The state of American politics is reprehensible. The government exists for the sole purpose of supporting our rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  This would suggest that the role of every person in our government to ensure that every American has these rights. Instead, we have an unchanging body of aging fools holding a public pissing contest. Most of the political rhetoric is based on exploiting the ignorance of people and their willingness to follow their leaders blindly.

The most obvious example of this celebration of ignorance is the term socialism. With the rash of bailouts and concerns about tax increases, the anti-socialism battle cry has become the focus of conservatives. There are a few problems with this viewpoint.

First of all, the current direction that the Democratic Party is taking is not socialism. Many pundits have started incorrectly using the term because they view some recent policies as redistribution of wealth. Socialism is based on the idea that the workers or state should own the means of production. The idea is that every company is either owned by its employees or by the government. An equality of wealth arises from this as a result of the profits being distributed among employees. Democrats could raise the tax rate to 99% and we would still be capitalist, heavily taxed and broken, but still capitalist. For most of the 20th century, tax rates were at 70% or higher and the US was quite capitalist. [cite]

Secondly, conservative pundits have raised a ruckus about the government helping ‘losers’ with their mortgages. Again this is very ignorant view. At this point in the economic crisis, the people who purchased a house beyond their means likely foreclosed several months ago.  Most of the people at risk of foreclosure now are likely facing unemployment or worthless house because of deadbeats who foreclosed a year ago. Isn’t it better to provide $20,000 to avoid a foreclosure rather than give a bank $500,000 to compensate for the house it had to write off? The capital in this country flows from the bottom up.  It only makes sense that to restore power in a capitalist society, you introduce the capital at the bottom and let it rise up and gain power.

If we take a step back and take a real look at our differences; we will see that we’re just regurgitating polarizing sound bites. Rather than join in the Limbaugh vs. Pelosi battle for the minds of the ignorant, kick them both to the curb and take a real look at solving the problems we face. The current situation wasn’t caused by liberals or conservatives alone; it was caused by the collective abandonment of common sense and critical thought.