October 11, 2009 - October 17, 2009 | JasonEverettMiller's Blog

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Week of October 11, 2009 - October 17, 2009

who's afraid of the big, bad elephant

October 17, 2009, 4:20PM

Paranoia runs deep in American politics these days. So many on both sides of our gaping cultural divide are willing to believe the most heinous things about their fellow citizens that I am surprised the Republic still stands at all. The detrimental impact of fear on our nation is rather obvious when the adrenal glands super-charge our systems in preparation for fight or flight responses. Every political statement becomes hyperbolic chest-beating since fear is at the root of most aggressive or violent outbursts.

One obvious question remains as this behavior surfaces again and again: Is there really anything to fear from political rivals?

post partisan traumatic stress disorder

October 13, 2009, 4:20PM

The funny thing about politics (funny sad, not funny ha ha) is that perception equals reality for most people, and our perceived "reality" then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for the country.

We have a crappy, partisan hell where nothing gets done because that is how Americans who care about politics (a pathetically small number given the relative importance of the issues involved and mostly of a certain age given the tone) assume tactical partisan warfare is most effective way to accomplish their side's specific goals. Never mind the lack of effectiveness that such tactics have historically delivered. We have been convinced that politics is a brutal, dirty game played by brutal, dirty people incapable of empathy or compromise or an objective understanding of historical trends.

That's the way it is. The way it will always be. So get over it, naif, pragmatism's for sissies and losers. We're gonna get 1960s on their republican (or democratic) asses!

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jason everett miller

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Party Republican (Bull Moose 2.0)
Politics Progressive conservative. I believe we need governing policies that are based in common sense and not dogma. An evolution of society and not a revolution that seeks to tear everything down and start from scratch. We don't have enough time for that nonsense.

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Favorite Blogs TPM. Much easier to get everything in one place than visiting a million blogs every day. Who has time for that?
Favorite Books Squandering of America by Robert Kuttner and People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn immediately come to mind, but there are way too many to list.
Favorite Quotes "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things." - Teddy Roosevelt

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