The Problem with Talking Politics

If you want to spice up your holidays this year, try bringing up politics around the Thanksgiving dinner table. Yeah, sure, by then the election should be over and the entire matter should be settled, but really, time certainly doesn't seem to heal the political wounds. I mean, if you know a Democrat and want to bring him pain, just mention the stolen 2000 election and watch him or her start to fume.

This election has been unlike any other. I have no idea if, back the day, when everyone and their brother seemed to have their own printing press and everyone was constantly printing fliers and pamphlets and neighborhood newspapers if there were men who sat in their living room doing nothing but reading all of the various reading materials, but it sure seems like the 24-hour news channels have created a new addiction. There are people out there who are actually addicted to the political coverage. I know, because my father is one of them.

Whenever I head over to my folk's house there he is, perched in his easy-chair and with a remote in his hand. On the television is either Fox News, CNN or MSNBC. My dad has definite liberal leanings, but he still gets a kick out watching idiots like Sean Hannity turn red and scream at the TV screen while trying to concoct ever-more ridiculous reasons for people not to vote for Obama (Obama eats kittens! I have proof!).

I don't know what possible boost the people who are addicted to this thing get. I mean, if you take certain drugs, then various chemicals get released in your brain and this causes all kinds of reactions that usually make people feel good. Even people who do a lot of shopping get a release of dopamine which floods the brain and causes a euphoric feeling similar to synthetic drugs that other addicts might smoke or inject. What do the people who watch all of this political mumbo jumbo get? Headaches? Are headaches and general feelings of frustration and futility suddenly turn ons? I just don't get it.

Politics is always divisive. These days, though, it is also a 24-hour business. Those news channels have to fill every second of every minute of every day. Then you factor in the websites which know no time barriers and, well, you have a lot of mouths to feed. Imagine the world full of little baby birds all with their mouths open wanting their morsel of food or, in this case, the latest sound-bite of a political candidate spouting the same things over and over and over again.

The problem with the news thing is that you quickly find out how silly the entire thing is. At least when you only had the newscasts at various times of the day, you had news producers who could pick and choose from the various speeches given throughout the day. It could, potentially, make the candidate at least look somewhat intelligent. These days, you pretty much get every speech broadcast throughout the day and you quickly realize that these people have nothing to say but whatever someone tells them to say and then they are supposed to say them over and over and over again. It's like they are all just jukeboxes waiting for someone to drop a quarter into them so they can spew whatever crap has been poured into them by some college student hired as a speech writer.

So, really, it's all pretty silly, and yet, there is nothing more likely to bring a dinner conversation to a screeching crescendo faster than a political discussion. This is, of course, if you happen to be in a family who has people who pay attention to these things. I do know some people who claim they never, ever, watch the news. They also say they never read newspapers. I have no idea how these people function. They must forever be freezing cold or constantly surprised by sudden rain storms and heatwaves. Still, there are some who claim they just can't follow this thing at all. These are the same people who would probably be whistling "Up, Up and Away" or "Into the Wild Blue Yonder" while the airplane was crashing into the ground.

My own family is a great example. My father is the prime instigator and, sadly, this is a trait I have picked up from him. My dad loves to debate. He has told me that when he was working in the factory where he worked for a very long time he used to get into discussions with other workers in the lunchroom. During those breaks, he would deliberately take a contrary stance against someone else, even if he did not truly believe that contrary stance. He just loved to debate.

You can see the glint in his eye when he sits down either amongst his ultra-conservative brothers when we are visiting his side of the family, or when he sits down with my other ultra-conservative uncle on my mom's side. There is the merest hint of a smile there. Then, without even blinking and despite the look of despair in the eyes of my mother, he will bring up the most-recent political news story.

Before too long, the debate is in full swing. No matter what any of my uncles brings up, he has a contrary stance to counter them with. It is really a thing to behold. Before too long there are people shouting and arguing and, really, if there were cameras around to film the thing, you could put it on Pay-per-View.

I don't know how many other families are out there like this. I imagine there are quite a few. For some reason, each time another political season comes around, the divisions seem to get deeper. People are more polarized now than they were during the last election. And during that election, people seemed more divided than they had during the election before that one. Something has happened and I don't exactly know when or why. When did people decide that their way had to be the only way? When did differing opinions become a bad thing? When did disagreeing with the government suddenly become treason to some people?

It certainly does seem like things are falling apart. I mean, the economy is deep in the toilet. It turns out all of the prosperity this country might have had was built on shadows and fog. It was like trying to build a city on clouds. Meanwhile, we are still fighting two wars and neither of them particularly well. At home, we can't take care of our own people, provide them with healthcare or help them rebuild after major disasters. Oh, and let's not forget the people who have lost their jobs, the companies that have been rewarded for sending those jobs overseas, and all of the people losing their houses. People who lived during the Depression must be shaking their heads and wondering what we were thinking.

Now, throw in the fact that the ecosystem seems to be out of whack despite the people who want to deny it. Then throw into the deep divisions that seem to be pulling parts of this country and people all around it apart. You have to wonder just how far it will go. We went through a civil war once before, who is to say such a thing couldn't happen again? Laugh if you want, but I may have to pull out some Union blue at some point and make sure the uniform is pressed properly.

It's already brother against brother and sister against sister. It is father against son and mother against daughter. Can you imagine what would happen these days if another civil war did break out? You'd have mothers and daughters fighting hand to hand as much as the guys did the first time around.

So, be careful out there. There are far too many people killing each other already these days. Just pick up a newspaper and take a look. There are already families doing things to each other and some of it involves killing. Who knows what might happen if you do bring up the recent election at Thanksgiving dinner? You could end up with a drumstick sticking out of your head. In my family, it could be my dad with the turkey leg sticking out of his cranium if he isn't careful.