etee's Blog

As we approach the high point (some might consider it the low point) of the current election season, it behooves us all to reflect on the current political climate. I am not talking here of Red vs. Blue, Democrat vs. Republican, Liberal vs. Moderate vs. Conservative. No, I am talking about something much deeper, more insidious, and in fact far more destructive to our society than any ideology.

I am talking about the underlying tone of our political and societal evolution.

Yes, that one. Unless you have been living in some Unashac out in the Montana backwoods, you must have noticed the increasingly vitriolic temper of the political debate, the vile manner in which the politicians (not to mention their most ardent supporters, the activists that make up the so-called 'base') sling the mud one at the other.

Political blogger Polimom certainly has noticed it, and the division this hostility produces has extended into her own family, to the extent that she has

..been thinking of giving up the blog and turning off the political side of my mind.

Since Polimom's blog is actually one of the more civil of the political blogs I have read (both on the author's and the commenters' side), if her family is divided, then where does that leave the rest of us?

In my comments on that posting, I tried to point out that this is in fact not a unique situation, a typical Rovian conspiracy designed to help GWB gain dictatorial power as some might claim. In fact, we have had plenty of instances in our past history of a poisoned political climate turning family members one against the other:

• The most recent experience, and one that the boomer generation is painfully familiar with, is the Vietnam conflict. During this time, returning veterans were reviled as they tried to re-enter society, anti-war women vowed to avoid any 'relationships' with servicemen and veterans, and protests oftentimes turned ugly - even violent. The backlash over the Vietnam conflict led to the downfall of not one, but two presidents.
• Another such era was known as the Red Scare, especially the second Red Scare, which produced an evil stepchild known as the era of McCarthyism.
• Of course, the most notable prior experience of this type was the War of Northern Aggression, in which the evil tyrant Abraham Lincoln (who, coincidentally, was another Republican) suspended the constitutional rights of a large portion of the country. These days, of course, 'Honest Abe' is seen in a far different light. During this war, it was not uncommon for family members to be engaged in fighting each other on the battlefield, and with estimates as high as 700,000 casualties this conflict was far bloodier than Vietnam, or the current military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• And, let's not forget the crucible that our nation was borne in, the American Revolution, another period where brothers were sometimes found on the opposite sides of the battlefield.

Not to think that this is a uniquely American phenomenon, let's look at some examples from around the world:

• The Nazi era in Germany, and the Soviet era in Russia. During both of these eras, family members were 'encouraged' to report each other as "enemies of the people".
• In Asia, we have the Chairman Mao's "Great Cultural Revolution" in China, and its evil stepchild, the killing fields of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
• And, of course, let's not forget the French Revolution.

The point I am trying to make here, I guess, is that if we want to avoid repeating history (again), we have got to learn from it. Regardless of what those who adhere to the beliefs of the various factions may want to think, the blame for our current political climate doesn't lie with Karl Rove or George Bush or Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld. Nor does it lie with Bill Clinton, or Nancy Pelosi, or Harry Reid, or Cindy Sheehan, or any of the other opponents of the President.

So, to answer the question I posed in the title to this article: If you want to see who is to blame for this fine mess we have gotten ourselves into, take a look -- in the mirror.

Yes. It is us. You and I. All of us.

And the sooner we acknowledge this fact, and quit trying to point the finger in some direction other than straight at ourselves, the sooner we might actually begin to move back toward a more sane political debate. Not uncontentious, mind you: just a bit more sane.