Saturday, September 29, 2012

Labels

Well, in spite of my better judgement I have listened to some of our politicians ramble on about why we should re-elect or elect them for the first time. 

Mostly they speak in cliches, spin and great use is made of labels.

It seems to me that you have to be careful about labels. Cause in this country the labels used for political parties and ideologies are just plain crazy.

Example: You're considered a conservative if you believe we should be spending billions on Defense. (You know wars in far off places that have failed miserably to advance our interests since the 60s. Yea, Defense..)

If on the other hand you want to spend that money at home on infrastructure, education and helping out the less fortunate in our society you're considered a Liberal. Really? What's so liberal about common sense. Doesn't it make more sense to fix what's wrong in your own backyard before attempting to instruct the world about how to fix their problems.

Example # 2: The current crop of alleged conservative believe it's perfectly proper to regulate the most intimate part of a woman's body i.e. her womb. But refuse to regulate industries and companies that have wrought havoc on our country and culture.

If you think there should be controls on how much power corporations and wealthy individuals have on our policies then you're thought to be liberal. 

Not only are the labels used by both parties disingenuous; they're outright lies.

Example # 3: Our current president has prosecuted the "War on Terror" with more ferocity and efficiency than any Republican Conservative president. Obama has gone so far as to authorize drone strikes on Terrorists wherever they are found, something Bush & Cheney balked at doing. Yet Obama is called a Socialist, Commie, and of course a Liberal. Right! He's so Liberal that the real Liberals are calling him a War Criminal for whacking a few bad guys. But just ask a Republican about little Georgie Bush and all you hear is how great the guy was, how he backed the troops and Blah, Blah, Blah. Incredible!

Don't misunderstand: I am not a believer in President Obama's hope and change agenda either. He totally missed his opportunity to make any real change in his first two years in office. Instead he foolishly tried to compromise with people who were only  interested in the failure of his policies and his personal failure as well. The Affordable Care Act; disrespectfully labeled "Obama Care",  may turn out to be a great achievement, but only if the Dems can take back the Congress and stop the repeal crap coming from the obstructionists. And even if that happens we have stopped short of a true fix.

Think about this. How much talent and ingenuity is wasted in this country because people are forced to take or stay in jobs with poor pay and little chance for advancement, just to have health insurance? The one payer system would solve it, but is considered too Socialist for this country in spite of the many successful examples of a system not tied to employers used by many other countries.

Regardless of party or label the politicians of our day are sadly lacking in foresight, statesmanship and heart. Not one of the many blabbermouths has had a thing to say about a plan for our nation. None of them have a clue as to how to gain consensus and move from squabbling to action. And I have yet to see an example of "heart" from any of these folks. The closest thing of late was Gabby Giffords and her husband and she's leaving politics.

But I digress, this post is about labels. 

So here's an idea. Since all the Ads during election season are nothing more than  pre-packaged spiels put together by PR firms, lets have them apply digital labels to each political ad. On the label, just like on Medications, will be the ingredients. The first item listed is the most abundant in the drug, so in this case it should look like this....

WARNING THIS PRODUCT MAY BE HARMFUL  
Content:

1) Bullshit
2) Lies
3) Just plain crazy stuff

OK, I've spent as much time as I can stand on Politics.

Have a great weekend, and don't forget to vote. It may not change anything, but at least you'll feel better.

RT