3PI Eddie Fontaigne

But The Real Problem Is …

Ever try to advocate for a cause. I have, two of them, education and tax reform. You may have done for other causes. There are many fine one's out there, but as varied as they may be there seems to be one common drag on all of them, the guy or gal who insists everyone else is focused on the wrong root problem.

Here are some of my favorite tunes from the “but the real problem is ...” hit parade.

“Obama is a Muslim.”

“Obama wasn't born here.”

“Obama is a communist.”

“Obama wants to cut this country down to size.”

That's part of what I call the “Obama collection”, but there are others. Here are some from what I call the “don't fight fate collection”.

“God is punishing us for our lack of respect for human life.”

“All great nations fall, usually within two to three hundred years, so our time has come.”

“All governments follow a predictable pattern of inevitable decay, so revolution is just around the corner. Time for a reset.”

And last but not least of my mentions, the “everything's gone to you know where” collection.

“The Republicans are just as bad as the Democrats. They're all corrupt.”

“Every politician lies.”

“Big corporations own them all anyway.”

“We're not getting out of this mess. All is lost.”

Now allow me to address each category with why everyone shouldn't just stop everything their doing and refocus their efforts because of whatever.

The Obama Collection

It doesn't matter if Obama is a space alien who wants to saute our children in butter and feed them to us. What matters is he's president right now and there's an election coming up in which we have a chance to vote him out. If we do, he will go. If we don't he will stay, and the parts of his agenda that he makes public are devastating enough without us digging into his motivations for doing it. He must go, and whether Joe the commenter can convince us he's a foreign born Muslim-Communist with a vendetta against the United States isn't going to matter either way.

The only way knowing what Obama's ultimate motivations are will be useful is if we have to deal with him in a second term. Let's just not go there, shall we?

The Don't Fight Fate Collection

My response to this group is, I believe, simple and very to the point. If what they say is true, why are they even around talking to us. They should be off hiding in a hole or building their post apocalyptic fort in the woods, not wasting the time of people who actually want to fix what we've got. If you think it can't be fixed, fine, but leave those of us who think it can be fixed alone. We're obviously not prime recruiting territory for you. Even if you're right and the collapse is inevitable, do you actually think the people who manage to pick up the pieces are going to be people like you who sit around and say things can't be done? “We're toast” are not the words of true survivors.

The Everything's Gone To You Know Where Collection

This group is the most interesting to me. Some of them are libertarians who can't stomach the thought that either political party might be useful in achieving their ends. Others, I believe, are clever Democrats who realize such statements work to discourage conservatives more than they do liberals.

First off, liberals are fine with the ends justifying the means, so a lying politician and an effective politician are often one in the same to them. Liberals also see union thuggery as an appropriate response to corporate greed so politicians being in the back pockets of either corporations or unions is just the way the war is fought. And finally, an inevitable doomsday is the perfect justification for the kinds of radical changes the liberals dream of, so the more people believe we are doomed, the better for them.

Now there is a third group who contribute to this collection. They are neither liberals nor snooty libertarians who can't be seen associating with Republicans. They are actually two groups, the depressives and the dupes. The depressives hate to see anyone with hope or reason to be happy. The dupes see some element of good character in their mass condemnations, respect for human life, high moral standards that probably can't be met, or realism, but they don't realize their arguments are out of kilter and only help the wrong people.

Now For What I Didn't Say

I'd hate for anyone to get me wrong here. I'm not saying Obama's Marxist leanings aren't alarming, or that the games he's played with his birth certificate aren't suspicious. I'm not saying abortion isn't a huge moral problem. I'm not saying governments don't become corrupt or that the problems our current government has put us in aren't huge. And, I am most definitely not saying the Republican party is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that it hasn't participated heavily in getting us into our current mess.

What I am saying is, like it or not, this two party system is what we've got to work with. After our problems jumped up and smacked us all in the face in 2008 both parties were clearly to blame. One party, the Republicans, got punished because it was perceived as the party in power at the time. The Democrats got control of all branches of government and proceeded to blame the Republicans for everything. They clearly didn't get it and based on how they continue to blame the Republicans for everything, it's clear they still don't get it. The only glimmer of hope in this two party system is the Tea Party reformation taking place within the Republican party.

Our choice in the near future is clear. We can vote for the party that clearly has yet to get it, the Democrats, or we can vote for the party that's starting to get it, the Republicans. Some people will say, “but I don't vote party, I vote for the person”. Fine, you do that then. Just make sure that person isn't actively cooperating with a political party that doesn't get it and may never. And oh yes, for the Johnson voters out there, I respect your convictions, but I don't think we can afford four more years of Obama in the White House. I'd rather tolerate Romney's iffy stances on gun rights than Obama's hostility towards them any day. Ideological purity is a fantasy, and unfortunately we don't live in one.

The only "real problems" worth our immediate attention are the ones we can do something about in the near future.  November can't come soon enough.