Stuck in the Middle With Me

You know, I might as well just come out and say it. Extremists freak me out.  Freegans, fundies, right-wingers, left-wingers, pretty much all groups that take things that last step just make me ... wait for it ... extremely nervous.

I think this is why I have such a hard time in election years. People get all polarized and wiggy and you can't even say you prefer pepperoni to mushroom without someone jumping all over your pizza choice as some kind of indicator that you hate unborn babies or that you want to keep an arsenal in your basement.

People on the extremes are unreasonable and it's fruitless to engage them, and it just seems to be some kind of rite of passage that there are more of them at election time.

I used to take these people on and challenge them. I used to ask them questions. I used to fisk their arguments. I used to bloviate.

It doesn't work. If you can't see things from another's perspective, there is very little chance that much they say will sound at all rational. If you go around assuming that all anti-abortion people are just hateful small-minded morons who don't understand teen hormones, then you are never going to understand the person for whom abortion is quite literally a matter of life and death and an extremely slippery slope. If you go around assuming that everyone who opposes abortion is a fundie nutjob, you are never going to understand the person who says, "Hey, I'm OK with the idea it should be legal, but why don't we try Actually Passing a Law about it?" And if you go around assuming that all those people who are OK with abortions are just selfish godless horrorshow monsters who don't deserve to have a reproductive system in the first place and who have no respect for others, you are never going to understand the person who says, "well, with a fair amount of reflection on the matter, I could probably come up with cases where having an abortion might actually be the smartest course of action for Everyone Involved, including the fetus, and not just the action of some selfish bitch who didn't want to get fat for a few months."

I do know I am never happier to work where I do than during an election year, so that in social situations when people start jumping on bandwagons, I have the perfect excuse to recuse myself and go sit in a corner and play with the under-10 set or the family dog or hey, just pick at my fingernails. 

I guess what this says about me is you could probably place me right smack at the top of the bell curve: I know people who are horrified by my right-wing fascistness crazytalk and I know people who look at me as a bleeding heart squish. I do think it's funny that no matter where I am, I tend to find myself holding a minority viewpoint on at least one, if not several, issues.

For me, my righty-lefty tendencies don't run the table. They tend to veer wildly from issue to issue. My mom used to like to say that she was so far left that she'd completed the circle and wound up on the right. Maybe that's what I am? I don't know.

I think there are more of me out there than I realize. The issues just never come up unless people are fired up and nuts about it, and at that point rational discourse is pretty much out the window.  Even asking, "Where did you hear that bit of information?" is considered throwing down a gauntlet, never mind any sort of follow up regarding "Well, are you sure it's correct?"

Setting all that aside, however, I do cling to the aspect I love  most about all this, which is that history shows it's pretty freaking hard to screw up our political process to the point where it is irretrievable.  We fought a civil war and things worked out, for pete's sake. Call it enlightened self-interest, call it stewardship of the future, people have a knack for keeping a good thing going.

NYAB likes to cite that Bismarck quote that compares governing to sausage-making -- the end result has value, but you don't really want to know very much about the process unless you have a strong stomach because it will gross you right the hell out.

And yet, every four years, every dork on the street and his brother suddenly fancy themselves sausage experts. More than that, they are encouraged by folks in the media to view themselves as such, especially if you are reading THAT media's material.  And with the Internet, it is amplified, with more information (and misinformation) available, with more outlets for people to vent their spleen both anonymously and ostentatiously, with more people out there willing to log on and buy in.  People who haven't paid a lick of attention to economics, foreign policy, social policy or any other matters of state are suddenly qualified to make statements about the qualifications of people they hadn't even heard of before last week.  They are allowed to bash Sarah Palin's lack of experience when in point of fact, Abraham Lincoln was the least experienced legislator ever to serve as president.  They are qualified to say Barack Obama's being a Muslim is a deterrent to voting for him. 

The good news is, no matter who yells loudest, who spews the angriest vitriol, indeed, no matter who wins, this country has a history of surviving stupid voters and bad leaders.

A friend wrote me recently that he hoped this election would "at least restore a degree of trust in our government and the belief that in spite of its screwups, excesses, and oft-times incompetence, our government is the best in the world and, like  a puppy, always means well." 

I find this interesting. For me, that belief was never lacking, and I don't need this election to restore it. This nation's history, its fabric, its basic tenets -- I have to believe those will endure, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum.  Whether you think the government should be responsible for handing out  40 acres and a health plan to every resident, be they a citizen or otherwise. Whether you think that people who live in small Midwestern towns should spend their own flippin' money to build homeless shelters instead of hitting up the Feds for tax dollars from Florida.  If you don't believe in your government, if you don't know your history, if you really can't wrap your head around why we are a shining city on a hill -- what is the point? If you feel disenfranchised and disappointed, why not go out and figure out a way to become ... what would that word be? Enfranchised? ... and find a way to make things better? Why only bitch about it every four years, and then complain bitterly when the tide goes against you -- or worse, you get your choice and find out it isn't exactly what you thought you were buying into?

Good government begins at home. Self-police. Observe the golden rule. Every day. And take note of how incredibly hard it is to do. If you do not conduct yourself well, how on earth do you expect to be taken seriously when expressing outrage at the government's behavior? If I write a public post raging about my kid's bus driver and lousy customer service, can I really expect to be taken seriously if I say McCain is too much of a hothead to be in charge of things? If you make a series of choices that land you in a position where you can't pay your rent, you should be ashamed of yourself, not howling that it is the landlord's fault for not taking Visa. And you certainly don't have any right to be whining about the federal deficit. 

By all means, get out and vote.  Just remember that Election Day is one day of a very long historical process, and behave accordingly. And maybe take a stab at paying more attention through the entire next political cycle, not just the mad rush from August to November 2012.

Comments

[cosmiccamper]

Wow, good post! And by "good post" I mean because I agree with it so much :P I think especially in this year's elections the lines seem very dramatic with the fanatics as far as voters go, but as far as candidates go, they seem more middle of the road than ever...

[Editor's Note]

Sigh. I love you, man. :)

[raginstress]

Having been involved in these every-four-years shrillfests for more cycles than I care to remember, I agree with you. I just sit back and think about that other line in the song that goes with the title to your post: "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am..."

[tammara]

You're my hero.

I continually find myself on the fence, and I like it up here, dammit. I can see both sides pretty well!

I too have some very liberal views and some very conservative ones, and I came to each of them through my own reflection on the individual matters. I couldn't tow a party line if my life depended on it. Lucky for me it never has and (probably!) never will.