Political Season

I want to start by saying this blog entry feels like giving into the very thing I hate. So, let me be the first to note my own hypocrisy.

My coffee sat hot before me, the curls of steam disappearing into my small metal desk lamp. I had completed my profiteering with Gringotts, my banker gnome in World of Warcraft and I wanted to burn a little more time while my van heated up. I didn't have time to do any work in Minecraft, so I hopped into Facebook for just a few minutes.

Blue and white, text and images rush my senses. There are the personal entries, news topics and prayer requests. Funny pictures and stupids please to see how many people read my posts. I never read those. But in between these, like grubs coming out of dead wood, are the political posts. I hate them. I probably shouldn't, I should probably rationally consider what people are saying, but they mentally nauseate me. Nearly all of them are pointing out flaws in some candidate, many of them are unfounded or unthought out. They only serve to remind me that I am not really convinced to put my support behind any of them.

I am perhaps more thankful for my DVR than I have been any year before. It allows me to largely avoid the deluge of political mud that is sure to be there. Those that I have seen don't encourage me. A black and white photo of the candidate to be vilified, always captured to make them look either evil or stupid. A serious voice and dramatic music tell you half facts on racism or losing rights or the government going bankrupt. Sometimes with a bold red word stamped over the face of the villain. The the leading question, "Is this what you want? Is this your leader?". In the short add it will stop there, but the long one will do the Wizard of Oz turn, giving you to good technicolor lively alternative. The one who cares for you.

At work, this can be just as bad. It is amazing how many political experts I have run into. This could be better, and I sometimes give it a chance to be. In the last presidential election, I spent some time talking to someone who worked for a local candidate. I would ask them questions which were to test the claims leveled against other candidates and question the philosophy of his candidates position. Here is what I found, he was a democrat, so he believed the claims of the democrats in general and his candidate in particular. To him, though, the claims of republicans were not to be believed and the default position you should have on them was one of distrust. This lack of parity meant he was never going to shift, even if it was rational.

I want to believe in a world where there is an open exchange of ideas, where people have thoughtful positions that they can explain, where they see the good parts in candidates they don't like and the weaknesses of their own candidates. I don't want to believe people blindly follow their unions or employers, organization who have a personal stake in being biased. When I read that Ron Paul is a racist or a simple Nobama or Romney is great or awful because he is a Mormon, what am I left with?