal side) One of the best ways to lie is to have a footnote/endnote that doesn't support what you say. Ann is an absolute meister at this. Here's something from www.anncoulter.blogspot.com: "...On page 5, Coulter writes: “Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman recommended dropping the war against global terrorism (‘declare war the first decent opportunity’!) and instead concentrate on ‘home-grown extremists.’” REALITY: In the column Coulter cited, Ackerman does not advocate concentrating on domestic terrorists (as opposed to foreign-born terrorists, who are the focus of the column). In fact, Ackerman only mentions “home-grown extremists” in passing ('And I do not deny that other attacks may well occur — perhaps committed by home-grown extremists.')"

These two examples alone prove little, yet one can easily find hundreds of them (omnipotent Google). And whether the accusations are true or not makes no difference. If they are true, then we see how on both sides of the fence, there is indiscriminate truth twisting. If they are false, we can still glean useful information from them. One must only notice that the critics will ALWAYS be united by their political affiliation. In other words, only party A is willing to look at the flaws of party B. Furthermore, this bad behavior is by no means limited to the high-up mucky-mucks. In the general course of political debate in one day, more names are called I think than people live in Chicago. To prove this, I will try a little experiment while I am writing this. I am going to enter "Liberal asshole" and "Conservative idiot" as search queries and see what I find..............

The results weren't surprising. Under "conservative idiot", there were 1650 results, the first of which were "The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 82 - Democratic Underground," "Who is a bigger conservative idiot? - DEMOCRAT.com," and "Grouchy's Liberaltopia: The new Top Ten Conservative Idiot list is..." You get the idea. A similar search for "Liberal asshole" yields 1800 results. The difference in number only reflects the popularity of the phrase. You can do this experiment for yourself. Why not try "Conservative nut job" or "Liberal kook?"

What I find so frustrating about slander and truth twisting is that these strategies don't change anything. If you lie, your lie only works until someone finds out about it, and then it backfires. Slander never works. Indeed, it just alienates the opposition. The reason for this is simple. People define their political beliefs based on fundamental values, and having your fundamental values proved wrong is synonymous to being proven evil. And unlike Saturday morning cartoon villains, most people don't take pride in that designation. It is a distinction for which people will go to ultimate lengths to avoid. True, insulting someone you hate can let off steam from time to time, but defamation and lying have no place in a political arena. Whether it has existed in the past or not, today's political environment calls for a little comity. So whether or not liberals are standing in the way of the war on terror, or Neocons are trying to turn our country into a fascist state, it is truly the ultimate statement of boorishness and pig headedness to assume that a belief system - conservative or liberal - which is held by 100,000,000 people in the United States is the result of stupidity or lack of foresight. If 100,000,000 US citizens have sub-par intelligence, we are all goin' down to Davy Jones' Locker together.