The Myth of Bipartisanship

I recently saw a poll online which showed that nearly ninety percent of Americans want the two major parties to work together in a bipartisan way to solve problems in America. I was really surprised by that number. Clearly, the vast majority of Americans do not understand how widely divided the two major parties are ideologically. Probably the only issue in the past year that Republicans and Democrats could agree on is that Michael Vick is a really bad person for running a dog fighting ring and being party to the death of a few dogs.

Americans need to come to an understanding of the fact that for the last fifty years there has been an ideological civil war going on in this country. The battle ground of this war has been the hearts and minds of the American people. There is a 'right' and a 'left', a 'conservative' and a 'liberal', a 'capitalist' and a 'socialist' viewpoint for every single issue, and, they are as far apart as they can be. Bipartisanship can only maintain the status quo. It isn't as if the two parties are trying to get to the same place and are just in a disagreement on how to get there. They are trying to go in opposite directions. Republicans want less government and Democrats want more. Republicans believe in a uninhibited free market economy and Democrats want more government control bordering on socialism. Republicans believe that Americans know better how to spend their own money and Democrats think that the government would do a better job. Republicans believe in supporting America's interests abroad and Democrats seem to be more interested in supporting the interests of our enemies.
Where is the common ground?

In this election season there has been a lot of clamor about change. Americans want change and are sick and tired of the status quo. If Americans want change they need to join the fray. They must stop sitting on the fence. They are going to have to examine the ideologies of both parties and pick a side. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke. It is time to choose!

A Personal Introduction

Since this is a political blog, I will confine my comments to my political ideology and how it developed. Since the Vietnam war was in full swing during my teenage years, I was not unaffected by the political upheavals that were going on in the U.S. While in high school, I came under the influence of a teacher (ironically, my American Government teacher) who was a marxist. She exposed me to the Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx as well as other Marxist writings. I became convinced that Marxism, as an economic system could bring utopia to the U.S.

During the election season of 1972, I volunteered to work for the local democratic party headquarters to help elect George McGovern, whom I viewed as the first viable marxist candidate for President in American history. When I turned 18 in 1976, being fully aware that the Marxist wing of the Democratic Party had taken over the leadership thereof in 1970, I registered to vote as a Democrat, and voted for Jimmy Carter. When Carter won the election, and since the congress was also controlled by the Democratic Party, I was expecting great prosperity in the U.S. Oh, to be young and stupid!

President Carter's administration brought anything but prosperity to the American people. In addition, the tendency of marxist to support America's enemies and oppose it's allies was very troubling to me. By the middle of Ronald Reagan's second term in office I was thoroughly convinced that marxism was fundamentally flawed. Everywhere in the world that marxism had been tried, it brought nothing but want and death. From that point on I have been an avid supporter of the conservative cause in the United States and a staunch anti-communist. And, to that end, I hope through this blog to do my small part.