How's ya mama an em... an dey politics, dawlin'

I recently went back home to the deep south for the holidays, and had a number of interactions that had me both defending and preaching my political beliefs in dinner party after dinner party. A usual holiday occurrence, if a somewhat heightened one every 4 years, for obvious reasons. In my family all the political junkies are known, and we go into gatherings well warned by our spouses to ‘just f*cking behave’. To my credit, I did not pick any fights (this time), but they got picked and discussions were had. There’s nothing rare about this, I’m sure it happens in families across the country every holiday season. Probably the only noteworthy thing is, in my families’ case, all parties involved actually love each other and are respectful of each other’s feelings, if not all their opinions.

I tend to, and this might surprise some people who read my stuff, bite my tongue a lot during these conversations. I frequently find myself being the one who seeks common ground and shies away from the conflicting opinions. A prime example of this is a dinner I spent acknowledging the smart policy positions of Ron Paul, someone I find to be clearly delusional if not outright insane. Now, it’s not that I was lying in that conversation, I just did the thing grown ups do when faced with opposing viewpoints, you find common ground in the name of civility (Congress would do good to take note here).  Also, had the two parties involved in the conversation ceased being civil well, things would have gotten ugly

There's no doubt in my mind who is who here. 

I think this is an important thing here, this bi-partisan civility. For example, both myself and my aunt are readily acknowledged as political junkies, both outspoken, both extremely opinionated, and on polar opposite ends of the spectrum. All our family, who are of some varied stripes but mostly typical southerner “I learned everything I need to know about liberal politics from Rush Limbaugh” Republicans knows this and I think were awaiting some kind of Ron Paul V. Obama showdown. You could see them watching my aunt and I out of the corner of their eyes during our conversations, with a mixture of nerves and hope that the uppity transplanted yankee would get what for(I might be stretching the truth here)  And make no doubt, such a showdown could have been had. I feel in terms of loud, abrasive yet persuasive debate styles, we’d be fairly evenly matched. But we both realized that’s not the reason for the season so that’s not the conversation we had.

This note of civility was later in the week paid back to me tenfold when I basically sat and lectured a cousin on the wrongness of his opinion in front of his 9 year old daughter. Rather then do the normal (and correct) thing, which would be to chastise me for my tone, he listened patiently and earnestly, and in the process taught both his daughter and his bullish cousin a valuable lesson on being an adult. We then proceeded to find common ground, because that’s what grown ups do.

Again, you doofuses could take note.

So, I guess my one takeaway from the holidays is that, after having discussions with a Ron Paul delegate/Right wing AM radio show host, a Rush Limbaugh Republican, and a Fox News devotee who’s normal has been knocked so far out of whack he thinks CNN is left wing propaganda..... is this. That if you grow up, realize your relationships with people are more important then ‘winning’, you find common ground. And it’s ALWAYS there to be found.

I understand on some issues you have to fight for what you believe is right, but the people up there have to realize they represent everyone. They represent spinach eating liberals and swamp fishing coonasses and every last damn one of us in between. 2012 needs to be the year of growing the fuck up and compromising. And, more importantly, we need to let that be ok. Congress is hovering around 5% in their approval rating right now, which is bullshit. Congress is doing exactly what we tell them to do, it's us who are failing. Every time we refuse to elect some moderate in favor of an outspoken ideologue, every time we threaten an incumbent with a far right/left primary challenge we send the message, loud and clear; 

"SUIT UP, FUCKER, IT'S WARTIME!" 

And then we get shocked when they refuse to compromise.

I only regret that I have but one filibuster

to give for my rabid constituency.

Next, some bullet points of things that I was adult enough to not say at the time, observations I made, and a prediction for the next year.

• “That Bitch Rachel.” Whatever you think of the facts she brings, you cannot deny that she always comes loaded to the hilt with facts. And you can guarantee that she would Never refer to you as a bitch.

• If you are of a voting age and don’t know what the terms NDAA and SOPA mean, make no mistake, you are part of the fucking problem. A massive part of the problem. Pick up a goddamn paper.

• The new Black Keys album is seriously fucking amazing, y’all.

• Every tolerable position that Ron Paul has is one that only seems radical because of the ‘R’ next to his name. The legalization of weed, the end to the war on drugs, the not really caring about who marries who, all of these will be mainstream before this decade is done. Just because Paul’s Libertarian fantasyland coincides with that reality doesn’t mean it’s his war against them being waged. If Ron Paul is leading on those isues, it’s from behind and as a by product.

• On the flipside. He’s right to back away from Iran, he also is more right then wrong on his position via Israel. We’re now basically paying Israel to wage unilateral war on an entire region of people who are increasingly only united by their hatred of Israel. There’s no way that path ends well for anyone and Palestinians know damn good and well that it’s US tax dollars paying for the bombs that blow up their schools.

• But on the flip flip side, his foreign policy in the middle east is right for the wrong reasons. It’s not that we have to retreat behind our borders and pull back from international conflict. It’s that the middle east no longer has a strategic value to us. We need to pull out from that region and re-invest our military resources for the conflicts of the 2012. That can’t be done from behind a wall of noninterventionism(because that’s a fucking word) and if you think those conflicts will just go away because retreat from our foreign bases you’re a loon. The fight for resources in this next century will be epic, and by resources I don’t mean oil, I mean food and water. I don’t know about you but I personally want America to win those fights.

• On a final note about Ron Paul, his domestic policy is great, in the way a Norman Rockwell painting is great. He’s running in the wrong century. His ideas, his core economic ideas and governmental structure ideas will simply not work. Isolationism is no longer an option on a planet that is instantly interconnected at every level. And pulling our power from a federal position to a state position only weakens us in every trade arrangement we enter into. Instead of having 50 separate states trying to lure businesses by undercutting the other 49, we need one unified stick to wield when brokering deals with other nations.

• Every government regulation that personally inconveniences you is not a bad regulation. I don’t mean to say that every government regulation is an awesome one, but before you instantly dismiss government oversight as evil, stop and question why that specific regulation exists. It might be helping others more then it’s harming you.

• To my family that watches Fox News, and listens to Rush Limbaugh; Stop. I love you. Stop. You make yourself dumber every minute you do that. And I’m not whistling dixie here. Non partisan studies have shown that people who watch only Fox news are less informed on factual matters then people who watch NO NEWS AT ALL. Just to repeat that, in all bold underlined font. Studies have proven that if you watch FOX you are actually less informed then if you watched nothing. I understand the validity of people having different opinions based on their own life experiences, but you reach a point where facts are facts. And when it comes to facts, Fox lies to you, either with a grin and a nod, or by omission entirely. Make no mistake, Hannity, O'Reilly, Kelly, Van Susterenerenrern, these people are there for one reason; to make you angry, and loyal, in that order. Education is not one of their goals, nor is journalism. They are not homegrown, like you. They are NYC pissy elitists, like me. They broadcast from the heart of midtown manhattan, each lunch at 100 dollar a plate restaurants, and go to bed chuckling at how easily all of you are duped into voting and campaigning against your own interests.

 Mom and Pops good ole' fashioned media empire.

If you want conservative news, real conservative news, here are some people and outlets you should be following.

The Wall Street Journal
George Will
The Washington Post
David Brooks
The Economist
David Frum
Peggy Noonan
And is you must follow Fox News, I think Shepard Smith still has a shred of credibility left.

These are conservatives, thinking conservatives. I sometimes disagree with them, but they know what they’re talking about. Before we parted ways, my cousin acknowledged I know more about this stuff then he does. And he's right, by a country mile. Cars, forget it, I know where the key goes. Football... eh, the basics, but I'll never run a fantasy team and I lose interest very quickly once we stop talking about The Only Team That Matters.

Tears. Still. To this day.

But this shit. C-Span, minority whip, early primary poll results, policy decision ramifications... I eat this shit up. I know as much about the Congress as most Louisiana men know about LSU football. So, when I tell you that FOX news is lying to you, it's not because I want you to believe my politics, it's because it's the goddamned truth. And when I suggest other conservatives to read and listen to, it's not because they're secret liberals, it's because if you choose to be a conservative, I want you to be a smart conservative. 

• You better goddamned believe I’m for the end of tenure status and the insitution of merit based pay for teachers. I think the concept of a voucher system is a terrible idea, but I am 110% for the idea of merit based pay in our education system.

• I still maintain that, based on their respective policy records, I see zero difference between a Romney white house and an Obama white house.  I’m also noticing that my spellcheck has a conservative bias, as Romney clears but Obama gets redlined.

Seriously. All summer long, brace yourself for it. 

• RINO is a stupid term. Stop using it. What you call a RINO is someone smart enough to realize that if you don’t compromise on anything you lose on everything. Reagan would have been a very large RINO.

• Finally, before you champion one politcian or make another a pariah, start paying less attention to what they tell you they’ve done, or what other people tell you they’ve done, but figure out for yourself. Every politician in Washington a single term casts enough votes to be accused of both raising taxes and cutting taxes, so take that accusation with a grain of salt. And pay closer attention to Who’s telling you about politicians, and what They want.

*Paid for by people who stand to make a lot of money 

if someone other then Newt Gingrich wins

• One thing I have noticed that everyone overwhelmingly agrees with, is that every member in power right now, on both sides of the aisle, is bought and paid for. And the people buying aren't us.

• One last thing, which will probably be my next blog post. If you thought 2011 was the year of internet activism, you ain’t seen nothin yet.


Happy 2012, Y’all!