Moose you IS bad! No your new name is Youisbaad! Knuck-knuck!
Related to the political infrastructure...One thing which totally baffles me is when people claim to be a "democrat" or republican" without having any contextual background. Now I can understand if you are eighteen and you say, :"I am a Democrat and my father and his father were...and we stand for the little man and what is right and good in this country." Okay and bravo, but here's my case in point. When this happened I thought, oh brother, how many more people like this are running around, literally talking off the top of their heads.
A man who performs our year-end inventory, walked into our store again last December. A nice average American guy, eeking out his own living and running an independent business. Hoo-ahh! But every year he comes in and even though we told him, "We don't discuss politics in our store,", will perpetually try to engage us in conversation.
This year was no different, and he tried to bait us into a divided exchange. Uh-uh! Well, our friend happened to be here when this transpired and heard all the rhetoric, etc. I know my buddy's political persuasions, and was delighted he was here to witness this yearly event.
Not being bashful, my friend said to him, "So you are a Democratic yes?" "Oh of course!", he exclaimed. "Well", said my buddy, "So you believe in our welfare system?" "Oh God no!", the inventory man exclaimed, with furrowed brow, and went on to tell us how he disgusted he was with people "mooching" off the system, and not even trying to work. He was pissed off about it. So my buddy continued to ask him questions about his beliefs, and each time the guy would exclaim, "Hell no, everyone is responsible for themselves, and the government doesn't owe anyone a living!".
This went on for a while and finally my buddy turned to him and smiled, "Hey buddy, you aren't a Democrat. With everything you've told me about your belief system, YOU are a libertarian!"
The guy just kind of stammered, and didn't know what to say. He claimed to BE of one persuasion, but when you questioned his values, he was ANYTHING but!
My point? People say one thing because they think it's cool, or because their pappy was, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty, they have no idea what they are talking about. You really have to sit folks down and ask them the pertinent questions. Have them take a 20-20 and discover what they REALLY are. Do you really support the party you say you do? Maybe not kiddo!
I am so sick of the black and white (and I'm not talking skin color) theoretics. Oh, Republicans are war-mongering, selfish, money-hunger boobs. Democratics are... You get the drift. Most of what people and especially young people espouse, are things that they heard on TV, or things they heard in their households as young kids. They hold these to be TRUTHS, and spout them as such in public. They have no idea of the ideology behind the parties they supposedly support. They don't know lick about the history of their parties, nor do they have ANY idea of the ideology of the opposing party. All they know are a couple of "phrase lines", which sound SO cool to say.
Well, I had to get that in this evening. Bottom line; do your homework before you mouth off empty phrases. They don't sit well with educated and broad-minded people. Talking like a ideologic seventeen year-old only works for so long. After that you have to face a REAL world, with real-world values and challenges. Throwing words around fails to be becoming.
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"