My Submarines Is Missing

We can't help it. We go along in life and observe the differences between ourselves and others. One place we notice these differences with special clarity is in the fashion trends that leave us perplexed, like Olivia Newton John's headbands. I never understood them, I guess. I wore headbands to keep my gorgeous red hair out of my eyes like limpid pools while jumping up and down with Gilad every so-very-eighties morning, but no way was I working for the weekend, baby. It seemed that a small group of influential and overly attractive media and design types were listening only to each other and foisting this on us as a cultural done-deal. Which anyone can see sucked. It was an idea that didn't make any sense in the long run, but fashionistas caught up in this trend didn't notice until they took apart scrapbooks with pinking shears.

I vote mostly for Democratic candidates, but I am registered independent. No, I am never going to vote for a Republican candidate. Every plank in the platform is in direct conflict with what's good for me. Let's not even discuss what fiscal responsibility means to the party when the current administration has mortgaged our future to the Chinese.

This is not to say I think much of the Democratic Party, which cannot sell out on its constituencies early or often enough. There are minor differences between the parties; it's one party acting vigorously against my interests versus one party waiting for me to hold my nose and vote. I can see from the distant outside that this little battle has taken several turns toward the truly weird that remind me of those headbands. No, really.

For one thing, a small group of extreme right wing bloggers and hangers on has gone off the reservation, as it were. Vehemence does not lend strength to their arguments. Mark Steyn, as quoted by Michelle Malkin:

The Democrats chose to outsource their airtime to a Seventh Grader. If a political party is desperate enough to send a boy to do a man’s job, then the boy is fair game.

This family has received death threats. Let's take a giant step back here. If you haven't followed this story, you can read up. Steyn's are the words of a person engaging in politics as bloodsport. He is not interested in the politics of what is good for Americans. His interests are in money and power, and he pursues them, as he says, no matter what the cost to anyone else. That's an old story, but what is an exciting new thought - at least to me - is the notion of fair game, implying that we as Americans don't give a good goddam and are complicit. If I asked a thousand people - "If you go on TV, say, and tell people a government program helped you, would it be fair for people of a different political stripe to demand to see your tax returns?" - do you think even a single person would say, "Sure. No court order or nuthin'"?

No. No one would.

At a certain point you should realize no one else is wearing headbands but you and your friends. And Olivia, who is adorable in her own kind of dated way, though I hate Grease with my whole black heart. There's no room for compromise there, as there is no room for compromise with fellow Americans who see me and people like me and people different from me as less human, and less deserving of a dissenting opinion.

All Republicans do not lack compassion, just as all Democrats do not lack courage. What is happening fast and furious doesn't make any sense in the long term. I wish everyone would slow down and ask him- or herself one question: Do the policies I support create or mitigate suffering in the world?

How do you feel about your answer?