As for right v. left, I'm just using the common terms. If you've got some others you're more comfortable with... apples v oranges maybe, or circles v squares, I'll be happy to use them.
Originally Posted by TransAm
My point is that getting bent out of shape about the Right v. Left, Conservative v. Progressive paradigm is what has this country so fucked in the first place. They're blinding us and distracting us by throwing out these easy to argue, battlelines-are-clear-as-day arguments. Gay Marriage. Public Health Care. Guantanamo. You're either with us or you're with them. They have us at each other's throats while they're picking our pockets.
The paradigm we need to be worried about and tackling is The People v. The State. We're so busy arguing the nuances, we're missing the implications. Gay Marriage for example. Whether you're for it or against it, you're missing the broader point -- we've granted the state the ability to sanction our marriages. Why? What for? What benefit is there? (Aside from a tax-break IF you file jointly, that is...) When did our relationships become a function of government?
Public Healthcare. Why? Are we sure we want to surrender the management of our healthcare to unskilled bureaucrats? Really? Government waste and incompetence are so widely recognized that they're taken for granted, but we're insisting that they take care of us as we get older? Does that bother you at all? The Republicans would have you believe that repealing Obamacare is the answer, reforming the current Medicare/Medicaid system is the way. Its more of the same. They have us arguing between suicide and death by cancer. Either way, they're killing us, but we get to be pissed off at each other while they do it? It's fucking stupid.
You can go down the line, but the story is the same. The Right and The Left have us so eager to fight each other that we're missing the fact that they're raping us.