Checking in on "Truth"

 "That’s why the perfect is the enemy of the good."

This is a somewhat difficult post for me to write. As you know I have a long-held distain for both American political parties. Every four years I implore my friends and enemies to vote for a third party - any third party. But it serves us in a profound way to periodically take out our long-held beliefs and expose them to the light of the other side. Or in this case to the reasoning of someone actually on my side but not as attached to a particular position as I am.

The article I am about to recommend to you will be saved and I will attach it to my Quadrennial Political Rant which shall not appear again until 2016. What I am suggesting is that if you are truly sick of the two party system in the United States, perhaps you need to ponder the implications of the actions you and I take in that regard. 

If you held your nose and still pulled the lever next to Obama's name or if you finally said - No! I ask you as one who has not voted for either party since McGovern, I ask you to take some time and read this article by Rebecca Solnit. Written last September in the midst of the most recent long-winded, chocked full of lies campaign; it was too much to hear back then. But now with the rhetoric buried in the landfill, it is time to think about what we did or didn't do and how we might rational and morally act in the future. A future that will include another presidential campaign coming soon to a internet device near you.

Here is just a taste:

"You don't have to participate in this system, but you do have to describe it and its complexities and contradictions accurately, and you do have to understand that when you choose not to participate, it better be for reasons more interesting than the cultivation of your own moral superiority, which is so often also the cultivation of recreational bitterness."

For my friends at the other end of the political spectrum, I did search for a conservative response in this same vein. I couldn't locate one, though I am sure it must exist. If you find it please let me know as I am always attempting to present a 'Fair and Balanced' report of what passes for life on this planet.