Campfyre Stories

I can’t be the only one who feels like the political affiliation labels that we have come to take for granted are more and more outdated and inaccurate with every passing election.  With the mid-term elections rapidly approaching, I have found myself subjected to more and more Republican vs. Democrat bullshit than I can really remember seeing in the past.

The problem that I have is this:  Once upon a time, within my lifetime, someone could say "I’m a Republican" or "I’m a Democrat" and you could quickly and easily gauge their overall beliefs, in a very generalized way.  Democrats were for larger government, social programs, and didn’t mind raising taxes to achieve their goals.  Republicans were more interested in less governmental interference, more state rights and less spending, which meant that with the social program cuts, they could lower taxes.  This isn’t really the case anymore.

These days when you hear Republican or Democrat you hear words and phrases like "wishy-washy", "corrupt", "pork barrel spending", "pro/anti War in Iraq", "religious", etc. which, to me, doesn’t really, or at least shouldn’t sum up what it means to affiliate politically.

There are a lot of people I know who call me a hippie.  I can only assume that they really don’t know what it means to be a hippie, don’t know me as well as they think they do, or judge my philosophical ideals based on the way I dress.  I am not nearly liberal enough to be a "hippie".  My mother calls me a libertarian, but honestly, I don’t quite fit that mold either.  I tend to call myself a Jeffersonian Democrat, which confuses and confounds people who think that it means Democrat in the 21st (or even 20th) century definition.  It doesn’t, it actually more means Republican in a lot of ways.  Look up what it was that Jefferson believed in terms of government.  I think there are a lot more people who subscribe to that than anyone would guess.

I saw a friend of mine, Big Gay John, after a few years of not really having a change to get together.  We had spoken, but hadn’t found the time to really spend with each other.  BGJ has always been, for me, one of those people whose political affiliation stumps me.  His lifestyle choice, as far as I can tell, is not one that is accepted within his political affiliation.  Being nosy, I’ve asked him, in the past, how he can reconcile his lifestyle with his political affiliation of choice and his answer was that politically, he agreed more with the way that Republicans wanted to handle government (state’s rights, less spending) and that the fiscal conservatism was important to him.  He doesn’t have a whole lot of use for social welfare programs and, while he, as a gay man, is disparaged by some prominent bigots within the party, he still feels that, overall, that’s his affiliation.

I can accept this.  It’s something that he’s thought about in detail, probably fairly often.  Anyone who can sit there and tell me the reasoning behind what seems, on the surface, to be a contradictory decision has my utmost respect.

Imagine my surprise, then, when he, needing gas desperately, drove past a Mobil station muttering about how he refuses to buy anything from Exxon-Mobil.  He explained to me that Mobil, before the merger, used to offer one of the best same-sex partner benefits packages out there, but that when they were bought out by Exxon the same-sex benefits were cut.  That’s right, they were cut - immediately.  There was no grandfathering in of existing couples, there were no alternatives presented, they just stopped all overage to same-sex partners.

I agree that it’s something worthy of a boycott, but I was still surprised by my (previously) staunchly Republican friend carrying this out.  Some things, though, are more important that political affiliations.  I realized at that point, that the last time BGJ and I had discussed politics was before the gay marriage/civil union issue came to the forefront of the political spectrum. 

It was on this same day that I heard him bashing a number of prominent Republican politicians and candidates.  He was actually on the phone with someone while he was doing this, but she said "I thought you were a Republican".  He said "I am, but I’m a blue state Republican.  Where are the moderate Republican candidates?"  To which I replied, "They’re already holding office in Blue States."

Heh.

The problem, as I see it, is that there are too many inaccurate labels in the muddy waters of the political sphere.  Words that used to have real, concrete meanings have been turned into insults and given connotations that only serve to further polarize the existing parties.  I see more and more people calling themselves "Libertarian" because there is no good word that means "a combination of beliefs from the perceived definitions of the party labels".  No longer can one use the terms Democrat, Republican, liberal or conservative without eliciting sneers (though sometimes passive) from someone on the opposing front.  And they are opposing fronts.  There is a very subtle political war going on, both within the political sphere and in the mainstream that creates these factions and definitive sides.  You must choose one or you are dismissed.

Now please, keep in mind that I’m not speaking to individuals here.  Most of the individuals with whom I choose to debate or discuss politics are very reasonable people.  These are the people who will listen to a person’s stance and weight it on its merits, but societally, I believe we are moving away from that.  The moment you use a labelized word in a political sense, everything that comes after will be discounted.  "Well, that’s just typical bleeding-heart liberal thinking."  "More brainwashed, goosestepping, party line conservative bullshit."

This is not a political environment that I enjoy living in.  I attribute it to the "If you’re not with us, you’re against us" mentality that has been fostered in the highest reaches of the current administration, the "Republicans are to blame" shouts from the Democrats and the apathy of the American people to form their own opinions based on independent research and a seeking out of independent news sources.  I believe, more and more, that apathy and ignorance will be the ultimate fall of society as we know it.  (Not that I believe that’s imminent, but depending on the course we follow in the next few years, it could become so.)

There is an extreme comfort that is taken from toeing the party line, from affiliating politically because your family has always been of a specific party.  I blame single-issue voters for not looking at the bigger picture.  I blame party-line voters for not taking the time to inform themselves on each issue and/or candidate.  I blame the politicians for lulling their constituency into thinking that experience (in gaining pork for their district, being wooed by political lobbyists, not showing up for votes, giving themselves raises) is more important than the idealism of wanting to give the people who elected you a voice in their own government.

I believe we have lost sight of what it means to have a right to have a voice in how our government is made up and how it’s run.  I believe that there are better options outside the two mainstream political parties.  I believe we would all be better served if politicians were OUT of politics.  I believe that it’s time for America to WAKE UP and start thinking of ways to really change the way things are done, because even if the Democrats take the House and Senate during the mid-term elections, I can’t imagine that anything is *really* going to change.

Except maybe Americans will once again feel that a balance has been set, and will become even more complacent.  Oh, I guess that wouldn’t really be change now…  would it?