Politics And Your Blood Pressure

You’d be wrong if you thought the Chinese, the North Koreans and any other undemocratic regime isn’t watching the Presidential election.  

You can bet a bundle the people in power in these communist regimes are smiling smugly as they tell each other: see what would happen to us if we changed to a democratic system.

Politics in the west can be decidedly obnoxious. Oh sure you have your Aunt Edna’s and Uncle Fred’s who don’t bother getting all worked up, but then you have other in-laws who will argue black’s white that their respective party is the only one that can lead the nation.

As hard as it is to believe; disagreeing with some folks political views is as an attack on their character and philosophies and it’s very difficult for them to walk away if they feel you’ve besmirched their personal value system.

Of course for many intelligent people this is plain stupid; they know the democratic system was created for and based on people having their say; without which ….well reread my Communist Party statement above and think about what they do with political dissenters.

But I can also see why some people can get all worked-up over politics; perhaps they feel they’re out of work because of the decisions politicians have made; or worse they’ve lost a loved one because of a war they feel shouldn’t have been started – by a politician – the result: the road back to their emotional wellbeing has been washed out and may never be useable again.  

Ruben Navarrette who wrote the article that inspired this post talks about how political discourse in America used to be much more civil than it is today.

The two reasons I mentioned for the current incivility in today’s politics are merely starting points for why people are so oversensitive; America and many democratic countries are going through tough economic times, many folks are stretched beyond their limits.

The only real cure is time itself. Change, as I read somewhere; “isn’t always what’s intended, sometimes it’s just what happens”.

As an aside: Freedom of speech is the vanguard of the democratic process, but it can be a double edged sword if wisdom isn’t applied to words written on a page or said aloud by a person.

The problem for some in a free society is turning a blind eye to the drivel that comes from the minds of the ignoble among their fellow citizens; if people could learn to do that, democracy would turn an important corner.