Parties are Stupid

Yeah, drinking, grinding, inappropriate parties are stupid.  But that wasn't the type of party I was talking about. I meant political parties.

Plain and simple if you asked me I would automatically tell you I'm a democrat.  I would tell you with a lifted nose and a "deal with it" gaze because I live in a strictly republican town and over the years I've convinced myself that that's what I've got to do.  I've got to assert myself  as the dolphin because the sharks will eat me if I don't tell them that I am proud of what I am.

That's the thing though.  I've always thought I was right, being democratic.  It didn't feel like I was biased because I was working against the grain.  I wasn't believing what everyone else was, so I felt justified in my actions.  But I am no better.  I'll jump into a fight with the best of them, using my claws and elbows.  I'm a political fighter even though I claim to be a pacifist.  I will defend my democratic party and it's views tooth and nail.  But isn't that what the republicans are doing too?

So how am I different than them?  I used to scoff at them, calling them closed minded and conservative.  Mind you, they are conservative, but still.  I didn't see that I was just as biased as I blamed them for being.  If you look at it, we're exactly the same, we just hide behind different issues.  We throw the exact same insults at eat other; they're just aimed at different ideas.

Here are two true scenarios.  I'll not say that I agree with or disagree with either one:

Scenario #1: The democrats want affordable health care for everyone.  The most extreme republican will say that this action will tilt the government into socialism, gasp, maybe even communism.  If we're forcing everyone to buy this health care when some people may not want to buy it, isn't that unconstitutional? Besides, it's hurting small businesses as well, and the program doesn't even work well.  It's extremely faulty.

Scenario #2: The republicans want to make abortion illegal.  The democrats say that you can't do that.  That's telling someone what to do.  The American people have rights, don't they?  They have the right to decide if they want to have a baby or not.  I mean, what if a woman was raped?  She didn't ask for that to happen to her.  It wasn't her fault.  Why is it the government's job to restrict her rights, her, the victim?

Do you see the similarities?  Maybe the democrats don't use the word Communism to insult republicans, but it's basically the same argument, just different topics.  Scenario #1: The democrats want to continue a program that the republicans think is unconstitutional.  Scenario #2: The republicans want to pass a law that the democrats think is unconstitutional.  You see what I mean?  It's the same thing, and yet we can't see that.  We're too blinded by our parties.  We're too blinded by who's right and who's wrong, and most times we just end up either hating whoever the president is, or hating who ever hates who the president is.

Now, I've begun to believe that opinions are big and ugly, but I'll tell you mine now.  I think that Obama Care does need a little work.  I will admit to that.  But I think it's a good idea.  Just because we're so afraid of becoming communists, does that mean we can't even help out our own people who are in need?  Maybe there are some catches to the program and to what it will entail, but all in all, I think it comes from a good place.  On the abortion one, I have to agree with the republicans.  I didn't used to because I don't like the idea of telling people what they can and can't do.  But if I really think about it, life is life.  No one has the right to take away life except for the God in our big, blue, unimaginable sky.  Perhaps if the mother is dying and there's no way to save the baby, abortion is alright in order to keep the mother's life intact, but for the most part I do agree with republicans.

Still, I do think opinions are ugly.  They're so in-your-face that I've decided I don't want to be a democrat anymore.  I used to think that I had to fight for the right to not be a republican so that meant I had to pretend like I was better than everyone who was republican.  That's wrong.  That makes me stuck up and big headed, and it gives me an excuse to get riled up over politics.  Knowing me, it's not hard for me to do.  So this is what I'm going to do.  I'll be an independent.  Probably when it comes time to make decisions, I will sway more towards the democratic side, but I'm tired of holding up my giant lofty democratic party feathers.  I'm tired of saying I'm right and the republicans are wrong, because when it comes down to it, we're all saying the same things.  We're all shouting at each other over nothing, and I'm ready to stop.

And to you democrats and republicans who are reading this and are already forming your opinions, I welcome the tomatoes that you might want to throw at me.  There is a comment section below. I don't mean this disrespectfully, but have at it. (: