Bush Is My New Hero

Laura Bush supports Obama speech to school children

Truth be told, I couldn’t care less what Laura Bush thinks about Obama or his speech. That whole thing was blown so far out of proportion; it was, simply, ridiculous. Right-wing idiots are targeting every single thing that President Obama does, says, believes, or pushes for. What they don’t understand is that that kind of strategy can easily backfire, as your opposition simply has to sit back and wait for you to get too outrageous and then hit you hard from the other direction. And by then anyone who hasn’t made up his mind is going to be sick of hearing from you and will welcome the transverse argument.

Why I am currently loving Laura Bush is this: “Mrs. Bush also decried the extreme political partisanship in the nation.

"’We're polarized. ... A lot of people on the right, a lot of people on the left. We've seen that for the last eight years. ... We're still seeing it,’ she said.”

It is about time that a prominent political figure in this nation, and especially one with such close ties to one of the biggest offenders in this area, calls it out. The two-party system is not interested in solving problems. The two-party system breeds intentions to win, at all costs.

Democrats and Republicans see each other as the opponent. When political parties were first formed in this country, they were meant to be collaborative, the thinking being that if both sides could coherently state their arguments, then the solutions developed would benefit the widest number of citizens possible. A worthy goal, one might think.

However, that is not what happens. What happens is, when a Democrat says something, a Republican’s immediate reaction is, “that is a bad idea. That is a bad solution. That is bad for the citizens.” They then go back and try to cull reasons for their opposition from the details of what the other person actually said. The same thing happens when a Republican says something, on the Democratic side.

Think back to how many times in your life you’ve been correct when you reached a conclusion instantaneously, before knowing even a single fact. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that it hasn’t always worked out, in fact it has probably never worked out.

And this attitude permeates even more fully among the citizens than it does in Washington. Picking sides before the battle has even begun seems to be a national pastime, as evidenced by the recent “town hall” meetings on healthcare and this week’s outcry over the president’s address to the nation’s children.

Unfortunately, it will probably take a person of greater significance than Laura Bush to spark a national debate on this subject, but the fact that she recognizes it and is willing to decry it publicly is a start.

But until we’re willing to take a good hard look at ourselves and realize what we are doing, problems will still go unsolved while the left and the right, while the ego and the superego, while the ying and the yang continue to do battle and deny that the other makes valid points that are worthy of consideration.