Life Lessons & Politcal McDonaldization
October 19th 2008 16:24
As I sit here on the eve of my fourth major milestone in the lifetime known simply as the life of Khalfani Akil King, I am slammed in the face by realities of where my life has taken me and also the fears and hopes of what is to come on a personal and a national level through living life in the greatest nation in modern history
While I spend every morning thankful that I was given the good fortunes to live in a country that allows every citizen to be part of the political process and have a direct effect on their governments day to day decisions, I am also alarmed and concerned about the boxes we place ourselves in that ultimately muffles these inalienable rights.
Much like the packaging of an extra value meal that allows the average citizen to vote by number, American citizens are offered choices of political candidates in much the same fashion as they are either freeze wrapped with a blue or a red ribbon or deduced to either a D or an R on a ballot in the voting booth.
On its surface this seems like a logical solution as we have become a society that wants everything quick hard and fast in a McDonalds like fashion and this thinking has reformed the political process into a simple marketing strategy that allows the public to deduce that Republicans are racist, greedy, religious zealots looking to merge the Constitution with the bible, and looking to make the rich richer while stomping on the dreams of the middle class all the while deducing the Democratic party into a socialist bubble that is looking to deflower the rich in a Robin Hood like fashion, winy environmentalists who care more about animals and the earth as opposed actual people ultimately road blocking business growth through taxes on business's themselves and their owners.
While some of these simplicities may hold grains of truth, it isn't fair or right to prejudge any candidate before the actual person has a chance to lay out platforms of how they can influence a broken government to become effective again.
With that statement said…
Everything in our current election process is built around the theory of simplicity. I was personally a part of this problem as I contributed to the misunderstandings our system breeds through most of my life as a Democrat and as vote casting Republican through three Presidential elections. As a Republican me it was a matter of protecting state's rights above all else and it was my belief that the Republican model embodied this in their core message as this "was" the case for a point and time in our nation's history.
The problem with state's rights in a modern world is that it no longer applies when an ineffective government has done nothing but nationalize program after program on both sides of the aisle.
When voting to protect state's rights became hypocritical I opened my eyes and ears listening to the words of Independence and Change that came from the message of Barack Obama.
These words lead me straight the voting booth as I voted against the 28 years of Bush/Clinton party politics that have polarized our Congressional Houses and divided our nation into Red & Blue States creating the closest elections on state and national levels in history.
While media pundits may point to the polarizing figure of George W Bush and American disapproval as the reasons why we are finally waking up and becoming involved in the process now more than ever, what I am also observing is the mass's of people within the lowest common denominator taking up arms with anger and rage on both sides of the aisle as they debate the impossible issues of race, religion and our misunderstandings as they have been thrown into the forefront of the political process.
I call these impossible issues because they involve winning and losing as "God & Guns" politics are so impassionate that they are never met with compromise but rather with harsh words and anger as it always involves fundamental differences close to the heart and not through legislation or trying to understand the other side of the issue.
The impossible issue of race is one we are never going to solve until we stop and listen to each others stories, not box each other into preconceived notions of how we think someone should talk act or dress and ultimately try to educate our children, family and neighbors about the "real" history of our nations racial struggle and not the abridged versions that have caused most of the ignorance and misunderstandings we are experiencing in this country today.
If I could leave you with anything this week…
It wouldn't be a revelation I got this morning encouraging you to vote for either Obama or McCain nor would it be something I drudged up off the internet or heard from a friend to help you formulate your vote against wither man but rather it would be this…
Vote with your heart
Vote with your conscience
But most importantly vote with your head
It's too important now more than ever for the future of our country that we elect a Presidential Team who can work with a divided Congress and Nation. After this election as I've said so many times before, our country will need time to heal no matter whether it's a Donkey or an Elephant sitting in the Oval Office. Their will be bitter and bruised feelings on one side of the aisle or the other but we need to get over that and put our national representatives to work on digging our country out of this mess.
There is no "Catch Phrase" that can be the Valium for the pain our country is in nor is either candidate the "chosen one" sent to save us from W. It's simply two men with a vision of putting a splint on the fracture but I guess the ultimate question is whether either man can control the outside forces within his party that cause division or the special interests that caused this mess in the first place?
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