"Brave" new world of Facebook politics

Tonight, during the final presidential debate, four people un-friended me. This reminds me about a recent phenomenon I read about in several outlets, including this one.

Done reading? What's interesting to me is the different expectations that people have about political discourse in various venues. For some reason, inexplicable to me, some people believe Facebook (in particular) to be solely the domain of fluff - wedding photos, baby pics and stories, LOLcatz, and meme sharing. My apologies if you are one of these. Here's why:

The discourse level in America when it comes to politics is dismal. And politics IS important. Presidential campaigns ARE important. I am of the mind that saying you just don't care is the equivalent of handing in your citizenship card. But, but, you say, I DO care enough to vote, but I DON'T care enough to listen/read/watch YOUR views because they disagree with mine. Ok. But consider this: I have not un-friended anyone this political season. I haven't even "hidden" anyone. I am extremely liberal and have many conservative friends. But I try to engage them in as respectful a manner as possible in discussions of political stripe because I care and I know that they also care, despite our differing views.

I'll say it. It is an utter cop-out to complain about people being passionate political participants. There are too few of us. The bigger question is why aren't you more involved? Why don't YOU care more? And if you really don't care, then you surely don't mind me making your voting decision for you?

Think about it. People who un-friend others because they don't like political discourse on the sacred fluffiness of Facebook are disconnected from their "friends" in substantial ways. These folks weren't really my "friends" to begin with - because people who know me understand that I am a passionate politico - I post about union issues, and political issues that are important to me. No surprise there. What is surprising is the weakness that this "action" of un-friending actually represents. These are people who should either turn in their citizenship cards or whose beliefs are so tenuous that they run from any challenge.

"That's not what Facebook is for!" Maybe when it began, but now, as you may have noticed, Facebook is a locus for political debate and commentary, among other things. And that's ok. In fact, I think it should be encouraged, if only to draw more voices into rational discussion. This platform is changing and change is inevitable. Don't like it? Leave Facebook.

"I'm not interested in politics at all!" Then you should be. And shame on you for not caring enough to pay attention and make an informed decision and possibly add your voice to a dynamic debate.

"I don't agree with you and your views are too sharp!" I do feel bad for anyone whose beliefs are so thin that they can't withstand a friend or associate with sharply differing views. This is a level of weakness that I just don't respect. I love my conservative friends - they keep me on my toes! And there is nothing wrong with that.

Allow me to end with an analogy. Un-friending someone for their political views and level of participation and commentary on FB is like me un-friending someone for their 85,000 daily photos of baby. Your baby doesn't look any different today than she did yesterday, trust me. But if I un-friended people who post 50,000 baby photos a day - that I am not the least bit interested in because I am not interested in babies...at all - you all would think I was some kind of ogre, irrational...mean, even!

You know what? I would never do that. Know why? Because I like my friends. And having babies, posting proud pics, and talking baby poop is part of their lives - I respect and honor that. That is part of who they are...one facet of many of the individual I became friends with in the first place. So I don't un-friend people for silly things like not agreeing or not being interested...because I see people in all of their complexity - and love them for it.

People who can't do the same for me? Be gone, and good riddance.

Please vote on November 6. Your voice and vote DO matter. Please care enough to become informed on the issues close to your life and vote accordingly.

Pandering

My apologies for the absence. My intention is to start posting several times a week, but I really have been quite busy (writing encyclopedia entries, presenting at conferences, teaching, etc.)...and now I'm about to go on vacation. I will make more of an effort when I return. Because there are so many things to blog about. Such as....

Pandering

Happening to catch the Faith Politics program on CNN tonight, I was appalled. First of all, putting the Democratic candidates’ “faith to the test” is a) ridiculous, b) irrelevant, and c) frightening. I am already disgusted by the level of religious obsession and fanaticism in this country and in the world…now enough people in this country want to put religion on trial for each and every POLITICAL candidate. Does anyone else understand how twisted and wrong this is? Good God. I actually watched Soledad O’Brien ask Sen. John Edwards what his biggest sin to date is. What is the man supposed to say? “Oh, well, I killed someone. Sorry.” Are we really supposed to believe his response? Did Soledad really expect to get a truthful answer? Come on!

How many times a day does Hillary Clinton pray? Who gives a good goddamn?! A person’s faith or religion should be SEPARATE from his or her public life and policy making. Period. It is very simple. Separation of church and state. This type of program on CNN is a harbinger of dangerous times to come if this becomes the norm and we collectively accept the destruction of this saving principle – the separation of church and state.

All this “Faith Politics” is simplistic pandering to the masses of unquestioning sheep who put their faith in their religion above everything and everyone. None of these politicians who is running for president tells the truth. I don’t believe any of them. They get up on stage and talk in sound bites – clean, planned, manipulative sound bites. Both parties. In order to pander. And get good publicity. The days of decent people truly believing they can make a difference (for everyone, not just persons of a certain "faith") are long gone.

Faith should be a personal issue - not a matter of a certain group dictating how much faith needs to be "injected" into policy. Faith and morality are NOT necessarily synonymous. Faith is becoming a political tool. Am I really the only one terrified by that? And now the major news media is playing the worst pandering game of all – they are using religion ("faith") and allowing politicians to use religion as a selling point for votes.

Disgusting.

Third party blues

Confession time. I am a Libertarian. Yes, it's true...my party has absolutely NO chance of winning the 2008 Presidential election. Sigh. But I won't grouse. If you want to know what Libertarians stand for (besides legalizing marijuana, sheesh), check out the party site: http://www.lp.org/

Third parties get a raw deal in this country. Myself, I think we need a strong third party to challenge the sick bird that controls politics (one wing red, one wing blue, sharing a diseased, misguided body).

But that's grousing. Ahem. I hope you will join me in watching the first Democratic Presidential candidate debate tonight on MSNBC - 6 - 7:30 pm central time. My dad (a STAUNCH conservative Republican die-hard) thinks the only idea that will come of this debate is "it's all George Bush's fault."

Not sure how sound or logical that is, but we shall see. For all the pomp and circumstance of the Dems taking over both Houses of Congress, they really haven't done much - they are treading the political lake, hoping not to screw up so they can increase their chances for electability in '08. Think about it. If they were to take a strong stand on ANYTHING, the Republicans and right-leaning media would tear them apart. And in this age of "one wrong move and you're toast" a la the Howard Dean scream, no politician (no matter HOW good their ideas) is going to want to stick his or her head on the chopping block.

Power begets more power begets more power. And on, and on, and on.

Meanwhile, we the people are waving our arms desperately from shore, hoping anyone will give a shit enough to send over the life raft. Better wages, better health insurance access, more affordable everything, more say in what our elected leaders do. Alas. This government has become a bloated, inefficient, cold, calculating robot (think Terminator) with one goal in mind - become more bloated.

Barack Obama impresses me immensely, but is he for real? And more importantly, if he is really a good man with useful ideas and a plan of action, can he withstand the bloated political machine that spits out good people into the garbage heap of history? We shall see.

If you are brave enough to suffer through the canned sound bite responses, the meaningless promises, the endless "hopeful" but toothless rhetoric, the plying of warm fuzzies to gain your emotional support, I hope you consider watching these debates.

And then join a third party. Encourage your friends to do so too. Think about it. The only way we the people can regain control over the government is to FORCE change. In our current system, our options are a) take over by violence or b) take over by voting...and we don't really win with a blue or red candidate because they're all in cahoots. (Yes, I said cahoots. With a straight face.) Nominating a strong, sensible third party candidate has forced the two big parties to re-evaluate themselves in the past...it can happen again.

I dream of the day...