Politics and It's Old Game of Bashing

I'm married to Political Man. He loves politics, loves debating them with me though not so much anyone else - but then I pretty much, in most areas, agree with him so it's not a challenge, listens to talk radio about it (he's a trucker so has lots of time for talk radio), reads quite a bit about it and seeks out several arenas to get his information. Not so much my cup of tea - this living and breathing politics. Why? Because I find the bashing of the politician and ignorance of others/voters to be appalling. And I'm not just talking about the bashing of the politicians or their parties toward each other. I'm also talking about small minded, condemning people bashing them for whatever reason. It's very difficult to listen to someone speak about politics when they've only gotten their info from the liberal nightly news. It's hard to listen to people who think half-truths are full truths. It's hard to have people blinded by the bashing of one political party to another. I never believe the ads I see or what I read/hear on newscasts, newspapers, agenda set internet info pages, etc. Although I don't live it like my husband does, I pay attention and follow up on accusations and promises - what's the politician's record and, even more importantly, WHY did they vote this way or that. You can't expect the truth - not from the guy you think you want to vote for and not from the media pushing their own agenda. Oh, and over and above all these - you CANNOT in any way, shape or form, assume Hollywood knows what they are talking about. Good grief, they don't even LIVE in the real world. How can they know what real life is like? Well, they don't. So, here's what is burning me:

You're a Dem and you don't like McCain but you especially don't like his choice of running mate. You hear on the news her 17 year old daughter is pregnant by her boyfriend. You hear Palin is a religious person. You seek out anything condemnable about that situation. Talk show hosts (particularly night time ones), news media and comments on blogs, news pages, etc all slam this little girl and Palin over this dilemma the girl finds herself in. Oh, so you never had pre-marital sex? Well, if you're NOT jumping down Palin or her daughter's throat, you probably never did have pre-marital sex. So you're bashing religious beliefs and the fact that someone who calls themselves Christian has done something or had something occur in their lives that is imperfect. You call them pathetic or hypocrites. You say they are too terrifying to allow close to the presidency because they are religious. This only shows how little you know about faith, religion, striving to be a good person, committing yourself to a religious belief and striving to do your best - and I could go on. But what did you say about Obama's religion issues - being a member of a bigotry run church for over 20 years? Have you ever known anyone who left a church because they didn't/couldn't agree with what was being spewed at the pulpit? That's what most people do. You stay when you, at least, mostly agree with what's being said. Now THAT'S scary.

At this point, it's obvious I'm a Republican. And proud of it. I can't say I'm thrilled with our current president. I can't say I agree with everything going on in the party. But if we really want change - change that Obama rants about but can't speak about without it written out for him - we need to start looking at who/what we are allowing to represent us in Washington overall. The reason our politics stink is because we put people who stink there. Now we have to lie in the bed we made. We allow the immoral, unethical, detrimental behaviors and passing of bad laws or tossed in "extras" and then pretend it didn't happen. Years later, we want to complain about it. Maybe we should have thought it through before it happened. That's a novel thought.

So that's my political rant. It's shorter than it should be to get my point across, but it's all I've got in me today. I just hope people start opening their eyes and take responsibility for the mess we've made.