You know, there’s a reason why people should never argue over politics OR religion. Both are fraught with preconceived conclusions and BOTH contain mountainous volumes of emotionally charged opinions.

 

Before some of you bombard my email inbox with hate mail for “criticizing” religion, make note that I’ve done nothing of the kind. As long as people don’t try to force it on others, I don’t care what they believe.

 

The point is that “blind faith” is an integral part of the process, whether it is religion or politics.

 

Politically, folks call this partisanship. In religion, folks call it absolute certainty. Call it whatever you want, the fact is that when there is too much of it, we should call it what it is: excessive emotional investment.

 

No matter the given name or who is doing it, the process is the same. It consists of two simple steps.

 

The first is to establish, mentally, a favorable conclusion… one that’s in as near perfect harmony as possible with what we already believe or wish to believe.

 

Then we simply reason backward to reach the “logical” conclusion with which we began. This step is critical and often requires epic volumes of incredibly subjective rationalization.

 

But, not always! Many times, pure abject stupidity accomplishes the same end with a mere fraction of the effort required for backward reasoning.

 

As irrational and intellectually dishonest as this is, many people do it, even some of us hard-nosed scientists… you know, those who both preach and worship at the Cathedral of the Scientific Method.

 

While there are many others, I’m going to share two issues as examples. I’m using them because they are both recent and critical to my point.

 

The first relates to the current state of our nation’s finances. The second one relates to an apparent reversal in long-established Left/Right socio-political pontifications.

 

I’ve stated it many times in this forum. Although a Conservative of many years, I believe that George W. Bush and most of his Administration have been disastrous for the United States, particularly with respect to the execution of the Iraqi war.

 

However, as terrible as I think he’s been as a president, he’s not directly responsible for this country’s financial mess. The United States Congress is—both houses.

 

Even had he vetoed some of the financial legislation that has lead to our current situation, it would have done no good. First, the banking lobby had become so powerful that the Congress would have overridden any related vetoes.

 

Second, the truly damaging legislation—the stuff that segregated investment banking from commercial banking and completely deregulated the former—became law under Bill Clinton.

 

This country has lived on a growingly precarious speculative bubble and excessive consumer credit for two and a half decades. As all bubbles go, they burst whenever they become too big.

 

The leaders in the United States Congress, both houses, have let their greed for power reduce them to paid agents acting on behalf of dominant lobby groups to either vote for legislation or block it.

 

And, what makes it even worse is the fact that a majority of the sitting representatives and senators do not even read the bills they vote on. They rely on their respective staffs for “advice.”

 

So, lobbyists don’t even have to talk to the rank and file, only their chiefs of staff. The Congressional leadership—both sides—does the rest.

 

Unfortunately, for both sides of the political aisle, convenience and personal accommodation have become imperatives while deriving the truth through due-diligence—the reason we voted for them in the first place—has become merely an option.

 

I wrote a column back in May of this year concerning tax increases. You can read it here if you want to. I received over 6,000 emails as a result. I remain steadfast in those predictions. It will not matter who we elect, taxes in various forms are going to have to go up.

 

I wrote another one just a couple of weeks ago concerning the Sarah Palin VP nomination. I outlined our current financial mess and how we arrived. You can read it here if you’d like to. I’m still receiving emails about this one.

 

It will not matter one bit which of the current presidential teams we elect this November.

 

Until we, the voters, get Congress under OUR control, presidential elections will remain nothing more than illusions that what WE want even matters.

 

Our politicians, with the aid of a news media growingly obsessed with too many irrelevant “gotchas,” and the unwitting participation of a dangerously apathetic electorate, are pushing America to the brunt of a worldwide joke-fest.

 

In unwitting consortium, we’ve all managed to raise the intellectualization of simplicity—affectionately known in most practical circles as unadulterated mental masturbation—to a new level.

 

Congress’s general approval rating is about 10%. It makes George W. Bush’s 30% approval rating look quite good by comparison.

 

It’s laughable though, because the same people who think that Congress, in general, is doing such a terrible job, think that THEIR particular senators and representatives are doing fine jobs.

 

Minions of sincere, but issue-ignorant, devotees get their opinions from national radio talk shows (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Air America) and cable TV talking heads at MSNBC and Fox.

 

These broadcasters “report” pure speculation disguised as real news. All it does is polarize dummies on both sides of the political spectrum into waging useless wars of words over irrelevant issues, many of which are figments of dull imaginations.

 

And, if you are looking for the epitome in no-talent cluelessness, there is absolutely no need to tune into national-level broadcast talent. Simply tune in at the local level.

 

For the umpteenth time, until the voters decide to prevent the Neo-Cons on the Right and Liberal extremists on the Left from setting political tones and agendas, things will NOT improve.

 

These people comprise less than 9% of the total vote-count in this country. Yet, they account for 95% of the harmful divisiveness that is tearing this nation apart at its seams.

 

As a nation that prides itself on keeping its press free, we’d all do well to return to the notion of WHY we keep it free and once again begin to force news reporters to report facts (who, what, when, where, why, and how).

 

Myriad newspaper columnists and TV/radio commentators can voice all the opinions they want. But we have to make them stick to facts in doing so.

 

If they don’t, we should switch TV channels/radio stations; boycott their advertisers; and, stop buying their newspapers. Money talks, a fact known to lobbyists for years. It’s about time we voters learned it, too.

 

Now, moving on to the second example I stated above, what’s with the apparent reversal of some long-established Left/Right political and social positions?

 

To wit, many moral-absolutists (aka extremists) on the Right have always condemned “blatant” feminism, especially whenever it seemed at odds, even remotely, with certain mainstay Conservative family values.

 

Moreover, previous occurrences of unwed pregnancies were enough to cause many of them to cringe right into thumb-sucking, fetal positions.

 

Conversely, many relative-humanists (aka extremists) on the Left have always identified with feminists’ causes, especially womanly rights to self-determination, job-compensation equality, and social independence.

 

Until recently, neither have out-of-wedlock pregnancies been a big deal to self-respecting, “freethinking” Liberals.

 

With the emergence of Sarah Palin, simultaneously a supposed pre-eminent rescuer of the nation’s Right AND a looming worst nightmare for the nation’s Left, things seem to have changed rather significantly.

 

As I’ve said above, I am soooooo confused. It boggles my mind how quickly the dawn of proper circumstance seemingly inspires such a monumental glut of backward reasoning aimed at reaching preferred conclusions.

 

Some might call it hypocrisy personified, Conservative or Liberal slants notwithstanding. I know that I do, but this is MY opinion. Your opinions, of course, may be different, But, I’m betting that not too many of them are.

 

Joe Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. You may comment on his column by clicking here.