I find it interesting how so many are willing to concede our government's right to spin stories, send off flames, bully pulpit and dead-cat its opponents, and lie at will to the public - yet very quickly label any nose tweaking or blunt editorial characterizations in return as being "partisan politics."
Our enthroned leadership has made an art form out of using so-called "partisan" political strategies and debating techniques. That's one of the reasons they have been - and continue to be - so successful.
FWIW, I think we can have "intelligent" and "measured" and "respectful" dialog about this whole problem until the cows come home. The only way any real change will come about (or even become possible) is if the general public feels sufficient anger and disgust about what is going on to force changes. Because it isn't ever the "bright promise for the future" that stirs our public out of its chronic political llethargy. It's the hard realization that "enough is enough" and that "I am no longer willing to tolerate this behavior - starting now" that brings about social change. Something that our politicians understand and have learned to take advantage of all too well. Because they're often the first to remind you "you're better than that"; and that "you shouldn't talk that way"; and suggest you try to "exercise proper restraint and some consideration with your comments" - because they certainly aren't going to do the same with theirs.
-40hz
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche
And I think that's where it is in the end. And ideological struggle. Not for dominance, because it is the fight that is important. We talked about Obama before, and how utterly he changed his tune. We've talked about entrenched politicians, and how inured to the demands of the office over the demands of the political arena they become.
They don't start out that way. But they make concessions in order to serve the greater good. And that slippery slope eventually claims them.
Lies are damn lies, no matter if they're told for the greater good. And if you tell one, you're more willing to tell the next. And then descend to their tactics. And then, by the time you win, you look back at the broken road that you took to get here, and can't really pinpoint the time that you became what you are... which is what you formerly hated.
The Truth should stand on its own merits. Or it's not worth the medium used to deliver it. And anything you tarnish it with makes it somewhat less than it should be.
We need to come together as one voice, one people... sex, creed, race, beliefs, orientation be damned and say that we stand for Truth and the Rule of Law, and we will accept nothing else. No games, no twisting of words, nor hyperbole to exaggerate the situation. And not let any of those things divide us. That is why I'm against any hint of partisan politics as usual in the phrasing of any of this. It's about something greater than that, IMO.
Of course, as you say, YMMV.
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