My general rule with regards to writing is if I can not get a theme or idea out of my head then I need to write it down.
Fairness in politics has been on my mind a lot here recently.
Since I’m on my laptop for the majority of the day and TweetDeck is almost always running, I see my fair share of political back and forth.
This is nothing new.
During the primaries and then the main presidential election, I had to turn off TweetDeck because it became extremely clear that if you didn’t agree with someone, you were going to get roasted. I saw people basically sic other users on users they didn’t agree with. And, for the most part, from what I saw in my Twitter stream, the “aggressors” were Obama supporters and I don’t know if I was just following a lot of people who loved Obama or if the people who didn’t love Obama were scared to speak up.
And then someone invited me to join TCOT – Top Conservatives on Twitter – which I thought was funny as hell since I’m still a registered Democrat and am pretty socially liberal. So, now I had some conservative people who I was following and they balanced out the more liberal minded followers.
Now let the real fights begin.
Instead of just seeing liberal users attacking an offhanded comment, now I was seeing some downright militant conservatives doing the exact same thing – both sides had obviously lost their damn minds.
Tucker and I are fairly political in that we talk about politics at least once a day for a fair amount of time. I listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh every day. I watch Glenn Beck’s TV show on Fox. I enjoy them all.
Right there, by admitting I listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, I’ve lost you…well, a lot of you. And most of you who are no longer reading this have never listened to either of these guys.
In the interest of full disclosure, I used to HATE Rush Limbaugh. I rolled my eyes every time he was on some radio in my general vicinity. Then one day – I’m not quite sure when it happened – I didn’t hate Limbaugh quite so much.
I don’t agree with everything either of them say. I can make up my own mind, thankyouverymuch.
I worried on Twitter if I should even right any of this. Just with this innocuous post, there are some of you guys who aren’t going to like me very much.
Linda had this to say:
The thing is, I just want to have my say and this is the only place I feel I can do that.
And now that I’ve written all of this, the fight’s kind of gone out of me. Maybe all I needed to write was that I don’t like the crap behavior of people on Twitter on both sides?
Maybe I just need to say you can listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and you shouldn’t be ashamed and people have no right to call you names because you do so.
Keith Olbermann is the “liberal” version of Glenn Beck and Olberman – who I used to watch every single night – has said some incredibly insensitive and downright shitty things about people he doesn’t agree with. But rarely do you hear about what he says in mainstream media. Hardly a day goes by that you don’t hear about something “horrible” Beck or Limbaugh has said.
I’m not trying to proselytize because I hate few things but that is one thing I truly hate. I’m simply finally speaking my mind after over a year of pretty much keeping my mouth shut – on line anyway.
If you don’t have the money to pay for something, you don’t buy it. That goes for the government as well.
I don’t think all “liberals” are bad. I don’t think all “conservatives” are good. Each has their gems and each has their nut jobs.
All I ask for is fairness. Really. That’s all I want.
Think back to the Bush/Gore election issues in 2000. Democrats were outraged at that election and I was as well. It was acceptable to challenge that.
It was OK to call for Bush’s impeachment later on down the road.
But now it’s not OK for Republicans to challenge the “Healthcare Bill”? I put that in quotes since I think it should really be called “Health Insurance Bill” but that doesn’t sound as cuddly.
And what of all the people who called – and still call – for Bush [and others’] death? I am no fan of George W. Bush but thought/think saying someone should be assassinated is going just a bit over the top. However, it’s alright to say that kind of thing and it’s not cool to say the same thing about Barak Obama?
I’m confused. Why is one alright but the other isn’t?
I like having in depth discussions on things like this. If you’re willing to have an awesome conversation on this stuff, please leave your comments below.
Just remember to use your inside voice and please, no name calling.
Image/Flickr
