This has nothing to do with kitchen sinks, or life in China, (except that I'm on the outside looking in), but since when has political discourse in the United States been so venomous? Specifically, when did hatred and fear become the automatic responses to any issue? And how did talk show hosts become the new leaders of the Republican party?
The topic of politics has always been on my back burner, especially since I'm here seeing another system in action. It came closer to the forefront while getting together with other teachers from our organization over Easter weekend a couple of weeks ago. We cover a wide range of political and theological persuasions in our group, but we all have been noticing the hatred oozing out from the web and the talk shows, and we were discussing the various strategies we've been using to deal with it.
I very rarely (okay, let's say never) mention religion in my blog, but to borrow a line: What Would Jesus Do? I don't seem to recall the Good Samaritan too worried about if the man beaten up by the side of the road was sponging off of free government health care or not - didn't he just help the guy? And isn't there something Jesus said about "Blessed are the Peacemakers..." somewhere in there? Just asking...
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Somewhat related, I drove by a Tea Party protest on my way home from work today. The last such protest in my Nebraska town of ~40,000 people was about a year ago, when, again, I drove by on my way home from work, but at that time I wondered who in the heck those people were and what they were protesting about. Today, I am well aware of the Tea Party "movement", but the protest was one-quarter the size. It may simply be the case of a grassroots movement losing steam, but I have to wonder if the venom spat (literally) by some Tea Partiers may have alienated some past supporters.
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