Is partisanship more important than nationalism to Americans? It seems more and more that actions by media and senators feed partisan politics rather than a common vision for the country. If both sides are only intent on rocking boat and all are in the same boat, where are they headed?
I think that to be nationalistic, you need to first be aware that there are other nations and that they can have effects on your nation.
For shame, SAM, you're basing all of your "evidence" on the news media! SAM, the news media is far more interested in stirring the boiling shit than to attempt to help bring the nation together as a people. The news media follows the slogan: "If it bleeds, it leads ....and if nothing is bleeding, do something to make it appear to be bleeding!" Believing that the American news media is telling anything close to the truth is like believing in fairy tales. You can do it, but it won't do any good. Baron Max
Unfortunatly it is. If one party or the other can't get what they want done then they really piss the other party off .
No, I don't think that's true. I think it IS true that the media is trying their best to make it that way, but I don't think it is out in the real world. Stirring up the partisanship is a good way for the media to have something to report on ..that's all. Baron Max
As Joe said, to the bottom of the ocean. Though, 'bipartisanship' and 'compromise' are silly ideas. You either get one or the other; you can't have both.
I think it might be true of politicians more than the average "citizen bacillus". I may, however, be viewing things through my own particular "perceptual prism" - which allows the sole preference for whatever party's members seem less offensive at a given moment that when all members of their stripe are tied back to back with their opposite numbers so that shooting 2 through the skull might be accomplished with one round, the gun barrel would be pressed against the seemingly less odious individual's forehead so that they die first. I mean - I'm sure that some people feel a genuine partisan passion which colors their view of the nation's course so significantly that they believe the predominance of one party or another spells either disaster or happy days. Perhaps this even remains the majority. I think that at long last, however - although it may well be too late to matter - people are begining to see that neither side in the game that the Jiggycrats and Republigoons are playing in the odd little world they both occupy in the depths of their District of Corruption besotted minds is actually on their side. Oh, now you're just being silly. We're well aware that some vague and nebulous agglomerations of mud, or dust, or what have you have had imaginary lines drawn 'round them by the quaintly clueless autochthones dwelling within these regions in an obvious attempt to parody God's Own Holy and Most Divine Nation... And of course we understand that some of them attempt to "affect" us by impeding our - I mean - HIS will... In such times we recall the Word: The trials we must bear when we make the changes that Jesus ordered are the elements of the Great Persecution which makes us eligible for God's kingdom... Amen.
The politics has evolved in to Competition at Large. This started when this country broke away from the British. Then came the Sputnik era of USSR. The Competition activities have been progressing geometrically. Without a Super Power to compete with, we focused on ourselves. While such competition is unhealthy, the people have no basis to compare how unhealthy it has become. This is akin to boiling a frog slowly. The frog would not jump out. This happens, because the media which provides the bulk of information to the public does not have the technical knowledge to discern what is what. For example, there has been no criticism when companies and government appoint senior executives that have least amount of education and experience in the field of that appointment. It is like you appoint a Lawyer to do Liver Transplants. India has similar problem. That is why they do not understand how China is check-mating India in the economic progress front. The Central Ministers of India are mostly Lawyers. In USA, the President and Cabinet Level secretaries are mostly Lawyers. Have you ever seen a Lawyer design, build, maintain an oil refinery. But the media does not have the understanding to pick this up. Nationalism is useless without understanding the nature of reality.
In a crisis Americans will unite. But unite around what? I am so sick of Republicans and Democrats and the internal American culture wars. People working the look of kindness versus people working the look of discipline is getting tiresome.
Either one party will dominate and carry the country to new heights(or lows), or both will continue to argue and tear this nation in two.
Didn't Lincoln start the Republican party because he was dissatisfied with the existing ones? Is it time for Americans to think beyond the two party system? Or does the Republican Party need to be resurrected from the ground up?
What they share is already destructive enough. It's not sort of OK democrats and naughty republicans. It's tag team action and about as real as professional wrestling, except the effects are much more pernicious.
From my own observations, it is the media that has failed the American people. It is astounding how little it reports of facts vs opinions. The self censorship is extremely damaging to the American political conscience/
Did someone say "media". Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! See the Harvard University Analysis at http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index...ics&topic=2CCFE105-E740-134C-4EDF12478427F881 and a few of my comments
Do I need to read some more opinions to know what the media is not doing? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The recent coverage of Haiti was case in point. It was so shabby and low class. Dramatics galore with the spotlight, not on the plight of the Haitians but on people like Pat Robertson and the Israelis. And the treatment of the victims, geared more towards sensationalism than facts. No context, no soul searching of the American role, nothing but a spectacle.
In the Television, the media programming is influenced by stupid Nielsen families. If those people would have been smart, you would get the right type of coverage and change the course of the country.
