What Saddens Me Most About the Current Political Climate...

I've just uncovered what distresses me most about the current political climate. Here in the United States of America tens of millions of citizens have distrusted our government (for good reason in many circumstances) for so many decades that they no longer feel affectionate toward it or safe from it. How sad is that?

The GOP and, to a much lesser extent, the Dems have created such a vicious circus maximus atmosphere that we now seem to be in ideological camps with vitriol our most potent offensive/defensive weapon. No one is listening to anyone anymore. It's just verbal fisticuffs at the top of our considerable lungs. Too few folks are acting civilized anymore. More than half of the talking heads on TV sound like hysterical women -- and most of them are still men!

But here's what saddens me most and makes me feel extra blessed: What saddens me most is that more people are afraid of their government than ever before. Now, I've been afraid of the GOP for many, many years but at no time did I consider them the Great Satan. I just disagreed with their perspective and most of their policies. It wasn't anything personal. It was just a philosophical difference.

The reason I feel extra blessed is that there is finally, once again, an Administration in place that I know, down deep to the core of my being, is trying to do something to help and bless all of its citizens... not just its well-to-do citizens, but its struggling, two and three job-holding folks, and its disabled folks, and its old folks, and its youngest citizens. I think the DEM party still has not during my lifetime, until this past election, been given the chance, the amount of time, or the clout it needed to truly bless all of us in ways that would make us realize they really are acting to HELP us, not to harm us or to take advantage of us to line "big government's pockets."

Yeah, I know: they had to recently bail us out of catastrophic situations on numerous fronts, and the job of returning us to sound footing is still a way off. I get that. I never expected the Obama administration to fly in like Superman and make all of Wall Street's and the banking industries' excesses go away in nine months. I have never lived in Fantasyland.

But I do know they're doing what they can -- what we'll allow them to do -- to help us get past this dark period of time and come out victorious. I know that health care reform MUST be a part of the equation or we'll come out of the downward spiral just in time to have our health care system descend into the pit (at enormous expense to all of us) and be unable to help ANYBODY.

Whether you are or were a Kennedy "fan," one thing was for certain about that family: they made strides for people at every turn. They helped create a more level playing field for folks, until the reform got hijacked and run off the road by subsequent administrations.

I'm not saying the subsequent administrations weren't legitimately elected or following their own compasses, but we haven't even given the Kennedy compass a serious chance to succeed, and yet it has in so many ways. I think if we'd elect to follow this leader -- Obama -- for a time, we will discover that he's taking us not into socialism or worse, but into the stated creed and goals of our great republic. The Democrat Party is the party of the common man and woman, and its focus in on treating all America's citizens with respect, honor and compassion.

I hate it when the DEMS spout vitriol and try to demonize others every bit as much as I hate it when the GOP does it. But a fringe percentage -- the most-often-reported -- of the GOP has elevated (I should say sunk, not elevated) the tactic to ridiculous heights, equating Obama with Satan and Nazi leaders. It makes me want to vomit; it affects me physically.

Probably the most level-headed, least creepy guy ever to hold the office of President holds it right now. When I see people demonizing him, questioning his faith, citizenry, and his love for America, I feel very, very sorry for them. They are utterly delusional.

So that's why I feel blessed. The opposition seems scared spitless by their government as it now stands. I feel renewed and hopeful for the first time in forty years.

I don't think anything that Ted Kennedy wanted done (health care among the many things he worked so hard to accomplish during his 47 years as a Senator) or helped become law was in any way designed to harm or hurt anyone. I think it was all designed to bless American citizens. I feel the same way about Obama's ideas, or I wouldn't have voted at all in '08 for the first time in decades.

I do wish I could say that about previous administrations, but alas... I can understand why so many people distrust the government, especially if they're under 50 years of age! But this is one time when I feel fully justified in believing that our national government truly has our best interests at heart.

Obama has a lot to "prove" to a lot of people, as our first African American President. If you doubt for one second that he doesn't want to do everything he can to become a stellar President, you need to re-think the matter. He's in it to make a difference that will be trumpeted by the angels in heaven and the citizenry here on earth.

His bacon is on the line. Anyone who wants to see him lose does not have America's best interests at heart. The President has our best interests at heart. I have never been more convinced of a politican's good heart since RFK.

I know, I know. To many of you, the Kennedy name is anathema. Read a few of the pro-Kennedy books. I've read them -- and I've also read the anti-Kennedy books. Get outside your comfort zone for once in your life and read about what they tried to do, and about what they accomplished during very short life spans. They were into public service, not into public sabotage. So is Obama.

I hope everyone who fears our government and the current health care reform bill will do this, dial back the paranoia and vitriol, and realize that patriotic, loyal Americans come from all political parties.

I really would love to see us talking to each other again, understanding each other, and -- when we disagree -- agreeing to disagree agreeably.

I am so sick of the hatred and vitriol I see every time I turn on the cable news channels or read the commentary on the Internet. It makes me intolerant! I want to knock heads together! And that's not like me at all!

What we're doing to each other now is no way to honor our nation, the people who fought and died to establish it, or the people who have worked so hard to keep it going, of all parties.

We're all in this together. We don't all have to agree, but if we want America to survive, we do need to listen to and honor each other. Let's stop trying to annoy each other and start electing to reason together...