“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that
The other party is unfit to rule—-and both commonly succeed, and are right.”
—-H.L. Mencken
It doesn’t matter which side of the political fence a person may stand upon, we all tend to look for the person who we believe validates what we believed in the first place. I listen to my democratic friends question how intelligent people believe some of the things that FOX news is saying. How can they believe, they wonder, that the border is teeming with rapists and murderers? Don’t they see that it is all fake news delivered by a news network that is trying to run the White House?
No, what they see and hear are people telling them that their own beliefs have merit.
Not too long ago my republican friends asked how Obama supporters believed the garbage that the liberal newscasters were spewing. Didn’t they see, they queried, the damage that Obama was doing to our country? While the liberal broadcasters were validating everything that liberal voters believed was fact, conservatives believed that our country was one breath away from a total disaster under an administration that bordered on socialistic.
Most people make up their minds on issues before they cast their vote in November, and they spend the next four years trying to prove they were right. Unfortunately, in doing so the people whose candidate lost the election begin to forget what is actually at stake. They become so intent on proving they were right, that they stop working for the good of their country and instead fight tooth and nail to prove their beliefs were the only correct beliefs. Equally unfortunate is the hubris that takes over many election winners and their supporters. They start to believe that they were elected not to represent us, but to take care of us. Their agenda becomes the only agenda and compromise becomes a detriment to their success.
Arthur gets annoyed at me when I remind him that we followed Obama with the same blinders that many people follow Trump. When the former president did something we didn’t agree with (and he often did) we convinced ourselves that it was a small price to pay for all the good he was doing. Isn’t that exactly what Trump supporters are doing now? They might not like the wall, but they spent a lot of years waiting for that tax cut. He is loading the court system with conservative judges, so they can simply overlook a few “inconsistencies” in his dealings with Russia.
If we all take step a back and realize that we have a great deal more in common than we believe, maybe we can start to work through our differences and change our country. You see, politicians really care about one thing over all...being elected/re-elected in the next election. They will follow any agenda if they believe their supporters will back them. That gives us, the every-day citizen, more power than we ever imagined. If we are frustrated with the way things are going, then we must get together, compromise and form an agenda that satisfies us all. As soon as we present that agenda, and convince the powers that be of our commitment to that agenda, we can sit back and watch our elected officials begin to vote in favor of their constituents’ desires. If we work as a team we are all much more likely to win.
I read/reviewed The Perfect Alibi: A Novel by Phillip Margolin this week. This March title is Margolin at his best and definitely deserves to be on your “books I must read” list. It is a timely legal thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.
As always a complete review of this book follows my blog.
Happy reading,
- Beverly
The other party is unfit to rule—-and both commonly succeed, and are right.”
—-H.L. Mencken
It doesn’t matter which side of the political fence a person may stand upon, we all tend to look for the person who we believe validates what we believed in the first place. I listen to my democratic friends question how intelligent people believe some of the things that FOX news is saying. How can they believe, they wonder, that the border is teeming with rapists and murderers? Don’t they see that it is all fake news delivered by a news network that is trying to run the White House?
No, what they see and hear are people telling them that their own beliefs have merit.
Not too long ago my republican friends asked how Obama supporters believed the garbage that the liberal newscasters were spewing. Didn’t they see, they queried, the damage that Obama was doing to our country? While the liberal broadcasters were validating everything that liberal voters believed was fact, conservatives believed that our country was one breath away from a total disaster under an administration that bordered on socialistic.
Most people make up their minds on issues before they cast their vote in November, and they spend the next four years trying to prove they were right. Unfortunately, in doing so the people whose candidate lost the election begin to forget what is actually at stake. They become so intent on proving they were right, that they stop working for the good of their country and instead fight tooth and nail to prove their beliefs were the only correct beliefs. Equally unfortunate is the hubris that takes over many election winners and their supporters. They start to believe that they were elected not to represent us, but to take care of us. Their agenda becomes the only agenda and compromise becomes a detriment to their success.
Arthur gets annoyed at me when I remind him that we followed Obama with the same blinders that many people follow Trump. When the former president did something we didn’t agree with (and he often did) we convinced ourselves that it was a small price to pay for all the good he was doing. Isn’t that exactly what Trump supporters are doing now? They might not like the wall, but they spent a lot of years waiting for that tax cut. He is loading the court system with conservative judges, so they can simply overlook a few “inconsistencies” in his dealings with Russia.
If we all take step a back and realize that we have a great deal more in common than we believe, maybe we can start to work through our differences and change our country. You see, politicians really care about one thing over all...being elected/re-elected in the next election. They will follow any agenda if they believe their supporters will back them. That gives us, the every-day citizen, more power than we ever imagined. If we are frustrated with the way things are going, then we must get together, compromise and form an agenda that satisfies us all. As soon as we present that agenda, and convince the powers that be of our commitment to that agenda, we can sit back and watch our elected officials begin to vote in favor of their constituents’ desires. If we work as a team we are all much more likely to win.
I read/reviewed The Perfect Alibi: A Novel by Phillip Margolin this week. This March title is Margolin at his best and definitely deserves to be on your “books I must read” list. It is a timely legal thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.
As always a complete review of this book follows my blog.
Happy reading,
- Beverly
Click on the book cover to order the title mentioned in today's blog
