Election Year Politics - Is it really "Us" vs. "Them"?

I watched a Sunday morning segment today about the differences in America between "liberals" and "conservatives". The segment was titled "Continental Divide" and asked the questions "Are we really that divided? Are there really two distinct visions of America?"

While not really ever answering the question, the Sunday morning segment highlighted the fact that the "blue" states tend to not be churchgoing so much as their "red" state counterparts, but upon questioning, most seem to share a lot of the same feelings and vision for America as those in the "red" states.

My own opinion here is that yes, there are two visions of America. Unfortunately, there is a very vocal minority who have managed to promote the idea of two equal visions with a great deal of success. In my experience, and from what I read (not what I hear on the network news) I would tend to believe that the two visions are held by very differently sized audiences. The trouble is, that some of those who are attributed with a "liberal" vision are in actuality quite moderate to conservative. The reason for this, to use an old Southern phrase, is because there are an awful lot of "yellow-dog" democrats and republicans out there. What that means is that there is a very large segment of our population that are so emotionally tied to their "party" that they'd vote along party lines even if the candidate was only a "yellow-dog".

I see folks with such set opinions who haven't looked into what their party really stands for in years - if ever. They vote the way they do because mom and dad did - or perhaps in spite of dear old mom and dad. But have they ever really studied the candidates espoused by their respective parties to see what they really believe?

A prime example are some of the older people (WWII era) that I know who were shocked so by the "Abu-Gharib" scandal that they are immediately ready to jump the ship of rationality right into the arms of the waiting liberals. They were appalled and had words of great condemnation for our military command - you'd have thought that this was the only issue upon which to judge the current administration. And why did they think that way? Well, could it be the Terrorist Sponsored News Media? Hmmmm?

Perhaps we need to entirely do away with the idea of political parties - force those who register to vote to be able to study the issues for themselves to determine for whom they should vote. And if you come to the polls to vote and can't even tell who the main candidates are or what they stand for - then you don't need to vote! Leave the voting for those who have actually done their homework . . . just my thoughts of how things oughtta be . . .

And, by the way, Happy 228th birthday, USA!

Kayz Out