Pattern Recognition (By Koestler, not Gibson)

Humans are naturally prone to make reductionistic statements about elements of this world. I don't hold it against us, we're wired to think that way. Pattern recognition and grouping is one of the key elements to our survival thus far. An example? A bear mauls a man and kills him. Another man sees it. In his mind, a bear becomes synonymous with death. Therefore, men become careful around bears. It's a built-in defense, one that focuses on doing what is safe rather than what is unnecessarily risky.

Unfortunately, this extends to other men, too. Pattern recognition and grouping is the basis of racism, sexism, most -isms and stereotypes. What once served as a conservative and reactionary approach to life that was better safe than sorry has now turned into a major constraint on society. It's something that we should rise above, but is, admittedly, harder for some than others.

Some of the ways this arises from time to time is surprising though. I've noticed it a lot recently when it comes to politics. A good case of this is a friend of mine who has been living in Sacramento, CA for a while now. She made a remark a couple of months back about how much it astounded her that there were conservatives there! In California! Of all places, why there! I didn't want to sound like a total historian prick, so I didn't tell her that California was the home state of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, two men not exactly known for their liberal tendencies. Also, I didn't want to say "Oh, dear L. California is a state of 36,756,666 people. There are bound to be differing opinions within a population that vast!"

Either way, it stuck with me. The health care hullabaloo (debate is too kind a word to describe this mess) has made it all the more noticeable. There is a certain comfort that comes marching in lockstep with your comrades, but there's much more danger to be had in doing so. Both sides of the aisle need to learn to look past their ideological nose.

The right has certainly had more airtime and focus with the sheer madness they've come to embody in the last few weeks. Swastikas, hung effigies, and "death panels" have become so commonplace that they're no longer as shocking as they once were. Townhalls, instead of becoming forums, have become shouting matches. It's as if the United States has suddenly found its own form of football hooliganism.

First, let me make one thing clear to these people. You are all tools. The people leading you are using your passion, your ferocity to do nothing more than further their own careers. Look at the people whipping you up. A governor who resigned in the face of ethics violations and an inefficiently-run state. A former representative, former Speaker of the House, who resigned after facing insurrection by the pragmatic wing of his own party. A pill-popping, illegal-immigrant-hiring radio talk show host. The only group of people who are more washed out than this are the people spearheading the Birther movement! Why, you raucous group of activists, would you let yourself be led by people with no political capital, no contacts, and no appeal beyond a condescending smirk from primetime news anchors? These people offer you no hope and no true direction. They simply show up, make ill-founded inflammatory speeches, and then shove their hands up your asses like the puppets you are.

Change your tactics. If you want there to be change, then do so legitimately. Don't feed your kids lines to spout off at townhall meetings. Don't scream and shout at townhalls. Call your Senators or Representatives, write them letters, email them. Your posturing and tactics are nothing short of childish, something that doesn't belong in the Capitol. Not contacting your officials through the accepted, legitimate means is essentially trying to bargain from a position of weakness. You've doomed yourself to failure from the very beginning! Don't be surprised if it turns your representatives are snickering at you behind closed doors, I know I do so openly.

As for the left, you're becoming more and more akin to the GOP of 2000 than you would ever care to admit. You've come to penalize voices of dissension within your own party, and cast ever-incriminating blanket statements over any opposition. Sure, a good bit of this is politics-as-usual, it's the name of the game. But it's time for you all to realize that the more you drive out those voices that are not in complete harmony with yours, the more you hamstring yourself. When there is complete, total monotony on ideas and process you get the PATRIOT Act. You get Gulf of Tonkin resolutions. You get genuinely bad ideas with worse long-term consequences simply because you allowed yourself to turn into ignorant-minded sheep.

The Blue Dogs have come under a lot of attack from these Democrats as of late. Sure, point out that they receive huge sums of cash from pharmaceutical companies. While we're doing that, let's also look at what these men have done with their lives. Mike Ross ran a series of rural pharmacies, and is well aware of the unique nature of rural medicine. Vic Snyder, while not a Blue Dog per se, was a family practice physcian for years before entering the General Assembly. Raise cynical objections about their past and their careers all you want, but these are the kinds of men the Democrats need to be bringing to the forefront of this debate, not trying to push aside. Right now, you need legitimacy, expertise, and a bit of Capitol Hill bargaining. Who better to do it than men within the Democrats, yet moderate enough to reach out to the Republicans? Failure to embrace this sort of mentality will lead you to an unimpressive 2010, and perhaps a shocking 2012. God knows the Dems already have a reputation for pulling defeat from the jaws of victory as is.

The timbre and cadence of politics in the United States is honestly starting to frighten me the more I think about this. I may just up and move somewhere else to escape all this. Australia looks good...