I See a Problem With Partisan Politics

In the past I've fallen victim to becoming a non-thinking, partisan biased individual. I was too deeply rooted in the party of my choice, to the point where I would defend them without thinking rationally. I developed an idea that these folks were infallible. I think it developed from growing up around a group of people with minds like steel-traps. Anybody could bring up a political topic, and they would be able to tell you all sorts of facts that to support their arguments. Me, not having researched any of the political views I thought I had "developed" could be completely shut-down by their knowledge of the subject. This gave me a sense that the views that my family possessed were correct, seeing that the logic that they conveyed seemed to be amazingly dead-on.

So, I came away from all of that with the watered-down notion that I was a Republican, and seeing that my family seemed to have similar thoughts as Republicans: the Republicans couldn't be wrong, since my family's logic was so amazing.

This led me to a the a fore-mentioned place where I would defend the Republican points of view while having very little knowledge of the facts behind the issues brought up. This led me into an interesting place.



I would get into debates that were too deep for myself. I would talk to people about issues that I didn't really have much information on, and get seemingly crushed. Yet, something wasn't right, because I knew that my opponent wasn't right, but they would have more facts to support their argument, which I typically had little knowledge of. So, I was left feeling confused, because while I was damn sure that I was right, I couldn't prove it.

This, finally, led me to start actually examining the issues. I was very surprised at the things that I found. I immediately realized that I wasn't a Republican, I was, in fact, a Libertarian. I started to find that I was disgusted with both Republicans and Democrats. Mostly, I was really disgusted to find that there are so many career politicians, who have been in our government for too long.

So, where did all of this lead me? It led me try and cut all of the BS out of everything, and look at what is really happening. The thing that I noticed most is that politicians and the media are amazingly capable at playing a constant shell game. It's easy to get caught up in the current policy issues; to pick a side and fight for it. But, the more difficult part has been to look beneath that. Many times, we are being shown one thing to take our sight off the bigger picture. In many cases it is politicians seeking power that they were not granted through the constitution. The funny thing is is that many of our rights have already been encroached on, setting a precedence that if one can be encroached on, all of them are fair-game.

It's no secret that politicians have always sought to grow their own power. We see this the most blatantly with the Presidential position; a position intended to lack power other than checking the Legislature and operating as the Commander in Chief in times of war. But, power was usurped through a national crisis, and instead of questioning it, we've just accepted it as the new way of our world. The funny thing is that, if we agree with the ideals of the politician, we are willing to accept these power-grabs. Yet, what if that politician was of an opposing view-point, and then made that same power-grab?



Now, we see a government that is the inverse of what our founding fathers intended. It's rapidly growing out of control, into a more controlling structure. So, where to go from here? I'm going to continue looking into what's happening with our government. I'll send letters to my congressmen(who probably won't listen), and continue to discuss the issues and challenge the popular thought. I will refuse to take what I see on the news as fac, without doing my best to verify it for myself. And, I will do my best to rationally evaluate all of views that challenge mine, and look for validity in them.