Lean to Independence

      Political dialogue in 2012 is dreary and predictable, deadly dull.  One has the Right and the Left.  One has the Conservatives and the Liberals.  One has the Red States and the Blue States.  One has the Republicans and the Democrats.  That's it.  There are no other viable choices.  Just as we do in sports, we pick a side and then stick with it.  Loyalty matters.  Even insane loyalty.  One is expected to support his own side across the board, without bothering to determine if any particular issue makes sense from the Blue side or the Red side.  Or vice versa. 

     
      It's tiresome.  It makes no sense for me to be herded into one camp or another.  There are times when Republicans make more sense to me than Democrats.  I want to be able to support them on those occasions.  And just as logically, even inescapably, there are times when Democrats make more sense than Republicans.  As a representative man, I like to think that at least most of the time, I do the right thing.  That I think things through and decide on the right and proper course of action.  But acting in my own best interest factors in too, must factor in.

      In the current debate about reforming health insurance, for example, I don't know what to think quite yet.  What is known as "Obamacare," is packaged in a 7,000-page document (I hear), which means no one knows what it actually entails.  And as everyone knows by hard experience, the devil is always in the details, so I am skeptical, but open-minded.  And the Supreme Court may yet determine that the whole thing is unconstitutional and thus a moot point.  But I do support the idea that equal health care needs to become a reality in America even if "Obamacare" turns out not to be the answer.  Right now I don't know what the right thing to do is, which side is more correct--and I don't know what is in my own best interest either.  I'm hoping the whole thing will clarify itself, but one thing is certain, I will not vote because I am a Republican or Democrat.  I'll eventually figure out what "Obamacare" means to the country and to me--and vote accordingly.

      Sometimes the right thing and my best interest are not the same thing, as, for example, is the case with local school budgets.  I have long supported educators who argue for bigger budgets to support higher salaries (to draw the most qualified teachers) and better facilities--all because this will more likely result in better school systems and better-educated kids.  But this was easier to do when my own children were in the system and when my wife and I were drawing good salaries.  Now that we live on a fixed income and we no longer have children in the system, I vote against school budgets.  I can't afford to support them.  One needn't apologize for that either.  Things change--nationally, locally, and within one's family.    

        In another case, I supported George W. Bush in the infamous 2000 election because he seemed honest and appealing in his limitations, while Al Gore came across as a bully in their debates.  Bill Clinton had been smart, a great campaigner and debater, a man who, despite his widely covered sexual misadventures, inspired more confidence than censure, though it was a close call.  He was popular despite his moral shakiness.  Poor Al Gore was so bad at the confidence thing and so personally unappealing (despite his moral rectitude) that he couldn't even carry his own state, which, had he done so, would have put him over the top and made him president.  I worried about Bush's intelligence, but I voted for him anyway--and hoped for the best.  

      But I also voted for Barak Obama because he was smart and spoke well and promised to bring a moral superiority to the country after Bush's middle-Eastern wars had begun to smell so bad.  I liked the old man John McCain too, the Republican candidate, but Obama promised a new post-Civil War recovery from entrenched national racism.  It was clear to me that a vote for Obama was the right thing to do.  

     The point, as I continue to see it, is that it is impossible to vote the straight Republican line--or the straight Democratic line.  I can understand locals rooting for their baseball team "through thick or thin," but being loyal to a political party has never made sense to me.  Judging what is right about the Republican or Democratic position on any given issue is most important--and that's why I lean to independence.