United Liberty

Doug Mataconis wrote this great post Tuesday. It’s a long post, but it is certainly worth your time reading. Doug really hit the nail on the head with some things I’ve been thinking about lately. That is, politics stinks.

Sure, It can be fun. You’ve got highly opinionated, often very extroverted people convinced that they are right and that the rest of the world is wrong. What’s not fun about that?

The line in that post that really pulled me in was:

[I]t just seems as though we’re either arguing over the same dumb things when the reality is that the two sides of the political debate in this country don’t really disagree with each other as much as they like to pretend.

There’s more making politics stink than just the fact that both major political parties aren’t really all that different, but that’s been my struggle lately.

When I look at the presidential race, I’m, quite honestly, discouraged. I know there are differences between Romney and Obama, and I don’t doubt that Romney would be a little less awful than Obama, but after 4 years of Obama madness, the best the GOP has to offer is a moderate (at best) Massachusetts Republican whose claim to fame is the biggest reason we’re supposed to hate Obama?

How is anyone supposed to get excited about that? Our nation won’t survive four more years of Obama, but everything’s going to be just fine with the Romneys in Washington? Come on.

This election has more to do with getting rid of Obama than it does about electing Romney, and any halfway-honest Republican will admit it.

Then there’s the whole Senate election, where Republicans were supposed to be taking back the Senate this year so they could, you know, pass a budget. Or, at the very least, get Harry Reid out of the way. Now that’s not looking so great either.

Out in Missouri, Republicans thought conditions were right until their candidate opened his mouth about “legitimate rape” a while back. He stayed in the race, and now that he’s past the point of being able to be replaced on the ticket, he’s getting a little love from Republicans.

Rick Santorum and Jim DeMint endorsed Todd Akin week. Of course, neither of them really have much to lose. Santorum is a has-been, and DeMint isn’t seeking reelection at the end of his current term. But Akin isn’t really all that popular in the Republican Party.

What stinks in Akin’s race is the same thing that stinks in other races around the nation. The real issues aren’t being discussed, and the reason we should hate the other guy is because the other guy is an evil monster seeking to destroy America.

So, yes, politics stinks. But, as Doug wrote, even though it stinks, we can’t afford to ignore it because “if we don’t do something to change the status quo, we’re all going pay the price.”