Politics are a scary game these days.

Written on January 10, 2011. Posted in Politics, Real World. 3 Comments.

By now I’m pretty sure that everyone in the world has heard about the assassination attempt on an Arizona senator earlier this week. It feels like only the latest in the endless string of bad news pouring from the television these days. I can’t say I’m even surprised that something like this happened. Even so, it feels sadder than plunging stock market values or never-ending wars.

The way I see it, part of the real tragedy in this event is that some people are using it as a means to divide the country even more (look at both the article and some of the comments to see what I mean), labeling individual politicians like Sarah Palin and other extremists as personally responsible for the incident. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Sarah Palin. But even I can see that she can’t be blamed for the actions of a lone, mentally unstable gunman. When fingers point at a political party for this kind of tragedy, whether the party in question is Democrat, Republican or otherwise, we only divide ourselves more. By so stubbornly clinging to the “them vs. us” idea that seems to be prevalent in the minds of just about everyone, we’re tearing ourselves apart.

Most people in the U.S. today can be divided up into one of a very few groups based on their political philosophy, it would seem. On one hand, we have the extreme conservatives, who blame the left for everything that’s wrong with the country. Opposite of them are the liberals, who blame the right for everything that’s wrong with the country. Then, we have what feels like the smallest group of all- the moderates who just want everyone to be able to work together. All three groups are responsible for the finger-pointing: Democrats blame Republicans, Republicans blame Democrats, and moderates blame both. But no one ever does anything to change the way our political system works.

I’m not saying I’m any better, because I know I’m not. But maybe if we started to look at each other as people rather than political labels, we’d be better off. Maybe if we were able to see that we’re all on the same side, we’d be able to find solutions to our problems that actually work. Life is a compromise. After all, united we stand, divided we fall. I just wish the world could remember that.

By the way, for those of you who were inquiring, I got at least an A- for all of my class grades, which means I didn’t fail any of my final exams! So apparently the not-study game worked after all. Not that I’m recommending that you don’t study for your exams. You probably should. Unless, of course, you’re reading my blog. It’s perfectly acceptable to skip studying for that. (…Except don’t. I don’t want to be responsible if you fail you exams.)

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