Lj politics and politics on lj

heathersy wants her flist to put their political ramblings behind a cut tag. Her reason? Fandom does not share a political hive mind, and calling the other party a bunch of evil, inbred yahoos does not endear you to your fellow fen who vote for them.

If I was American, I would vote Democrat. They're the closest it gets to my own political goals without going with a fringe-party. The Green Party is not only still very, very fringe - talk to me when it's about policy - but they're also unrealistically unwilling to compromise. I'm not an ideologue and I have no interest in associating with ideologues. Ideologues are so busy shining with their passion for the Truth, that they're blinded to their own idiocy.

Supporting Bush is not an act of evil.

Supporting the war in Iraq is not an act of evil.

Supporting a ban on gay marriage is not an act of evil.

Supporting the Republican Party of the United States of America is not an act of evil, no matter what some lobbyists may tell you.

Generally speaking, evil takes far more concerted effort than any politician is capable of, being mostly concerned with getting re-elected, and making enough deals to get his or her pet bill on the books. Politics, is by necessity, a dirty game where you make a lot of compromises, especially when you're trying to do what you think is the right thing. It's a hell of lot easier to keep people happy by sitting on your ass and rewarding cushy contracts to supporters, than it is to take a stand. I have nothing but respect for the politicians who actually DO THEIR JOB, even if I don't agree with their goals.

Not considering the other guy's position isn't evil. It's dumb. Likewise, assuming that you have the Truth on your side.

I don't think we should be cutting political commentary. I do think that we, as a community, could stand to be a little less blissfully reactionary about American politics, and entertain the notion that someone just might not agree with us. We* spend enough time qualifying our arguments about canon in order to avoid starting flamewars (god forbid someone disagree with your masochist!Peter essay) that we should damn well know how to do the same for other kinds of posts. Just as masochist!Peter is open to interpretation, so are the evils of the Republican Party.

Dammit.



* Of course, by 'we' I mean those of us who don't spend most of their time trying to yank other people's chains. Heh.